Considerations for vegan baking in 2025

[Wholemeal Crank]

I have a niece who is vegan and want to bake some cookies for her.  I've got a fair bit of experience adapting and adjusting recipes for my whole grain baking, and recently have done a lot with gluten-free grains for the sake of friends who are celiac, and I've been adjusting recipes for my own borderline diabetes, but working exclusively with vegan ingredients is new to me. 

 

I see a handful of topics here that are mostly a decade or more old, and the choices of ingredients are different today, and there are lots more experienced vegan bakers out there now.  So I thought a new topic was appropriate, but I'm happy to take this to another topic if I've overlooked one already in progress.

 

Here is one of my own recipes I thought I might start with:

 

https://debunix.net/recipes/FiveByFiveChocolateCookies.html

 

Lightly greased or lined baking sheets         Oven 350°F / 175° C        Baking time 12 minutes

3/4 cup / 170 grams unsalted butter
    (if what you have is salted, see adjustment below)
3/4 cup / 150 grams sugar

3 1/2 ounces / 100 grams unsweetened chocolate
3 large eggs
3 tablespoons / 45 grams water
     OR 1/4 cup buttermilk OR 1/4 cup water
[1 teaspoon vanilla if not using vanilla bean]

Milled together
    225 grams teff
    2 inches vanilla bean
               [OR use 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, added with the eggs and buttermilk or water]
 
Alternatives for the flour
    1 1/2 cups / 225 grams teff flour
   
   [OR
    1 1/2 cup / 225 grams whole wheat pastry flour OR soft wheat flour OR unbleached all purpose flour]

2 tablespoons / 12 grams buttermilk powder [omit if using buttermilk]
1/2 cup / 75 grams cocoa
10 grams ground chia seeds [omit if using wheat flour]
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt [omit if using salted butter]

4 ounces / 113 grams dried cacao fruit, minced

1/2 cup / 2 ounces or 60 grams cacao nibs
2 ounces / 56 grams finely chopped bittersweet chocolate (I love 70% Sambirano from Dick Taylor, or Scharffenberger 70%)


Melt the butter and unsweetened chocolate together (I do it in the microwave on lower power to avoid scorching the chocolate, stirring often).  Transfer to mixer bowl, and beat together with the sugar.

Beat in the eggs, water or buttermilk and vanilla if you are using that. 

Take half of the flour and whirl in food processor with the dried cacao fruit until the fruit is very finely minced.  This stuff is STICKY and the food processor struggles a bit to manage it; I have to stop and pick the gummy coating off the blade a few times to get it done.  You can also chop it with a knife but it is hard work and the knife will need a lot of clearing too.

Sift or whisk the flours, chia [if using gluten-free flours], salt, baking powder, buttermilk powder [if using] together, and add to the mixing bowl together with the the flour/cacao fruit, cacao nibs, and chopped chocolate.  Stir together until well mixed.

Icebox/Refrigerator cookies version:  work less, eat later

This is how I made them the second time, and I think it worked better:  let sit for several hours at room temperature or in the refrigerator, to hydrate the flour and let the dough firm up enough to be shaped into rolls.  Take about 1/3 of the dough and form into a roll, about 2 inches in diameter, and wrap in waxed paper or parchment or plastic wrap, and chill until quite firm for neat slicing (about 2 hours in freezer, overnight in refrigerator).

When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 325°F / 163° C.

Slice the rolls 1/4 inch thick and place on prepared baking sheets (lightly greased, or lined with parchment or silpat).  Bake 325°F for about 12 minutes, until they are a little dry and firm on the outside, should still be a little soft but not gooey inside.

Hand-rolled balls version:  work harder, eat sooner

This is how I originally made them:   let sit for several hours at room temperature or in the refrigerator, to hydrate the flours.

Preheat the oven to 325°F / 163° C.

Roll teaspoonsful of dough into small balls, flatten them a little, place them fairly close together on lightly greased or parchment or silpat lined baking sheets (they won't spread much).   Bake 325°F for about 12 minutes, until they are a little dry and firm on the outside, should still be a little soft but not gooey inside.

 

***********

For these cookies, I've obtained some food-grade cocoa butter, and I was thinking of cutting that with some canola or Algae oil to keep it from being too hard--since cocoa butter is harder than butter at relevant room temperature, and might make things harder for cutting the chilled logs of dough.  But I'm a bit at sea trying to guess how much of the oils to mix with the cocoa butter; and I know I need to get the cocoa butter or mixed butter/oil soft enough for creaming with the sugar, and if I were to mix these together I'd need to melt the cocoa butter, let it solidify, and then use it when room temperature-ish and not too hard.

 

And I've already used chia to help with the lack of gluten in teff, but I figure I need more of that +/- flax to help with the egg.

 

I figure flake yeast can add some umami that would help with the lack of buttermilk powder and maybe also the missing milk solids in the butter....but not sure what else to add that dairy richness. 

 

Open to suggestions!

Edited March 6 by Wholemeal Crank
cat posted too early (log)

[RWood]

I've only done a small amount of vegan pastry, so I don't know if I'll be much help.  Mine have been mostly cakes, buttercreams and mousse type things. 

So for egg, there is the flax mixed with water as a sub, in cakes it's not much of an issue, because usually a plant milk is mixed with vinegar to react with the baking soda to help with lift.  

I personally haven't tried the Bob's Red Mill egg replacer or the Just egg liquid egg yet. Another egg replacer is aquafaba (chick pea liquid from the can).  Those might be something to experiment with.  I've heard that the Miyoko's European style butter is nice for baking, but haven't tried it yet.  I made vegan butter before and it had a nice flavor.  I used it for a vegan wedding cake.  

You could look into some of the vegan yogurts, sour creams or cream cheese that might have more of a tang like buttermilk, could be thinned with plant milk to get the liquid consistency.  

Keep in mind too that you should look for vegan sugars, no bone char for processing.  

Edited March 6 by RWood (log)

[Wholemeal Crank]

thanks for the thoughts.

 

i'm not worried about the sugar, because I will use brown sugar that for this particular brand is bone char free--although my particular vegan has not brought that issue up herself.  It's a small enough quantity that I don't think the bit of molasses will be a problem.  

 

But the substitutes for the dairy milk would all be liquid and I've been using and developing recipes with powdered milk to get the flavor with less impact on the texture.  I have a team match on the way of soy milk powder available although there's gotta be some that someone has made somewhere.