Vegan Baking
Vegan baking is easy and delicious when you know. Vegan muffins, vegan cakes and vegan desserts are easy with these vegan cooking tips.
When I first became a vegan, I thought I would have to eat second rate baked goods. This didn't make me happy!! Then I discovered that vegan baking was actually quite simple and effective when you learn which
vegan substitute ingredients
to use for which recipes.
When you become a vegan, you will soon realise in vegan baking, it is all about replacing the eggs. This is because, replacing the other ingredients is quite simple. Products such as butter, milk, cream, honey etc are simple to replace with their vegan alternatives.
But eggs?
Ok, so eggs are used for a variety of reasons in baking. They are used to bind ingredients, to add air (through the whisking process), to add colour, thickening and texture to a recipe. Eggs are also used as an emulsifier to help bring the oil and liquid ingredients together in a recipe.
Eggs are used for different reasons, so the trick is to find which vegan replacement ingredient(s) will do the same job in vegan baking.
Eggs perform as a leavening agent in cakes to make them light and fluffy, and in biscuits and muffins eggs act as a binder by adding moisture bringing all the ingredients together. To add consistency to recipes such as quiches, it is better to use silken tofu which can be found in health food stores. Silken tofu will add a dense consistency which will soak up the other ingredient flavours.
When we are baking, we need moisture and leavening, and when we have those sorted out with vegan substitute ingredients, we have the other baking goods left over. Ingredients such as cocoa powder, flour, corn starch, yeast, baking soda and baking powder are of course used in non vegan baked goods.
Vegan egg replacers
are available and are effective but it is better to go for a recipe which calls for fewer eggs rather than more.
To help your vegan cakes to rise, try adding an extra teaspoon of baking powder in the recipe. Also mix the wet ingredients together first before gently folding in the dry ingredients. This will help keep the air in the mixture.
Butter in a non-vegan cake helps to enhance the cakes flavour so you might like to try adding a drop of vanilla extract to the mix or the zest of a lemon or lime for a lovely tangy twang. You could also try adding some soya yoghurt to the cake batter mix (before adding the dry ingredients). This will make the cake texture a bit heavier with a slight fudgy taste to it. To make a moister cake, try adding vegetable oil instead of soya spread - or use a mixture of the two.
You also do not need to use eggs in pancakes. You can make perfectly good pancakes using ingredients such as flour, sugar, soya milk, soya spread, vegetable oil, baking powder and water and they taste great. Eggs in pancake recipes are used to make them light and fluffy, so if you prefer a lighter pancake, choose a vegan pancake recipe which uses an egg replacement product.
There are many vegan pancake toppings around too. Fresh fruit and soya cream, treacle, lemon and sugar, vegan honey alternative and many others.
Biscuits and flapjacks are easy to make with a vegan recipe as they do not require eggs.
If you want to try your hand at scones, you should have success as these do not require eggs either. To get a nice shiny finish on your scones, just brush some soya milk over the top before baking. Scones are great to make as you can add all sorts of additional ingredients such as various nuts, glace cherries or chocolate chips.
Eggs really arn't needed to make a cheesecake. The main purpose of using eggs in a non-vegan cheesecake is to bind the ingredients together and this is easily done without eggs. I make cheesecakes using silken tofu, soya cream, vanilla essence, lemon juice, sugar and vegan cream cheese. The silken tofu soaks up the cream flavours and the result is a gorgeous creamy cheesecake. I am always asked for the
recipe
when I make this cheesecake.
Vegan muffins are easy when it comes to vegan baking. Eggs are used in muffin recipes to add structure and taste. Well, we can add other ingredients for that purpose and they will rise just the same. Try these
vegan muffin recipes
to get you started.
Just remember when you bake eggless vegan muffins, to add more moisture by adding some sort of oil or water or both.
Vegan muffins are easy to make and are of course very versatile so you can really have fun with these.
Want to make some classic vegan desserts? How about making
vegan rice pudding, chocolate pudding, trifle, apple strudle and other vegan dessert recipes.
You can also veganise and make creme brulee. This is made with that wonderful product - silken tofu. You can make vegan bread and "butter" puddings, vegan trifles, vegan chocolate puddings, vegan rice pudding, mousses, flapjacks, pies and buns. Oh yeah!!
So you can see that with a little imagination, vegan baking is adaptable and easy to pull off. You just have to learn which vegan egg replacer is best for which recipe you are using. Basically, in vegan baking, it is all about replacing the eggs.
Vegan cakes, vegan muffins and general vegan desserts are very easy to make when you have the egg substitute sorted out.
All the pictures on this page are vegan baked goods, so you can see that when you know how, it can be done.
Happy baking!!
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