Add Some Healthy Awesomeness by Vegan-ifying Your Baking

This is Kurt, Sugar Ridge’s resident baker (dishwasher and snow removal service). One of the first things I learned when I started to make my baking more vegan for guests was how to replace eggs in a recipe.  There are actually many ways to do it, but a really easy one is to use ground up flax seeds and water:

1 tablespoon ground flaxseeds     +     1/4 cup water     =     1 egg

You can buy ground flaxseeds, but I prefer to buy the seeds whole and then grind them as I need in them in a coffee grinder.  (The flax oil from ground seeds can apparently get rancid if left for very long un-refridgerated.)  Once the seeds are ground, mix them with the water and let stand for about 5 minutes until it becomes gelatinous.  You can then add this mixture to your recipe.  More water can be added if the recipe seems too dry.  (For those who can’t eat flax, chia seeds can be used in the same way.)

Flax and water seems the most all-purpose egg replacement that I have found, but another one that is great sometimes is:

1 medium banana (mashed)     =     1 egg

Because banana has a very distinct flavour, it may not be the best choice for many recipes.  However, it is because of its flavour that I have used it in my chocolate chip brownies on occasion.  Like with the flax and water, you may have to add (or leave out) some liquid from the recipe to get the right consistency.

I am not against eggs and do often eat them.  My philosophy is that if I can make food healthier and not lose the flavour or the joy of eating it, why not do it?  With that in mind, flax is an extremely healthy food.  Doctors and nutritional experts are always telling us to get more of it, so  why not find ways to add it in more often to the food we eat?

The same goes for bananas.  If I can add a fruit (or vegetable) to some food and the end result is that it will turn out as good or even better as if I didn’t, then I am definitely making the substitution.  It is the little things that we do that make the difference in our health.

We’ll be going over this and a whole lot more at our upcoming workshop next Saturday (December 13th): Holiday Vegan Cooking & Baking Classes Weekend.

Photo Credit: HealthAliciousNess – License