The Complete Idiot's Guide to Vegan Baking - Donna Diegel [4]
Don’t despair! You don’t have to kiss all your beloved baked goods good-bye. You’ll eventually adapt and learn how to veganize your favorite recipes with plant-based ingredients and substitutions that will imitate and transform just about anything you set your heart on.
If you keep in mind that some vegan baked goods might look and taste a little different from what you’ve been used to eating, you’re sure to enjoy experimenting with the recipes in this book. If you’ve been a vegan forever, the only difference you’ll notice is that wow! these baked goods are fantastic!
Tricks of the Trade
Organization and preparation are nine-tenths of a recipe, and your key to vegan baking success, so the first steps to becoming a successful vegan baker are to organize and stock your kitchen. Besides having a recipe totally flop on you, there’s nothing more discouraging than to get halfway through the recipe, only to find you’re missing a few key ingredients. This tragedy can be avoided by organizing yourself, your recipes, your kitchen, and your pantry.
Organizing your kitchen can be as simple as keeping all your baking ingredients in one designated place. This is especially important if not everyone in the family is eating vegan. Because most of your vegan ingredients will replace dairy products and eggs, this may be easier than you think.
BAKERʹS BONUS
When you’re setting up your vegan kitchen, be sure to label everything, especially if you transfer the ingredients from one package to another. Baking soda looks an awful lot like baking powder and arrowroot. If you’re in a hurry, salt can look amazingly like sugar. Yuck!
Organize your recipes in a separate folder or recipe box, or keep all your vegan and healthful cookbooks in the same area near the kitchen. Refer to them often in the beginning of your vegan baking adventure. Read the recipe a few times, and go shopping if necessary, for all the ingredients you need. Assemble all ingredients on the counter before you turn on the oven.
Check the recipe for any special instructions. It may call for certain ingredients to be chilled or softened at room temperature beforehand, which would alter your timing. Check the recipe for any small appliances you may need, too. The recipe may call for a small hand blender, a grinder, or perhaps a food processor. Check the pan size needed, and make adjustments if your pantry is missing a special springform pan for a particular cheesecake recipe. You’ll want to have everything at the ready.
Okay, you’re ready to crank up the oven and start baking. Be sure your oven is keeping the correct temperature. Many household ovens can be off by 25°F to 50°F, which would totally spoil what you’re baking. Get a small oven thermometer, and check the temperature every now and then. Adjust the temperature as necessary.
Recipes generally go in order of ingredients added, which basically means start at the top and methodically work your way down, taking special note if any extra steps are indicated in the recipe. Sometimes, as in yeast breads, multiple steps must be accomplished in order to advance to the next step.
When hot pans of muffins are coming out of the oven, you need to have somewhere to put them—and fast. Be sure to have good, thick oven mitts or potholders next to the oven. Have a heat-proof counter or workspace ready and waiting with cooling racks or hot pads. Proper cooling is essential to some baked goods. Taking the cheesecake out of the pan too early may result in a California-size fissure down the middle of your prized dessert.
And last but not least,