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!

 

Confused by Labels -- Join the Crowd!

Many people eat animals and animal by-products that are labeled “free-range,” “free-roaming,” and “cage-free” because they want to support  “humane” animal welfare practices.   After all, what do you envision when you see an idyllic photo and the words  “cage-free” on an egg carton?  Or a pristine photo of a meadow and “free-roaming” on a package of chicken breasts?   And this "myth" is exactly what animal agricultural industries pay to perpetuate. 

Food labels are misleading and this is especially true in the case of animals and animal by-products designated for human consumption.  “Cage-free,” is one of the most deceptive labels.  In fact, the designation means very little from an animal welfare perspective.  A “cage-free” label means only that egg laying hens were not housed in battery cages.  While this may sound humane, consider what the “cage-free” designation  does NOT mean. 

• “Cage-free” labels do not mean that egg laying hens have freedom of movement.  In fact, the mobility of “cage-free” hens is usually extremely restricted due to severe overcrowding. Cage-free hens are typically  housed by the thousands in warehouse style buildings with only a 12 square inch space.  See FarmSanctuary.org

• “Cage-free” labels do not mean that hens were not debeaked – The overwhelming majority are sadly subjected to this cruel practice.  (For an explanation of debeaking, see United Poultry Concerns).

• “Cage-free” labels do not mean that egg-laying hens have access to any outdoor space.

• “Cage-free” labels do not mean that “housing” conditions are sanitary.

• “Cage-free” labels do not mean that the company who owns the chickens does not engage in cruel culling practices.(1)

• “Cage- free” labels do not mean that a egg-laying hen was not factory farmed.    

Labels such as “free-roaming” and “free-range” are also confusing and misleading.   These designations are used to label birds we eat, as opposed to egg laying hens or other animals.  Used in a context other than birds killed for human consumption, the “free-range” designation is meaningless.  However, even in its intended context,  “free-roaming” and “free-range” labels provide absolutely no assurance that a chicken was humanely treated.  

“Free-roaming” or “free-range” mean only that some access to an outdoor space was provided.  Again, while this may sound “humane,” the designations are misleading because there are no standards for: 

• length of time a bird is actually outside (if ever);

• size and nature of the outdoor space provided;

• maximum number of birds that can be crammed into the outdoor space

So, a factory farmed chicken who lived in a windowless warehouse enclosure with tens of thousands of other birds can be labeled “free-range” or “free-roaming” on the sole basis that some access to an outdoor space was provided.  Other compassionate and humane sounding labels that are totally meaningless to how an animal actually lived are “natural,” pasture-raised” and “enriched.”  Almost 99% of the animals we eat today are factory farmed.  We support factory farming virtually every time we eat animals and their by-products.  This is true even if the package photo, label or “designation” try to convince us otherwise.    


Kris Giovanini,

"Free-Roaming" Chickens

(1) “Culling” is the “disposal” (killing) of  live male chicks (since they can’t lay eggs and therefore, are not profitable to the company who owns them).  The most common methods of culling chicks are throwing them into grinding machines and suffocation.    

Light My Fire

Just in time for summer, we have a guest blog from long-time vegan Mark Reinhardt.  
Read on to find out how he enjoys his vegan barbeque!

It’s summertime. The time we all put on our Ray Ban Wayfarers and head for the surf (or pool in my case). Time for cruising up to the drive-in with Beach Boys music blaring from the radio. Time to engage in that great American warm weather tradition—the vegetarian barbecue.

Okay, so maybe barbecuing isn’t the thing most people think of in vegetarian summer activities. It does seem odd that health conscious vegetarians would ever want to coat their food with a possibly carcinogenic (and definitely not healthy) layer of soot.

Nevertheless, we vegetarians do barbecue, and I think it’s probably one of those things we do better than meat eaters. Think about it. Our barbecued meals have to be more creative than meat eaters’, and they never suffer from the “Gee, Dad, how come this chicken’s black on the outside and raw on the inside?” syndrome.

When I say “we vegetarians” do a better barbecue than meat-eaters, I’m of course not referring to myself. Actually I’m lousy at it because I have one failing that severely hampers my barbecue ability—I can’t light a fire.

Oh, I’ve tried. I’ve doused the charcoal with enough lighter fluid to have our patio listed by the EPA as a major hydrocarbon polluter.  And I’ve tried that expensive kind of charcoal you’re supposed to be able to light with a match, too. I couldn’t light it with a blowtorch. My wife Susan thinks it’s because I’m a Pisces. Water signs can never light fires, she says.

We barbecued the other night. I tried an electric fire starter I found at a garage sale. You’re supposed to be able to plug the thing in and have a hot bed of coals in ten minutes. After about an hour my grill seemed to be warm and, even though I’d used enough power to cause a brownout in a three-county area, I was proud of myself.

I put the food on and sat back, awaiting those wonderful carcinogenic smells of barbequing food. About two hours later (I think it was almost dark) Susan began inquiring as to when we might eat. I checked the grill.

“Looks like this baby’s done,” I said, holding up a limp slice of onion. “Maybe we should keep it warm inside while everything else finishes up out here.”

She looked sadly down at the grill and tried to feel if there was any warmth at all coming out of coals. Her stomach growled. I knew what she was thinking—maybe we should put it all in the oven.

“Today we barbecue,” she said, growing suddenly philosophical. “Tomorrow we microwave.”

That reminded me of the sayings of Confuscious, which I try to memorize for appropriate moments like this. “Many man bite,” I responded, “but fu-man-chu.”

My friends Fred and Blake (neither of whom are vegetarian) have the right idea about barbequing. Fred gave up on charcoal a while back and bought a gas grill.

“But how do you get that good carcinogenic barbecue flavor?” I asked him.

“Ah,” he said, his eyes lighting up. “Soaked wood chips tossed in on the burner.”

The true modern solution to barbequing, I guess.

I hope more vegetarians will take up barbequing, and that one day we can dispel its image as an activity dominated by meat-eaters. I have a vision of the suburban backyard of the future. A bunch of kids are playing on the swing set and some women are setting out potato salad and iced tea on the picnic table. Three paunchy, middle-aged men stand with utensils in their hands, staring blankly into a smoking grill.

“How do you fix your tofu, Ralph?” one asks. “Mine always comes out dry.”

What to Cook

Almost anything barbecues well if you first brush it liberally with olive oil. My favorites are:
• leeks
• corn
• eggplant

Also try chunks of potatoes (cook inside until almost done) and onions. When brown, put in a bowl with more olive oil, dill weed, dill seed, pepper, and minced garlic.

Serve hot. Wonderful!

For the traditionalist, all kinds of plant hamburgers and hot dogs barbecue well.

Even better is tempeh. Slice it thin and use plenty of good barbecue sauce. (Look for molasses instead of sugar on the label.)

Until next time, Mark Reinhardt