Free Inquiry Week One: Into the Realm of Vegan Baking

Week 1 of my journey into vegan baking!

For my inquiry project, I have decided to take on exploring the world of vegan baking! As you may have read in my “About Me” section, I love to cook, but I also mentioned that I don’t love finnicky recipes. I think this comes from having to be quite meticulous in many aspects of my life, specifically work and school, so I enjoy having an activity that doesn’t require that same attention to detail. With that being said, I have always wanted to become better at baking. I grew up surrounded by amazing bakers which meant that I was spoiled by having many amazing home-made baked goods. Our home never had store bought or boxed cakes, muffins, cookies etc. everything was always made from scratch or bought from a local bakery. Because of my appreciation for home-made goods, I want to become better at baking. Previously, whenever I would bake, I would often cut corners and/or rush the process – crucial NOT to do when baking. I think this journey of exploring baking more will also help me practice greater patience.

Now, you’re probably wondering why I specified ‘vegan’ baking! In thinking about this project, I wanted to challenge myself a bit more. Since I do have a fair amount of experience in the kitchen, I didn’t think that just pursuing baking would really give me the learning experience that I was hoping to get out of this project. In vegan baking there are many typical ingredients that aren’t included (ex. eggs!) and so one has to understand alternatives to these staples and how to use them. Because of this, I thought that exploring the world of vegan baking would be a greater challenge, as well as a fun learning opportunity. As an added bonus, I have more and more family and friends who are dairy free and so I thought that knowing more vegan recipes would come in very beneficial whenever hosting them!

A few questions that I am wondering about:

• Can you make baking vegan without compromising the quality?
• How do the ingredients used differ from non-vegan baking and how does this affect the process?

Now for my process – I have decided to use the “Oh She Glows Every Day” cookbook by Angela Liddon. This is a vegan cookbook that I have had for a few years and love, but have never made anything from the baking section. I have gone through the book and have selected recipes which will give me variety in my endeavours. My goal starting next week is to bake a new recipe a week, with the recipes progressively getting harder. While there is no ‘level’ on the recipe, I have taken those that I am interested in and ranked them from easiest to hardest based on my personal experience level.

These are the following recipes, in order, that I hope to bake through:

1. Secret Ingredient Chocolate Pudding
2. Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies
3. Chocolate Almond Espresso Cookies
4. Triple Almond Thumbprint Cookies
5. The Ultimate Flourless Brownies
6. Mile High Black and White Freezer Fudge
7. Highrise Pumpkin Cupcakes with Spiced Buttercream Frosting
8. Peanut Butter Lovers Chocolate Tart
9. Meyer Lemon Cheesecake with Strawberry Vanilla Compote

While I won’t be able to share the recipes from the book with you, I will share some photos and reflections of my experiences and learning! And, if you would like to follow along, or if any of the recipes seem appealing to you once I have shared with you my experiences, then you can always purchase the book here. Angela Liddon also has a blog with many great free recipes if you’re interested in other vegan recipes too!

Through my research into vegan baking thus far, and specifically looking at the recipes that I have chosen to make, I have realized that there are some pretty crucial pantry staples for vegan baking that differ quite significantly from those in non-vegan baking. So, for my first step into the realm of vegan baking I will be sharing with you some pantry staples that may help you on this journey too!

Pantry Staples

• Maple Syrup
  • This seems to be used much more than granulated sugar
• Nuts and Nut butters
  • Almonds, Cashews, Peanuts
• Flax
  • This is a staple for vegan baking as an alternative for eggs! I learnt how to make a flax egg and you can too – check out the short video I created below:
• Coconut Oil
• Shredded Coconut
• Oats
• Dates
  • Another staple sweetener alternative

This is a short list that was very much based on the recipes I have decided to create. If you are looking to do a lot of vegan baking and cooking though, I found a great video which goes over vegan pantry staples – you can check it out here.

Just being in the beginnings of this journey, I have only discovered a few blogs to share with you (listed below) but I will continue to update this list as I explore more vegan baking & cooking resources!

1. Minimalist Baker
2. Hot for Food
3. Deliciously Ella 

I am looking forward to this new learning journey, and will be back next week to share the experience of baking my first recipe – Secret Ingredient Chocolate Pudding!

Bye for now,

Jaime

Photo by Taylor Kiser on Unsplash