Monthly Archives: November 2015

Happy Birthday to Vegan Baking Up High

celebration

Image courtesy of Victoria Pickering on flickr.com

Vegan Baking Up High turns one! It’s hard to believe I have spent a whole year researching baking methods and testing recipes to be vegan and work at high altitude. Some recipes required only a few attempts while others took several rounds (I still have Date Nut Bread in my freezer). Yet it was always worth the taste tests.

In the coming posts you can look forward to learning about aquafaba – the new vegan egg substitute. I also plan to focus on some savory baked goods (what, no chocolate???) and delving into healthier desserts (that are still decadent). But don’t worry, there will be recipes for the usual types of sweets, too.

Thanks for following along with me as I find better and more scrumptious ways to bake vegan at high altitude. If you have a favorite recipe that you want to become high-altitude vegan, then let me know. I’ll see if I can make it happen in the next year.

Happy Holidays!
-The Decadent Vegan Baker

Hearty Raspberry Muffins

hearty raspberry muffinsWaking up to a cold morning made me want a warm, hearty muffin to chase away the chill. I thought a bright burst of fruit, with some healthy bran, ought to do the trick. Looking through my cookbooks I discovered that I didn’t quite have the exact ingredients for anything that sounded good, so I baked some muffins loosely adapted on a few recipes. It’s kinda what I do.

The recipe was already dairy and egg free, so I just made a few adjustments for altitude. The recipe was simple so it only needed a little extra flour and milk and a slight reduction in leaveners. I also used paper muffin cups instead of baking directly in the muffin tin so I wouldn’t have to scrape any dried muffins off the tin.

Until next time, happy baking!

hearty raspberry muffins
Print Recipe

Hearty Raspberry Muffins

Waking up to a cold morning made me want a warm, hearty muffin to chase away the chill. I thought a bright burst of fruit, with some healthy bran, ought to do the trick. I found that I didn’t have the exact ingredients for anything that sounded good, so I baked some muffins loosely adapted on a few recipes.
Course: Breakfast
Cuisine: Vegan
Keyword: Baking, High Altitude, Muffin, Raspberry, Recipe
Servings: 12
Author: The Decadent Vegan Baker

Equipment

  • Muffin Tin

Ingredients

  • 1 1/4 cups + 1 teaspoon whole wheat pastry flour
  • 1/2 cup wheat bran
  • scant 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • scant 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
  • 3/4 cup + 1/2 teaspoon almond milk
  • 1/3 cup liquid fruit juice concentrate
  • 3 tablespoon canola oil
  • 1 cup frozen raspberries slightly broken up

Instructions

  • Heat oven to 350F. Line a muffin tin with paper liners and set aside.
  • In a medium bowl, whisk flour, bran, baking soda, baking powder and salt to combine and make a well in the center. In another medium bowl, whisk milk, fruit juice concentrate, and oil until surface is bubbly. Pour liquid ingredients into the well and stir just until smooth. Stir in the raspberries.
  • Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups. Bake for 18-19 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack.

Notes

Adapted from Sweet & Natural Baking by Mani Niall

Crumb Coat for Easy Cake Decorating

Crumb coat

Image courtesy of Cooking Cinderella at flickr.com

Many years ago, when I first ventured into “specialty” baking, I was given the gift of classes on cake decorating. At the time I was baking mostly cookies and brownies and wasn’t sure what I would do with the knowledge, but I knew I would have fun. I learned how to use frosting to make a basket-weave, flowers and leaves. It was pretty but didn’t seem very useful for a home baker. Until I learned some tricks.

I learned to stand a tipped decorating bag in a tall glass while you are filling it – it’s like an extra hand when yours are already busy. Another idea was to use icing as glue to cement the cake to a board so it won’t move in transport. I found out that a turning stand makes it easier to decorate a cake. A great tip was to flip the top layer of a layer cake over so you have a flat surface to frost. But my favorite trick was the crumb coat.

A crumb coat will make the surface of your meticulously decorated cake look beautiful. To crumb coat a cake you take some of your icing and thin it with water. It should be thinner than usual but not enough to tear the cake as you apply it. Spread this icing to make a thin layer on the entire exposed cake surface.

“Don’t worry if there are crumbs in the icing, this is expected. The icing layer is so thin that you will see the cake and crumbs. Smooth the icing as best as you can and let it dry. The crumb coat needs to be dry to the touch before you put the final layer of icing on. Once the crumb coat is completely dry, you are ready to continue icing and decorating.”

The crumb coat creates a barrier to hold crumbs down so your final icing will be smooth and crumb-free. This is especially important if you are frosting a chocolate cake with white icing. Even with white icing on a white cake you don’t want to have cake bits floating around in your decorations. It may seem like it takes unnecessary extra time, but it is so worth it. It helps make any cake into the perfect cake.

Oatmeal Spice Cookie Sandwiches

oatmeal spice cookie sandwichesI collect recipes. I have thousands of them. They usually sit for awhile before I dust them off and use them, but some I refer to immediately. This recipe is one of those. I crave warm spices this time of year, so I thought a spiced cookie would taste good. When I came across this recipe with chai spices I baked it up pronto.

To veganize the original recipe, I used vegan margarine and yogurt subbed for an egg. For altitude adjustments, I added flour and reduced baking powder and oats. I thought they were tasty as is, but my husband thought they were lacking in dessert finesse (due to the lack of chocolate). To elevate them from what he deemed a breakfast cookie, I slathered vanilla frosting between two cookies and made them into cookie sandwiches. Now they were fancy enough for dessert.

Until next time, happy baking!

oatmeal spice cookies
Print Recipe

Oatmeal Spice Cookie Sandwiches

I collect recipes. I have thousands of them. They usually sit for awhile before I dust them off and use them, but some I refer to immediately. This recipe is one of those. I crave warm spices this time of year, so I thought a spiced cookie would taste good.
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: Vegan
Keyword: Baking, Chai Spice, Cookies, High Altitude, Oat, Recipe
Servings: 12
Author: The Decadent Vegan Baker

Equipment

  • Stand Mixer
  • 2 Baking Sheets

Ingredients

Cookies

  • 1 cup + 1 tablespoon all purpose flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
  • Chai Spice Powder - 3/4 teaspoon cinnamon 1/2 teaspoon cardamom, 1/4 teaspoon ginger, 1/8 teaspoon clove, 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
  • 14 tablespoons vegan margarine softened
  • 1 cup organic sugar
  • 1/4 cup packed organic light brown sugar
  • 1/4 cup vanilla soy yogurt
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 2 1/4 cups old-fashioned rolled oats

Filling

  • 4 tablespoons vegan margarine softened
  • 4 tablespoons vegan shortening softened
  • 2 1/2 cups organic powdered sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 teaspoon soymilk

Instructions

  • Prepare the cookies:
  • Preheat oven to 350F. Whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and chai spice powder together. In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat margarine and sugars until fluffy and creamy. Add yogurt and vanilla to butter mixture and beat until combined.
  • Gradually add flour mixture to butter mixture and stir until it just becomes smooth. Gradually add oats and mix until well combined.
  • Roll balls of 2 TBS of dough and place on baking sheets. Gently press down each ball. Bake until cookies are golden brown, for 16-18 minutes, rotating baking sheet halfway through. Transfer baking sheets to wire rack to cool.
  • Prepare the filling:
  • In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together margarine and shortening. Add powdered sugar 1/2 cup at a time until well combined. Beat in vanilla and soy milk. When cookies have fully cooled, slather the flat side of a cookie with frosting. Top with another cookie and push down slightly.

Notes

Adapted from Mountain Rose Herbs blog

Different Fats in Vegan Baking

Fats in Baking

Image courtesy of Slice of Chic at flickr.com

When I started to bake vegan, I thought the easiest substituting would be for butter. Earth Balance makes a vegan margarine and it seemed to be an easy swap. It looked like butter and acted like butter until I tried to bake brownies with melted margarine and made a chocolate blob. Then I realized that all fats are not butter.

Butter adds not only flavor to baked goods, but also texture. “Liquid oils can sometimes work in place of solid fats, though your end product might be a bit oiler. Coconut oil is solid at room temperature, though a bit more solid than butter or shortening, so you might not get that flaky texture. … (And there’s) naturally fatty ingredients like avocados and nut butters.” I discovered recipes for brownies made with nut butters, and now I know that they can be the fat source.

After the brownie debacle, I searched for tricks with substituting fats. King Arthur Flour reports that “if you’re looking for a dairy-free fat substitute … choose a fat that most resembles the one used in the original recipe. For example, a recipe that calls for butter would be best made with a vegan butter substitute. For a recipe made with vegetable oil, you could use coconut oil in its place.” They tested this theory in a cookie recipe. Their favorite fat was butter, but I think that might be because it is considered the norm. Their next choice was vegan butter. They concluded that “since vegan butter was … soft at room temperature, we were able to easily beat the fat and sugar together (to help) keep the cookies light. The dough … was a little soft (and) when scooped onto the baking sheet, the cookies didn’t hold their shape. … These were a bit cakier and less chewy (but) the edges were crisp and golden brown, while the centers remained chewy and soft.”

So I learned how to make a great cookie, but was still stumped on what went wrong with my brownies. I got a hint on Earth Balance’s website. They recommend: “To achieve a rich, spongy texture in cakes and quick breads, don’t skimp on the creaming step. Beat sugars with Buttery Sticks … just as you would butter, until the sugar aerates the fats and creates a fluffy batter that will give loft.”

Here was part of my problem – my brownie recipe called for melted butter so I could not beat it with the sugar until creamy. I think when that was combined with the fact that the recipe had no leavener, then I was stuck with brownies with no lift at all.

Although there are several choices for fat substitutes, they are not created equal. If you can cream the butter substitute with sugar to aerate it you will get the best results in recipes calling for butter. Or you can experiment with other fats. Or you can follow one of my recipes and leave the heavy lifting up to me.