Ask a Vegan Baker

The one dessert I miss most since becoming vegan is a lemon bar. I can't seem to find a good vegan recipe for one. They all seem to be too healthy or the filling is translucent and jelly like. I'm looking for one that is not gluten free and has a creamy tart lemon filling like a traditional lemon bar. If anyone has a good recipe, please share....

I made a single layer vegan chocolate cake from a recipe that calls for 4 8 inch layers. Measurements are metric, so it is easy to just divide everything by 4 to get measurements for one layer. My problem, though, is with greasiness on the bottom of the cake and hardened crust on top and sides. I had to do a fair bit of cutting away in order to make the cake more edible. First time I made the cake, I greased the pan just with oil, no flour, and I think I overdid it. Second cake, I went back to my tried and true method of greasing with shortening and flour. I watched the time very carefully, too, to make sure cake didn't over bake. Not nearly as greasy as first cake, but still, some hardened crust and greasiness on bottom of cake. Here is the recipe for 4 8 inch layers: 640 grams ap flour 688 grams caster sugar 160 grams cocoa powder 3 tsps baking soda 2 tsps baking powder 1 litre coconut or almond milk 600 ml canola oil 6 tsps apple cider vinegar 2 cups frozen raspber...

The sugar in my sugar cookies don't dissolve so the cookies turn out grainy. I creamed the vegan butter and sugar together for a long time and the dough is grainy as well. I don't really know what to do about it. FYI- they are for regular sugar cookies (not the cut out kind). Could it be that I use organic sugar which is more coarse than refined white sugar? Here's the recipe: 1 Tbsp ground flax + 3 Tbsp water 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour 1 tsp baking soda 1/2 tsp salt 1/4 cup Earth Balance butter 1/4 cup vegetable shortening 3/4 cup white granulated sugar 1 tsp vanilla extract - I combine the ground flax and water and let it rest for 10 minutes. In the meantime, I would cream the butter and shortening together for about 3 minutes, then added the sugar and creamed that together for a very long time, then added the flax mixture and vanilla until incorporated, then stir in the dry ingredients. The dough turned out grainy with sugar. How could I fix this?...

Hello, I just found your site and I'm really happy to. I was looking for a recipe for vegan choux pastry and anyhow I ended up reading the articles about egg replacement and I was quite surprised not to find aquafaba there... The article on flax seed was so instructive and scientific I would love to read something like that on aquafaba. I'm already using it, and it's the most fabulous substitute I ever found, but I know it is also failing in some aspect of egg replacement and I would love to know why and what exactly to expect from it... Thanks a lot already for what is available on your site, but I think it lacks this new revolutionary egg substitute... Bye!...

I have been trying to find a good substitute for cream cheese in this dough recipe: http://www.solofoods.com/recipes/european-kolacky I have substituted butter with Earth Balance, egg yolk with egg replacer and cream cheese with store bought vegan cream cheese. Disaster! Totally flat pastry once baked, no rise at all. The cream cheese in the recipe makes the dough tender and puffy. So I'm not sure what to try to achieve similar results. Thanks for your help!...

I'm looking to do some vegan Pasteis de Nata. I understand this will be a difficult undertaking considering how heavily they rely on eggs and cream, but if I can somehow find a way, my life will be complete. Any ideas for the custard part? Thanks!...

Let me begin by saying I've used the coconut-oil-milk butter for years, and love it to pieces! Thanks to all that put effort into its development. Since this is a site where the responses to questions is more insightful, scientific and serious, I am bringing my quandary to you. For years, I have experienced an odd problem which I can't seem to resolve. Today was the last straw - I NEED HELP! I make my own "cheese" and "mayo" by using a base of homemade soy milk and canola oil. Recently, I began adding xanthan gum to aid long term stability. When the combo works, it comes out thick and creamy and stays that way for a week or more in refrigerator. THE PROBLEM: I begin by weighing out the soy milk (115g), then slowly pour in oil (275-300g oil) while stick blending until mixture thickens. I add other ingredients such as salt, nutritional yeast, xanthan gum, etc sometimes at the beginning as I measure the milk, or sometimes at the end after the base ...

Hello. I need a vanilla vegan cake recipe that I can triple for a 12" round cake pan. I just made one with a different recipe than the one on veganbaking.net and it's awful. Very sticky, can't cut it into layers and buttercream won't stick to it. Any suggestion would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!...

As someone with a began baking company in the making, I am trying to get as much information I can from this amazing place. So here I go. I have currently three types of cakes for sale, chocolate-coconut, chocolate-orange, vanilla and passionfruit-banana. The coconut one, I use coconut milk in the recipe. It is by far the one with the best texture. It is super spongy and soft and feels like a kiss from the Angels, and not just because I make them. But the others, I use water as the binding liquid. Mainly because it worked well and it was inexpensive to start off. These have great taste, but they aren't as fluffy as the coconut one. So I was wondering, is it a good idea to replace the water in these with almond of coconut milk? Will that be what makes the difference in the textures? If so, why? Or why not? Thanks a million!...

My sugar cookie dough is too moist. When I use a cookie cutter, the dough won't stay firmed and if I try lifting it with a spatula, it mushes and or falls/pulls apart. I followed this recipe exactly, except I did not flour the mat I rolled the dough onto. Any suggestions how to fix this? I re wrapped the dough and it is back in the fridge. ...

I am an amateur baker and only bake for friends and family. I have just been asked to make a golden wedding cake suitable for vegans. Although my husband is vegan, he doesn't tend to eat cake, so I really haven't made that many! I've been looking online for cake recipes, and there are some good options on this site, but I can't get my head round what to cover the cake with, apart from vegan frosting. Does a vegan version of fondant exist (what would you replace the egg white with?) or can a chocolate ganache be adapted? I was also going to make sugarpaste roses, but am now stumped! I want the cake to still look special. Can anyone give me some inspiration?! Thanks...

Can you tell me what I can substitute for brown rice syrup? Thanks...

I am attempting a persimmon quick bread recipe, and I'm having trouble getting the top to dome. I'm fairly new to vegan baking, so I wonder if I'm missing something important. I've done 3 trials of this recipe, changing one variable each time. I started off using just baking soda & vinegar for leavening, then switched to a combination of baking powder & baking soda/vinegar, which made the bread much less dense and rise a bit higher. Then for the third trial I increaseed the flour amount from 1.5 cups to 1.75 cups. The batter was quite thick before going into the oven, and after baking I think it was my tallest loaf yet, but I'm still not getting a nice rounded top. Any suggestions? Here is my ingredients list for the most recent trial: 1¾ cups (210 grams) all-purpose flour 2 teaspoons baking powder ½ teaspoon baking soda 1 teaspoon cinnamon ½ teaspoon ground ginger ¼ teaspoon cardamom ½ teaspoon kosher salt ¾ cup (90 grams) toasted hazelnuts, roughly chopped 1 cup (240 grams...

For years I've made persimmon cookies and bread at Christmas. After going plant-based a couple of years ago I haven't made any because I don't know what would be the best thing to use to substitute for the one egg that is called for. Any suggestions? Thanks so much, Marcia PS I sure do miss eating and sharing them with friends!...

I am not sure this is the exact correct place to ask this question. I am a home baker that sells at farmer's markets making custom baked goods. A customer wants me to make him a gluten-free sugar free cheesecake. He gave me a recipe that uses macadamia and walnuts, dates and coconut for the base. The dates are too high in sugar for him so he wants to substitute it with something else. I saw the article using flax for an egg re-placer, and wondered if I could use it to help bind this base somehow. He suggested sugar free jello, or plain gelatin. I want to use real whole food if I can. The recipe is 1 cup macadamia nuts, 1/2 c. walnuts, 1/2 cup pitted dates, and 1/4 cup shredded coconut. Any ideas? I may be able to use a small amount of fruit added to this for taste but it would have to be minimal, maybe a tablespoon. Thanks for any help you guys may have, especially if you have ever made something like this....

Hello there, I'm new to this website and I'd like to learn more about baking my own loaves of bread. I have a very fixable problem when I bake my own bread at home. The problem is that each time I bake a new loaf of say sandwich bread the loaf is too tiny. The bread is often too hard on its crust. Often I find the taste of the bread is too strong after being left out too long. I want to maximize the time it takes to make such a simple bread by making a proofer. I find bread baking to be very frustrating when making a recipe by following it letter to letter. My mom thinks I need to leave a light on in the oven to let it rise. I'm thinking I need to make a proofer at home using professional advice....

Could any one please explaine to me how to properly use agar.. for creams etc'.....

Hi, There are a couple of really important birthdays coming up this week for which I'd love to make Junko/Kawaii/Deco roll cakes. Nearly any image you can image is possible! Fish, Manga characters, detailed roses, messages in script, argyle, bears, Winnie the pooh, minions, even simplified-line-drawing portraits!...it's probably the most customize-able cake out there! Here are a few pics for examples (they really are * beautiful! *): Title, Title The bake in a flash--maybe 7 to 11 minutes & all you have to do when they come out of the oven is to roll them up to cool, unroll + fill w/ icing or ice cream or mouse (endless opportunities!) The *perfect* summertime cake and you'll blow everybody's minds I've been a strict vegetarian for over 33 years and just developed a severe egg allergy (so I guess I'm well underway to going vegan, lol, but for the time I'm still eating/drinking some dairy.) The recipe's tricky b/c it requires eggs beaten to soft peaks, esp. for the d...

Hello! I am veganizing a dear family recipe of brownies. The only trouble I have substituting, is the eggs. Last time I used a starch-based egg replacer, but the result was separated margarine. I need something to use as a binder in my brownie, so that the liquid won't separate from the rest of the brownie. Any ideas? I'm thinking maybe baking soda and vinegar, but I don't know....

I've made cupcakes from a cake recipe by just decreasing oven time. Does the same essentially work the other way or does it depend on the cake? Also, are cupcake and cake recipes with vinegar generally fluffy than only baking/soda powder recipes? Thanks!!...