Vegan Baking

Vegan baking. It's way better than any vegan cookbook wants you to believe. Here's a story. Over the course of the past 4 months we've discovered the joys and tribulations of attempting to bake without eggs, butter or creme. The house was/is stocked with the tried and true hip vegan cooking books, "How It All Vegan," "Garden of Vegan," "New Farm Cookbook" and even the terrible "Soy Not Oi!" which contains the best punk cooking line ever: "you don't need measurements!" But something was always lacking from the desert section. Yes there's cakes and some cookies. Maybe a pie or two. Unfortunately there's not much more and NEVER any theory behind the practice. We knew other deserts existed.

Baking is chemistry. Cooking is not chemistry. You can add a little salt here, take out some turmeric there and in the end, the physical structure of the dish doesn't change. Baking is totally different. You need exact measurement. Ingredients react on a physical level in ways which make or break a baking project. Too much or too little rising will ruin breads, too much gluten will ruin a cake. So instead of vague cooking instructions, baking relies on exact quantified measurements of ingredients. Heaven to certain members of the house. Knowing this theory is the basis of understanding and tackling vegan baking.

So where else to turn than to the Joy of Cooking. Detailed theory regarding every imaginable food preparation situation. Cakes, pies, grunts, buckles, cobblers, strussel, doughnuts. It's all there. The fun begins for us when it comes time to replace 4 eggs or 1 1/2 cup creme. Tofu or apple sauce? Egg replacer or bananas? Flax seeds?

Yeah, so we've made lots of vegan deserts from the Joy of Cooking. Boston Creme Pies. Fruit pies. Doughtnuts. Beignets. Coffee cake. WhiteChocolateStrawberryBanana cake. Sweet rolls. And from this we've gaining a few useful insights:

1) Use pastry flour for cakes and mix as gently as possible. Gluten is a protein found in grains which when agitated forms elastic bonds. This is great for bread. Very bad for cakes you want fluffy and light. Pastry flour has small amounts of gluten and easy mixing prevents the gluten from forming its elastic bonds.

2) Butter's melting point is very close to our body temperature (98 degrees). This is how rape deserts can "melt in your mouth." Vegan margarine (like all margarine and shortening) has a higher melting point than your body temperature. The unmelted margarine is what coats your mouth and gives it that greasy feeling. To combat this, use cocoa butter, derived from coca beans. Its melting point is close to body temperature. It's expensive but if you actually care about baking something tasty and not greasy (one of the reoccurring complaints about vegan baking!), you should use it.

3) When using egg replacer ALWAYS mix with a hand blender. This ensures the activation of starches in the egg/powder goop. You're trying to replace eggs, which are very very good at emulsifying. You need all the help you can get.

4) Buy a counter top mixer. We sure wish we had one.

DIY doesn't have to mean crappy and vegan desert doesn't have to mean a vanilla cake and chocolate chip cookies.