Baking vegan: tips and resources

I - along with many others -  have spent the last few weeks of social distancing in my kitchen, putting all my extra energy into one of my favorite hobbies: baking. As I could not possibly eat everything that has come out of my oven, friends and neighbors have been enjoying the output in the form of care packages. Even before the stay-at-home initiatives, I loved to bake treats for friends and family, and now my hobby has kept me close to them even when we must stay six feet apart.

The ingredients in my kitchen may look a bit different than most. As a vegan, I abstain from using animal-based products and byproducts in all aspects of my life, which mostly affects the food I make and eat. In terms of baking, this means replacing the milk, eggs, and butter in recipes with one of many alternatives. With grocery store shelves being emptied by the minute, I thought it might be helpful to share a few options for when there are no eggs left at Target...again.

While milk has been somewhat scarce, alternative milks are in every grocery store (typically just to the left of the main stock) and work perfectly well in every recipe I’ve tried. My favorite for baking is soy milk, but almond and oat - if plain and unsweetened - are just as nice. Butter can be swapped out for either vegetable oil or a vegan butter such as Earth Balance, which even come in those handy-dandy baking sticks. In fact, Earth Balance is so similar to regular butter, that my parents have switched to using it exclusively. Egg substitutes are a bit trickier and dependant on what you are using them for. Applesauce, vegetable oil, and mashed banana work for binding by using ¼ cup per egg, but each may affect the flavor differently. I typically use flax eggs, which is one tablespoon of flax seed mixed with three tablespoons of water. I have yet to see a grocery store run out of ground flaxseed, emergency or not!

All of the aforementioned substitutions are useful when trying to use a family recipe, but I also encourage you to branch out and try some creations that are vegan from the start. In the past three weeks I have made: zucchini bread, chocolate chip zucchini bread, chocolate chip cookies, lemon cookies (twice), artisan bread, chocolate chip banana bread, cinnamon rolls, and apple sausage scones, all while using tried-and-true vegan ingredients. If you are interested in diving even deeper into the possibilities of vegan baking, there are hundreds of books you can borrow through Hoopla or Libby from your local library. If you do not have a library card, many Minnesota public libraries can assign you an e-library card to use for their digital catalog. The best thing about recipes in an ebook: no flour on the pages!