Ask a Vegan Baker

Hi JME!

We think alike! I've made this quest to be my life's work. The lack of vegan baking food science information is precisely why I started Veganbaking.net. Traditional baking has a 200 year start and it's time to catch up! I too didn't feel like getting into debt at culinary school just to learn the ins and outs of food science. And I wasn't interested in paying money to have a natural foods culinary school tell me that agave syrup is healthier than table sugar. The great thing about the information age we're now in is that it's never been easier to affordably marinade your brain in food science-rich resources- as long as you know where to look and you have endless time

I haven't found many online resources that go into enough detail enough to thoroughly learn the ins and outs of food science. Perhaps this is because website formats are usually shorter to deal more appropriately with internet-related information overload. I've found that books (and some of the blogs I list below) have been the best way for me to really dive into food science and really get to know it well. I usually spend large amounts of time in the kitchen trying to apply something I've learned so I can make some crazy thing that usually fails. But the failures are where I learn the most.

I recommend buying ebooks and reading them on your smartphone. This will allow you to have the maximum amount of time to absorb as much information as possible. Oh and forget about most of your other hobbies- I have Ok not really but hey, it is free education and time is what you pay.

Below are some books that have changed the way I look at vegan baking food science. None of them are vegan specific, but as soon as you understand the food science, you'll be able to apply it to vegan baking easily based on your vegan baking experience. I used to think it wasn't important to know the science behind how an egg coagulates, how milk solids brown and the ratios of fat to water in butter so I'd skip over those resources. Boy was I wrong. If you're going to be breaking down traditional elements of food and building them back up into vegan recipe building blocks it's extremely essential to know how they work. My Meringue, Vegan Butter and Vegan Shortening recipes are examples of this. Why are there no vegan baking food science books below? Because no one's written about it yet! But I intend to change that soon. Here are the books I recommend. There are probably at least a dozen more but there's only so much time in the world.

On Food and Cooking by Harold McGee
This is the Bible of food science. If you were to ask a chef what book they recommend over any other book, it would be this one. Mr. McGee was a couple decades ahead of his time. Anything this guy touches is gold. I recommend reading everything he writes, including his NY Times column and his website (below).

How Baking Works
Understanding Baking
These books lay down really essential fundamentals. I'll end up reading them again someday just to keep my mind fresh.

Ideas in Food
Cooking for Geeks
These books explore innovative ingredients and methods that show you what's possible in the food world. Like working with hydrocolloids for example.

Here are some blogs that have helped me improve my food knowledge I don't have much time to read blogs but here are the ones that I try to read as much as possible so far.
cookingissues.com
curiouscook.com
blog.ideasinfood.com
blog.khymos.org

To this is what I've been using for the last several years to hone my knowledge. Let me know if you find any other cool resources and good luck!