Baking Tips & Tricks - '' A Detailed Guide Into Vegan Baking ''
Being vegan means avoiding all animal products, from meat to dairy and from eggs to honey. Leaving eggs, milk, and honey out of your diet can make it seem impossible to enjoy your favorite baked treats, such as cake and brownies. But vegan baking is an amazing thing. A vegan cake may be healthier for the environment and it may contain fewer saturated fats than a non-vegan cake but it's not a health food and shouldn't be eaten too often. However a slice of vegan cake is healthier than having two slices of vegan cake.
Different proportions and methods of combining and heating the basic ingredients of flour, sugar, fat and a liquid give you different baked goods. Think of it as science in your kitchen. But without a periodic table, and with results you can eat. Below I’ve put some common categories of baking and a summary of how they work so you can get a better understanding of why what you are doing gives you these particular results. So regardless of why you’re baking vegan, these three lessons can help you succeed. Let’s take a closer look.
Pastry
Most pastry is made from rubbing fat into flour and then adding just enough cold water (I add mine a teaspoon at a time) to make a pliable dough. Making shortcrust pastry - The process through which the fat and flour work together is called shortening, hence the name shortcrust pastry: the dough is ‘short’ rather than long, stretchy bread-type dough. It gives a tender, flaky, crumbly product. The dough is shorter and therefore bakes better if it is kept cool right up until it goes into the oven. Keeping it cold minimizes gluten development. Make sure you use cold water and vegan butter from the fridge. Pastry also benefits from ‘resting’ after it has been handled so putting it in clingfilm and letting it sit in the fridge for 20 minutes or so before rolling out and baking is a good idea.
Be gentle when you are handling pastry. When it’s the right size, use the rolling pin to transfer it to the greased baking dish (or on top of the filling if you are making a pie crust), glazed with a liquid that includes some protein, such as soy milk. If you are cooking pastry for the bottom of a quiche or pie, prick the surface with a fork so air can escape, and bake without filling. Some recipes ask you to weigh the pastry down by covering with some greaseproof paper and dried beans and then partly cook. Then they'll ask you to remove the beans and parchment and cook the pastry alone for a few minutes: this maintains a nice and flat pastry layer and avoids it burning. When it’s done, pastry should be golden brown and come away from the edges of the dish easily. You can then add filling once the pastry is cooked.
Here are some tips for making the best shortcrust pastry
- As with most baking projects, it's important to start off well prepared. It makes the entire process much easier and quicker. First, you'll need to choose your recipe and familiarize yourself with the steps involved. Take some time to gather all of your ingredients to ensure you have everything needed. For consistent results, it's also best to weigh everything, especially the flour and butter. A little more or less of either ingredient can throw off your crust.
- Next, gather all the equipment you will need. Again, having everything on hand means you will work more quickly. It helps avoid digging through the cupboards for something when you're in the middle of a crucial step or when your hands are covered in flour. It will also help your pastry turn out great.
- There is an old saying that cold hands make good pastry. The first golden rule of making shortcrust pastry is to keep the ingredients, the bowl, the surface, and your hands as cool as possible. When the pastry mixture becomes too warm, the end result is a greasy and/or heavy, dull finished pastry crust. Run your hands under cold water before starting to mix pastry. If the butter or lard warms up too much (like on a hot day, for example), pop it in the refrigerator from time to time. Roll pastry on a cool surface (a marble slab is perfect) dusted with flour.
- Don't dawdle when making a pastry. It will turn out better and ensure you get a lighter, crisper pastry if you work quickly. This is why the previous suggestions for assembling your ingredients and equipment before you begin and keeping everything cold are so important. Use a food processor for mixing the dough. It’s fast, cutting the fat into the flour without it melting—while also making it easy to achieve the crumb-like consistency recipes call for. f you pulse too much you’ll lose any larger size pieces of butter in your dough. These larger pieces are best because they spread as the pastry is rolled, creating a thin layer of fat within the dough, which results in a crust that is super flaky and tender.
- Once the pastry dough is made, it must be wrapped in plastic wrap or greaseproof paper and rested in the refrigerator for a minimum of 15 minutes. Resting allows time for the gluten (proteins) in the dough to relax. If you attempt to roll the dough right after mixing it, it will be like trying to roll a sheet of elastic. It will roll, but seconds later it will shrink back to the original form. Likewise, once rolled, rest the pastry again. If you cook a pastry that has been rolled and not rested, it will shrink in the oven. It’s best to form the dough into a smooth, round disc before chilling. When ready to roll, take it out of the fridge at least 15 minutes beforehand to take the chill off. Rolling out cold dough will lead to cracks, leaks, craggy edges (and angry shaking of the rolling-pin).
- Always put pastry into a preheated, hot oven (425 F /220 C/ Gas 7). If the oven is too cool the pastry will melt rather than cook. No one wants a soggy bottom when their pastry is cooked. To ensure your tart or pie crust is crisp, place a heavy baking sheet in the oven while it is heating up. When you're ready, place the tart or pie directly on the heated tray.
Biscuits & Scones
Many biscuits (like shortbread) and scones are also made using the rubbing method. It’s a good way of combining fat and flour when you have proportionally less fat – this was especially common during rationing, and many recipes from the 40s and 50s use rubbing techniques.Most of these recipes will therefore start in a similar way to pastry. However, unlike pastry, biscuits and scones have more liquid, sometimes more fat and almost always sugar. Extra fat makes the final product richer and more moist. The extra liquid makes a softer, more pliable dough which gives a moister final product. Liquids also add volume when baking as the steam expands when heated. Sugar obviously provides sweetness and hence flavor. It also caramelizes when heated which gives a crunchy result, a delicious smell and a golden-brown color. Darker sugars tend to be more moist and give darker finishes with heavier, caramel flavours. This is why you would use paler sugars for a delicate scone, but a brown sugar for a ginger biscuit.
Biscuits are generally crunchy, sweet and something of a British obsession. The main methods for making biscuits are rubbed (like pastry) or melted: instead of rubbing the fat in you add liquid fat, often melted with sugar or syrup, into the flour and create a dough that way. Shortbread is a rubbed method biscuit and is a nice and easy to make. A melted biscuit like the gingernut is another simple classic. Biscuits are endlessly variable, which is part of their charm, so once you have the hang of it you can make them exactly how you want, e.g. with extra flavorings or swapping the golden syrup for black treacle. As long as you keep the proportions of fat, flour and sugar about the same you will end up with a similar physical finish. There are some soft biscuits, usually American style chewy cookies, and tray bakes like flapjack which have more fat and liquid and thus don’t crisp up as much.
Scones are essentially a type of cake, unless you are in the US, in which case they are a biscuit and a biscuit is a cookie. There are lots of variations including adding dried fruit like sultanas or glace cherries (make sure they don’t have non-vegan dyes) or savory scones. A scone’s start in life is similar to pastry, with fat rubbed into flour. However, the flour used is a self-raising flour and often the recipe calls for additional baking powder to make the scones extra light and fluffy. Instead of water, there’s a richer liquid (like plant milk) which adds fat, lift and flavor. The dough should be wetter than for pastry and needs to be rolled out much more thickly – around 2cm. Scones also do not like to be handled too much. Just roll them out once, cut out your circles using an upside down glass or biscuit cutter, then place directly onto a greased tray. Brush with plant milk and bake until they rise up and go golden brown. You can tell scones are done because they will come easily off the tray and sound hollow when tapped on the bottom. They are best eaten almost as soon as they are out of the oven, and do not keep very well due to their relatively low fat content. This means the water in them evaporates out and they go dry.
Here are some tips for biscuit & scones baking
- Freeze your butter. Start with frozen butter. Not cold, but frozen. Grate your butter with a box grater - your flakes will come from these frozen chunks of butter.
- If your recipe calls for milk rather than buttermilk, then add an 1/8 teaspoon of lemon juice to the plant - based milk before adding it to the rest of the scone mixture. This acid reacts with the raising agents to help the scones rise.
- Use a sift to mix your dry ingredients. Sift together all your dry ingredients instead of simply mixing. This will smooth out your lumps and you'll have a much more consistent bake. Some people will also freeze their dry ingredients to keep the dough as cold as possible. Again, cold dough is what makes a flaky biscuit. Never use your hands. When you mix your butter and dry ingredients together, never use your hands. Use a metal spoon instead. The temperature of your hand will melt the butter, while a spoon will keep ingredients cold.
- Use the well technique for combining dry and wet ingredients. When mixing wet ingredients into the butter and dough mixture use a well technique, much like pasta. Depending on the weather, use more or less flour. For humid days use more flour and cut back a bit on dry, hot days. Only work on cold surfaces like wood or metal. Avoid touching the dough and use a pin to roll it out. Before rolling, shake any excess flour off the dough. The dough is a living thing and it'll take as much flour as it wants, so feed the dough only what it needs.
- Cut and stack the dough. This is where you'll exponentially increase the number of layers in your biscuit. Cut, stack, roll, and re-stack three times. Do not twist the ring mold. Flour a ring mold and push it through the dough. DO NOT TWIST. Pull the biscuit straight out. If you twist, the layers will slant and the biscuit will not cook evenly.
- Do not use the leftover dough. Re-folding the leftover dough means dense biscuits that will cook differently than your first batch. You can use the leftovers for strawberry shortcake, bread crumbs, or savory bread pudding.
- Hot oven is another key to producing tall and flaky biscuits. This is why most recipes will say 425 F when baking biscuits. A hot oven will make the biscuit rise faster and taller. So hot oven = tall biscuits, got it? Heat up your oven and don’t go easy on it.
- Once you’ve made your dough, aim to get it into the oven as soon as possible. This is because the raising process starts the moment the ingredients are combined and you want this process to happen in a hot oven.
Cakes
I love cakes. They are the thing I am most likely to bake when I’m in the mood for making something. Cake methods fall into one of six main types: rubbed cakes, melted, creamed, oil-based, folded and vinegar. There is also a seventh type of cake making which is my favorite as it’s super simple, the ‘all-in-one’: just put everything in a bowl and blend. The difference in methods are about the amount of fat in the cake and how you mix it in with the other ingredients. Rubbed cakes generally have less fat and more flour. Most fruit cakes are made using the rubbed method, as the fruit gives the recipe extra moisture. Melted cakes, like a chocolate cake, involve melting the fat and sugar to a syrup then adding them to the dry ingredients. Creamed cakes involve beating sugar into the fat until you get a pale, fluffy mixture (the mixture will actually become paler, so do spend a few minutes beating this with an electric blender). Then liquid is added, with flour finally sifted in. Classic spongecake is a great example of the creamed cake method. Oil based cakes are common in vegan baking and involve mixing oil with flavorings in one bowl then adding this liquid to your sifted and mixed dry ingredients, then baking. You usually have to add a bit more raising agent to oil based cakes as you don’t get the lift created by blending margarine, but the recipe will let you know how much to use.
The folded method is sometimes also called a ‘whisked fatless sponge’ which doesn’t sound particularly enticing. It’s traditionally made using whisked egg whites and no fat. Ingredients are carefully folded in to preserve the air bubbles. You can use aquafaba - the result is a very light, very delicate sponge which needs to be eaten almost straight away. Vinegar cakes are rather old fashioned but are making a comeback in vegan baking. The vinegar replaces the moisture and lift given by eggs, and so they were very popular during rationing. Vinegar cakes involve making a liquid mix with vinegar plus other liquids and blending it together with the dry ingredients.
Here are some tips for cake baking
- Follow the recipe - This sounds obvious, right? Following the recipe is the most important cake baking tip you’ll ever hear/read. It’s also the most ignored. We often substitute ingredients in recipes based on what we have. Subbing out egg substitutes, reducing sugar, using liquid sweetener instead of dry, all-purpose instead of cake flour, baking soda for powder etc. I do not recommend doing this unless the recipe suggests alternatives. Don’t sabotage your time, effort, and money. I’m guilty of this, too! Sometimes I’m in a rush and just not paying attention or I’m making a substitution because I ran out of an ingredient. But ingredients are needed for a reason and, more often than not, a cake fail is because the recipe wasn’t properly followed. I always recommend following a recipe the first time you try it, then making changes as you see fit the next time. Likewise, make sure you’re using the appropriate size pan. Unless otherwise noted, don’t substitute a 6-inch cake pan for a 9-inch cake pan or a 9-inch round pan for a 9-inch square pan. You can *usually* get away with swapping 8-inch round cake pans for 9-inch round cake pans (and vice versa). 8-inch cakes will take longer since they’ll likely be thicker.
- Cakes are best made from room temperature ingredients, so get everything out before you want to start baking. “Room temperature” isn’t listed next to ingredients for fun. There’s science and legitimate reason behind it. If a recipe calls for room temperature ingredients, use room temperature ingredients like vegan butter and plant - based milk.
- Measure properly - This tip also sounds like a no-brainer, but it’s where we most often make mistakes. The difference between a recipe success and a recipe failure could lie within 1 mis-measured tablespoon of sugar. Measuring ingredients properly is imperative. Flour is the most common mis-measured ingredient. When measuring flour, use the “spoon & level” method. Do not scoop the flour out of the container/bag with your measuring cup. In some cases, scooping the flour could give you 150% of the correct measurement. Disaster ensues. Rather, using a spoon, scoop the flour into the measuring cup. Do not pack the flour down and do not tap the measuring cup– both cause the flour to settle in the cup. After you’ve spooned the flour into the measuring cup, use the back of a knife to level off the top of the measuring cup. Now you have spoon & leveled flour. Baking is not very forgiving. Understanding the correct measuring technique for a particular ingredient will guarantee better baking results.
- You want the cake mix to be at drop consistency (when you tap the spoon on the edge of the bowl the mixture drops out easily) before baking. Whether a recipe calls for mixing batter with an electric mixer or simply using a whisk, make sure you’re mixing the cake batter together *just until* the ingredients are combined. Over-mixing batter, whether that’s for cakes, cupcakes, breads, muffins, etc, lends a tough-textured baked good because you’re deflating all the air and over-developing the gluten.
- Line and grease you cake tin, or use a spring form tin, to make sure the cake comes out safely. No matter what size or brand cake pan you use, make sure you prepare it appropriately. These days I ALWAYS use parchment paper rounds. Trace the bottom of the cake pans(s) on a large piece of parchment paper. Cut out the parchment circle(s). Then, very lightly grease the cake pans with butter or nonstick spray. I usually use coconut oil nonstick spray or “baking spray” which has a little flour in it. Place the parchment round inside, then grease the parchment round too. Yes, grease the pan AND the parchment. This promises an ultra non-stick environment for your cake. Never any sticking. I usually keep a stack of parchment rounds on hand just in case I’m in a rush to get a cake in the oven. When the cake has cooled, run a thin knife around the edge, invert the cake on your hand or work surface, then pull off the cake pan. Peel off the parchment round. If you’re serving the cake right out of the pan, such as a sheet cake, no need to line with parchment. (Though you certainly could if desired.) Just grease the pan.
- You can tell a cake is ready when it is firm and springy to the touch, and when a skewer or toothpick comes out clean. Set the timer for 5 minutes less than the recipe states. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve baked a cake and it’s done before the time listed in the recipe. It’s good to check early to avoid overtaking. A cake that’s done will bounce back when lightly pressed in the center.
- Let the cake cook before trying to remove from the tin. The cakes will continue to bake in the hot pans. Invert the cake out of the pan and onto a wire rack to cool completely. This sounds like a no-brainer, but we’re often in a rush– myself included. Assembling and/or decorating cakes before they’re completely cool is literally a recipe for disaster. The flavor hasn’t settled and the frosting will melt. Some bakers may disagree, but I always cool my cakes completely inside the pans. I do the same for cupcakes, quick breads, and more. Place the pan on a wire rack and leave it alone until completely cool. If I’m in a rush, sometimes I’ll place the rack and pan in the refrigerator to speed up the cooling process. If I’m in a major rush, I cool the cake in the pan for 30 minutes. Then I remove it from the pan and place it on a baking sheet inside the freezer for about 45 more minutes. Depending on the size of the cake, it’s completely cool in a little over 1 hour.
- Generally speaking, the more fat and liquid you have in a baked product, along with the right amount of moisture-preserving ingredients such as sugar and fruit, the longer it will keep. Rich fruit cakes, for example, can keep for years and years, while coconut oil is a fantastic preservative
- Most cakes that include fat will freeze very well, defrost at room temperature and do not refreeze.
Baking With Yeast
First of all, yes, yeast is suitable for vegans. Yeast is a fungus, like mushrooms. As long as the yeast has not been prepared using animals or animal products, the yeast itself is perfectly fine. Yeast baking can be a bit hit or miss, so usually comes into the ‘more complex’ category of baking. If you are already used to baking with yeast and have recently switched over to being vegan then it should be more straightforward as you will just need to swap a few ingredients (usually fat and/or eggs). Whether you are a seasoned pro or a new baker, this list of tips will help you perfect the art of making cinnamon rolls. You must be very careful with the yeast. Keep the milk between 43° and 46°. Any cooler and the yeast may not activate properly. Any hotter and you may kill the yeast before it has a chance to help the dough rise. Yeast likes a warm environment, so using room temperature ingredients will keep the dough at the perfect temperature for optimal yeast activity. Plus, room-temperature butter will also mix easier and more evenly into the dough.
The key things about working with yeast
• Make sure you use in-date yeast. I once baked some out-of-date bread from a packet mix and made some very sad rocks
• Know which yeast you need!
• Yeast needs liquid and some kind of food (sugar, either as sugar or more usually in starch) to respire. The carbon dioxide produced by yeast causes the dough to rise
• Temperature is really important. Cold temperatures puts yeast to sleep and too hot temperatures can kill the yeast. Yeast wants to be at a warm temperature. Get a thermometer and follow recipes correctly. Generally speaking you want to mix yeast with warm liquids (between 40-50C) and leave the dough to rise at room temperature (20-25C)
• Adding too much salt or adding salt in high concentrations can kill yeast, so add salt in with the flour rather than adding it directly to the yeast.
There are two types of dry yeast: (Regular) Active Dry Yeast and Rapid-Rise Yeast. Though there are some minor differences in shape and nutrients, Rapid-Rise Yeast is (pretty much) the same as Instant Yeast and Bread Machine Yeast. This is where understanding yeast can definitely get confusing. These two types of dry yeast can be used interchangeably, with some limitations. Though Bread Machine Yeast is faster-rising and is specially formulated for bread machines, as its texture is finely granulated to hydrate easily when combined with flour, Active Dry Yeast may also be used in bread machines (though it but may not yield completely equal results). The advantage of the Rapid-Rise Yeast is the rising time is half that of the Active Dry and it only needs one rising. Though this is an advantage, you do sacrifice some flavor and texture by speeding up the rising process as the yeast does not have time to develop its own flavor. Also, Rapid-Rise Yeast is a little more potent than Active Dry Yeast and can be mixed in with your dry ingredients directly.
Some recipes call for dissolving the yeast first in a warm liquid and then adding this active yeast mixture to the flour while others call for the yeast first being added to the flour, followed by the liquid. Why is this? The dissolving of the yeast first in a warm liquid is done to make sure the yeast is fresh and active. Since yeast is a living organism, it is possible the organisms have perished which would result in no leavening. Though this step probably doesn’t really need to be done any longer because of how reliable dry yeast is today, some bakers still feel it’s a good idea to test the yeast to make sure it is still active before adding it to the flour. Active Dry Yeast works just as well as Instant Yeast, but its instructions require you to activate it in a little bit of warm water before being added to the rest of the ingredients.
Granted, purchasing yeast can be a confusing process due to different manufacturers not using the same names for their products or using the same names for different types of yeast. That being said, here’s a general guide to purchasing yeast using popular labeling and product instructions:
- Cake (Moist) – traditional live yeast; needs to be dissolved in water
- Active Dry – traditional dry yeast; needs to be dissolved usually with sugar
- Instant – contains small amount of yeast enhancer; does not need to be dissolved
- Bread Machine – exactly the same as Instant but in a different package
- Rapid-Rise – larger amount of yeast enhancers and other packaging changes to the granules; does not have
Magical Beans - Aquafaba
Yes, aquafaba is the liquid in canned chickpeas (and other beans) and it actually works as a vegan egg white replacer. Aquafaba can act as an emulsifier, leavening agent and foaming agent because it has properties similar to those of egg whites. That means a new way to make vegan macarons, marshmallows and meringues. Vegan baking gives you the opportunity to add extra nutrients (and extra tastiness) into your baking by adding a few secret, magic ingredients. My personal favorite is beans. Whether it’s chickpea blondies, blackbean brownies or this incredible white chocolate bean cake these little pods of protein give a lovely squishy moist texture to your cakes. And whatever you do, do not throw away the liquid from your empty bean can. Aquafaba (bean water) is a miracle worker for vegan bakers because it behaves almost exactly like egg whites. That’s right! You can whip it up into fluffy peaks and make all kinds of treats, including meringues and ice cream. The starchy liquid is a great binder directly from the can, but what really makes it magical is that it whips and creates a foam. Aquafaba is therefore able to trap air, giving items structure at the same time it delivers a fluffy crumb and lift.
Aquafaba has taken on a bit of a cult status in the vegan cookery world, and rightly so because it really is amazing. Aquafaba is nearly flavorless when baked! When you first open the can of garbanzo beans it will, obviously, smell like beans. The aquafaba will have a slight bean flavor/smell when unbaked. Once baked into your recipe it's undetectable. Homemade aquafaba will keep in a Mason jar in the refrigerator for two to three days. You can also freeze it in convenient ¼-cup or ½-cup portions for up to two months. (Don't forget to rinse and drain the chickpeas, and refrigerate or freeze them until ready to use.)
A few tips for making Aquafaba
• Always use clean bowls and spoons
• Add a couple of drops of flavoring such as vanilla to mask any lingering bean smell or taste
• An electric whisk will save you lots of time
• Using a stabilizer like xanthan gum will help keep the peaks glossy and the finished product will hold together much better
Dealing With Disasters
Sometimes it goes a bit wrong and things don’t turn out how you expected. That’s OK, there’s a good chance we can still rescue it for you. Below I’ve put a list of common problems with baking and what to do about it. It has cooked unevenly. This is likely caused by your oven. Always make sure you preheat properly first and place the item to be cooked in the centre of the oven. Never put anything directly on the bottom of the oven, always put it on an oven shelf, otherwise the entire bottom of your baking will be burnt black. If it’s only a little uneven, rotate your dish by 180 and cover the more cooked section with greaseproof or tinfoil. This will mean that the undercooked section is now in the hotter part of the oven and the overcooked section is protected from the heat. If you are in the sad situation of having a half raw and half burnt cake then you can scoop out the raw filling into a new greased dish and bake that separately and deal with the burnt cake as per the section below.
It has burnt. Caused by a too hot oven, too long in the oven or not being protected whilst cooking. Some ovens run really hot and to get a decent result you will need to use a lower temperature and/or cover your baking with some foil or greaseproof to protect it. Some burnt things are beyond help and you will just have to feed them to the birds or put them to compost. Sometimes it’s a question of just cutting the burnt bits off, and this works particularly well for cake, though do let it cool first so you can take the burnt section off without breaking the cake into pieces. If you do break the cake into pieces then you can very easily cover the nice pieces with custard and call it pudding – a technique I have used many times, and also works for cakes that are a bit too dr. Just add a bit of melted jam or golden syrup before you pour over the custard and no-one will be any the wiser.
Pie base is soggy and under-cooked. Although cooking the pastry without filling (baking blind) can seem like a bit too much effort, it really does prevent soggy bottoms. In this instance there is nothing that can be done about the pastry but you can scoop out the filling and serve it in a different way. Quiche fillings will generally cook quite happily without a pastry case (call it tortilla if you like), stewed fruit is great with custard or ice cream and savory pie fillings are just as good with some potatoes and veggies.
So let me know what you think of the above article and if you have any suggestions for future topics, then please leave your message in the comments section below -thanks so much!
