Cookie Dough, Cake Batter, Muffins & More!

The following is from guest blogger Amanda Meier of The Tofu Files.

Cookie Dough, Cake Batter, Muffins & More

The most important thing you should know about vegan baking is that you can eat as much raw cookie dough and cake batter as you want!  
No worrying about raw eggs and salmonella!

Okay okay, so you probably don’t want to eat all the batter or dough because then you won’t actually have any baked goods to eat. And yeah, vegan baking is also great because it reduces consumption of eggs and dairy. Veggie people deserve cruelty free cakes and cookies and muffins and brownies too! 

I’ve been baking vegan for several years now and there is one thing non-veg people always ask me when they try my delicious treats (because they really are delicious!): “What do you use instead of eggs?”

C’mon, you don’t need eggs to bake! There are plenty of ways to replace eggs in baked goods. My two favorite substitutes for vegan baking are non-dairy yogurt or chia seeds.

Non-Dairy Yogurt

For cakes, loafs, muffins, and brownies the best substitute I’ve found is non-dairy yogurt. I tend to use plain soy yogurt, but almond and coconut based yogurts are fine if that’s what you have (I just prefer the texture and flavor of plain soy yogurt over almond and coconut).  For recipes that call for 1-3 eggs, you can substitute a full ¼ cup of yogurt for 1 egg. Don’t use this substitute if your recipe calls for more than 3 eggs – that much yogurt will just make your cake gooey and gross.

Chia Seeds

I substitute chia seeds for eggs in muffins, cookies, cupcakes, and breads (it’s awesome in cornbread).
For every 1 egg, mix 1 tablespoon chia seeds with 3 tbsp. water and let sit for 5-10 minutes until thick and goopy. Some people prefer to grind their chia seeds beforehand, so that they’re invisible in the final product, but I prefer to leave them whole because I like the look and texture (kind of like poppy seeds).

So, now are we ready to do some vegan baking? Here are a couple of my favorite recipes:

Bran Muffins

Espresso Dark Chocolate Loaf

Amanda in her kitchen!