June 5, 2016 - 11:38am
Vegan replacements in baking!
Hi all, I'm just looking for some vegan alternatives I can use in baking. I use either ground flax seed + water (1 Tbs + 3 Tbs per egg) or EnerG Egg Replacer to replace eggs as a binding agent, and plant milks to replace dairy.
I don't know if there is a great egg wash alternative to make a shinier crust on certain breads, but if anyone has any ideas I would love to hear them!
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For shiny/crispy crusts, you can use plain water, or water with a little corn/potato starch, or water with a little rice flour.
I prefer chia seeds to flax; flax adds a weird flavor for my palate. Also, you can use a little lecithin with the chia/flax.
If you have to whip egg whites, try aqua faba (bean juice).
Thanks for the suggestions! I have actually made nougat before with whipped aquafaba, it's amazing! What does the lecithin do? I actually have some on hand.
Hi: lecithin can have multiple uses, but primarily it acts as an emulsifier and has some basic binding properties, which is why you might consider using a bit together with flax/chia. In other cases, it's used to reduce viscosity. The packaging should tell you approximate amounts as egg replacement; my sunflower lecithin is about 1T to 1 egg. Many consider lecithin some vile evil thing since it's an end product, but so are a lot of other things, and sometimes lecithin is advertised as a dietary supplement. Silly internet.
I've no experience baking vegan breads, other than converting some basic gluten-free chocolate chip cookie recipes to be both dairy free and vegan (fun challenge!). Most successful attempts occurred when using a combination of chia/flax and lecithin.
Hi connor and chleba
Another vegan bread maker here! :)
I tend not to use egg or milk replacements in my breads - they seem to be fine without them. I do use olive oil a fair bit, but that's about it.
Here's my blog - there might be some ideas on there.
http://nobreadisanisland.blogspot.co.uk
As an aside, I make omelettes, frittatas, etc using gram flour batter as an egg replacement. Certainly the Spanish omelette I make with that I think has more flavour than the original!
Cheers, B&W
Never used it this way (only as a gluten lookalike in gluten free bread), but maybe psyllium husks could be a good binding agent? They do form an elastic gel when mixed with water.
For the wash, I would try either water only or water boiled thick with a bit of potato flour - this forms a clear gel. I used it on my Lithuanian loaves.