If you are like me, as you age you’ve watched the numbers climb. Cholesterol, blood pressure, glucose. My family history is filled with heart disease, diabetes, and hypertension. Each year, my blood tests would get closer to the top of the normal range and then last year, my cholesterol slipped above that normal line and my glucose sent me into pre-diabetic range. It was the wakeup call that I needed to make some changes.
As I set my sights on getting healthier, I knew I was going to need to change the way I ate. My fellow monkey Kathy has been a vegan for most of her adult life. I decided that I’d give it a whirl and to get me started, I subscribed to Purple Carrot. I enjoyed trying new recipes and discovering a whole new way of cooking.
But when the holidays came around, something was missing. I wanted to bake! And I wanted to bake my old family recipes. I decided to take up the challenge of making those recipes vegan. Cookies, quick breads, cakes, pies, and scones.
In most baking recipes, there are three ingredients you need to adjust to “veganize” them. Eggs, Milk, Butter. You need to understand the purpose and use of those three ingredients in your recipe to make the proper substitutions.
Tip 1: Substitutes for egg. With eggs reaching record prices in recent months, finding a substitute for eggs can be helpful on your pocketbook as well as your health! In baking, eggs can be a binding agent or a raising agent or both. If there are other rising agents in the recipe, you can use applesauce, pumpkin, banana, or other fruit puree to bind your ingredients together. Each of these choices adds flavor so you must decide which will work best in the recipe. I found that applesauce is the mildest flavor and works well when the recipe has other strong spices or flavors.
For example, my family has a wonderful recipe for gingersnaps. The recipe calls for baking powder, so the eggs are a binder not a raising agent. The mix of ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon adds a strong flavor so substituting applesauce for egg works perfectly.
My favorite is 365 by Whole Foods Unsweetened applesauce but you can substitute ¼ cup of any mashed fruit for 1 egg. Apples work well because their flavor is mild. Bananas add flavor but sometimes that works great with the flavor profile of your recipe. Experiment until you find the best egg substitute.
If eggs are the raising agent, you can substitute baking powder plus oil or baking soda (1 tsp.) plus vinegar (1 Tbsp). These worked the best to veganize most recipes I tried.
Other common substitutes are flax seed, chia seed, plant-based yogurts and silken tofu. They each have their pros and cons and I found that they weren’t quite as flexible in multiple recipes as the other substitutes. Chia seeds, for instance, add a texture that can be fun but is not likely to mimic the original recipe.
Tip 2: Substitutes for butter. There are a lot of vegan butters on the market and most work well in baking. Miyoko’s Organic Vegan Butter is one of my favorites but Earth Balance and Country Crock are also excellent choices. Vegan butters are especially important in recipes where you want to have that buttery flavor front and center. But I’ve also tried different oils in place of the butter and found the results to be delicious. Olive oil imparts a distinct flavor on cakes but it can add to your recipe. More neutral oils include canola, sunflower, avocado, grapeseed. Coconut oil also works well but it does add a slight flavor. Shortening like your grandma’s Crisco is vegan. Pie crusts are an easy vegan transformation.
Tip 3: Substitutes for milk. For most recipes, you can swap out the cow milk for a plant-based milk. The ratio is 1:1. Personally, I find almond to be the mildest flavor but oat is also good. I will use the double creamy varieties to give the baked good an extra richness. Califia Farms Extra Creamy Almond Milk works particularly well in scone recipes.
Always check ingredient labels to ensure they are free from animal products. With these substitutions, you can easily veganize most baking recipes without sacrificing taste or texture. Keep in mind that some experimentation might be needed to get the perfect results, but that’s part of the fun of vegan baking!
