Vegan baking is my new obsession!
I absolutely love the time that I spend looking up recipes, picking the one I want to try, getting the ingredients, and putting it all together.
When I was younger, I baked a bit, but it never really interested me in the same way.
In the last few years, I’ve been watching The Great Canadian Baking Show and at one point I thought. “I want to try that!”
Vegan baking seems to be as accessible as non-vegan baking with all the recipes, YouTube videos, blog posts, and books dedicated to every vegan topic you can imagine.
There is a whole book just about aquafaba (the liquid found in cans of chickpeas used in place of egg whites mostly.)
Plus all the vegan baking products that make it all possible: butter, milk, egg replacers, food colouring…
Here are my top vegan baking recipes I have tried and loved.
I am very excited to share these with you.
Sourdough Bread
I’ve tried sourdough in the past with no research and possibly even no recipe. I was super cocky for knowing nothing!
When I tried this time, I chose a popular Instagram account and followed their sourdough story.
I was happy with the results because it didn’t totally fail, but as I kept making the loaves, there were problems I wanted to see if I could fix:
- low rise
- low flavor
So I went looking for a new recipe.
It took a few tries, but I came across the one I am still using today.
It is from the website The Perfect Loaf (https://www.theperfectloaf.com/)
Not surprisingly, it is called Beginner’s Sourdough Bread! (https://www.theperfectloaf.com/beginners-sourdough-bread/#tasty-recipes-10711-jump-target)
This post gives all the information you need to successfully bake your first loaves of sourdough. It is so detailed.
Give this one a try if you are craving some sourdough and you don’t really understand the process.
Chai-Spiced Scones
This was one of the first baking recipes I tried. I didn’t want to jump into the deep end.
These are flaky and rich and can easily be made gluten-free.
I use loose chai tea for the flavoring because it was a lot cheaper than buying the spices separately.
One note: when you forget the applesauce, these come out dry and disappointing. I found this out when baking these for friends.
My Darling Vegan is the site (https://www.mydarlingvegan.com/)
This is the recipe post (https://www.mydarlingvegan.com/chai-spiced-scones-with-cinnamon-glaze/#wprm-recipe-container-17943)
Lemon Almond Biscotti
My wife is not too much of a sweets person, so when I can bake her something and she likes it, it is a double win!
She loved this bake.
I made a simple lemon and almond biscotti.
It is by The Plant-Based School (https://theplantbasedschool.com/) and the recipe post is Italian Biscotti Recipe (https://theplantbasedschool.com/almond-biscotti/)
This website looks like it has a lot of cool Italian recipes for us vegans!
Mini Pavlova Nests
This one took a bit of trying.
Every time the meringue would turn out perfect, but the baking time was way off.
I baked 2 or 3 batches until they were dry and solid – they are supposed to be light and chewy.
The recipe I am sharing here is the one that finally worked for me.
It is from The Berry Baker (https://berrybaker.com/)
The recipe is called Vegan Mini Berry Pavlovas (https://berrybaker.com/vegan-berry-mini-pavlovas/#recipe)
Now you finally have a use for that aquafaba!
English Muffins
I saw the bakers on The Great British Baking Show make these, and I was so excited because I didn’t realize it could be so easy to make them successfully.
They turned out light and fluffy, although I wish they had more of the famous nooks and crannies!
These are so cool because they cook on the stove, not the oven. I found that really fun.
Go to The Conscious Plant Kitchen (https://www.theconsciousplantkitchen.com/) to find these.
Vegan English Muffins (https://www.theconsciousplantkitchen.com/vegan-english-muffins/)
Croissants
Mmmmm, croissants!
I wanted to try these because I really wanted to try laminating the dough.
This process looked complicated and oh so rewarding if it worked out.
I found a great recipe and it worked on the first try – that’s not me bragging. That is me saying the recipe is perfect.
The recipe I used was on Sarah’s Vegan Kitchen (https://sarahsvegankitchen.com/)
Croissants (https://sarahsvegankitchen.com/recipes/vegan-croissants/#tasty-recipes-4727-jump-target)
Final Thoughts
I have found that anything you want to bake that isn’t already vegan can be found easily through a quick search with the word vegan in front.
My go-to for vegan baking recipes is Pinterest because it is so easy to search for recipes AND you can easily save the links to your boards so you can find them easily when you need them.
Being vegan can be as hard or as easy as you want to make it.
I always thought I couldn’t bake because there were too many substitutions to make to a non-vegan recipe.
Thankfully there are so many people out there creating delicious vegan recipes for us to enjoy.
And I have to say, I am enjoying them hard!!
Happy baking!
Yours in plant love,
Carly
