Don't crave for those yummy bakes because you are a vegan- just bake it the vegan way

Planning to host an event and don’t know what would your vegan friends prefer to have? Or looking for some yummy and nutritive ingredients for a Vegan Baking plan? Here we come to the rescue! To tell you all about the essentials of vegan baking. But first, lets get our basics clear-

What is veganism?  What do vegans eat?

This is not a new concept; it has its existence from 1940s. Vegans don’t consume any products having animal origins, like dairy, eggs, etc. this might be for several reasons like health issues, saving the environment, or personal choices.

Often people think that cutting out animal products will surely be an end to baked goodies, that could have been possible but when baking is life, we could surely find a way out of it. The next question is- cookies without butter and cakes without egg, possible it is, but what about the taste? After all bakery is directly proportional to taste! Really! But nature provides many tastier ingredients than animals! Lets see what these are!

Before we look at what vegan substitutes we have, first we need to know what vegan diet doesn’t include

Foods that vegans avoid:

• Meat
• Chicken
• Fish
• Egg
• Dairy
• Honey

Moreover, vegans also avoid food containing any ingredients that come from animals.

Yes, after avoiding the above mentioned, it seems almost impossible to visualize any bakery product but, there’s always a first time to everything! So let’s look at the essentials of vegan baking

Essentials for vegan baking

Plain flour

Wheat, seeds and beans are the most common bases for flour. Fortunately, the base of baking: flour is totally vegan friendly, so need not to worry about the very basic need of vegan baking. As used normally, we could use plain flour as a base or a cereal flour to add the healthy tag to it.

Dark Chocolate

Who doesn’t have a sweet tooth for chocolate! One of the major flavors of bakery it is after all. We gotta be careful when we are choosing this flavor.

Though most dark chocolate compounds tend to be dairy-free, but better take precautions and check the ingredients for a vegan baking.

Margarine

Margarine is mainly made from vegetable oil and water. It is another crucial for vegan baking. As we cannot use butter or any such dairy shortening, margarine come very handy. Be it short crust desserts like tarts and pies or icing for the cakes, margarine has been a really good friend to take places.

Vanilla extract

Vanilla extract is obtained from vanilla pods with ethanol and water. Now, most of the vanilla extracts are vegan friendly but, vegan desserts have their own distinct flavor so, they need an overpowering flavoring agent to fix all the flavors and overpower the vanilla of it. So, choose wisely with the quality.

Milk substitutes

How would we forget this requisite of vegan bake! Dairy free milks are spilling at the supermarket, so grab any one of them and go with it! Some common ones are soy milk, almond milk, coconut milk, oat milk, cashew milk and rice milk. Choose the milk that suits you.

Egg substitutes

There are many substitutes for eggs like applesauce, mashed banana, and arrowroot powder. For a detailed list, check our article on substitute for eggs.

Baking soda

As we aren’t using eggs for vegan baking, we might need to increase the amount of baking soda in the product, as it incorporates leavening and raising.

Corn flour

It helps the vegan cakes to add structure and become less dense as that’s the main problem faced in vegan baking. It could also be used to bake any product which is supposed to be fluffy in nature.

Caster sugar

It is obviously very essential to vegan baking, in fact, to baking as a whole. But this is a controversial issue, many vegans are not only concerned about the ingredients which are used but also the process, as some sugar might use animal derived bone char in the processing. Be careful while picking the right sugar

Seeds

These are very important to vegan baking and the reason here is different. As vegans tend to avoid meats and dairy products, their calcium and protein intake also reduces. There, seeds make the substitutes, as they fulfill the protein requirement and can easily incorporate to almost any bake. Flax seeds and Chia seeds are life savers, you could choose yours.

FRUITY FLAVORS

As we always say, everyone has a right to yummy food and tasty bakes! Some basic ingredient swaps helps facilitate all the cakes and bakes. The main part in any recipe is flavor, and most of the flavors are easily available from natural sources like fruits. So one can easily bake anything if the flavor is right, so whatever ingredients you use, choose your flavors wisely.

So why not try with fruity flavors like pineapple, kiwi, nuts, strawberry, and black current. Sometimes the best flavors come from berries, mixing a few types of berries with nuts are the game changers! Packed with nutrition, these berries provide the perfect flavor and nutrients.

SAVORY VEGAN BAKES

Also, when we talk about mixing various flavors, why not spices? A little bit of cinnamon here and a bit of nutmeg there, and the whole dish is transformed into a tasty treat. Spices are,  the most versatile ingredient. And the best part is, all these spices are obtained from plants and are totally vegan! They can be teamed up with both, sweet and savory, and they always the game as well as hearts!

Pies, breads, savory cookies, puffs, and what not can you bake at home! And you would be shocked to see the difference in price between store bought and home baked goods. These are more authentic, more nutritious and fresh and save your pocket! So why not give them a try!