Table of Contents
To Dad, for teaching me to want more, follow my heart and make it happen and To Jim, fabulous husband and best friend: You doin it right.
PREFACE
I was raised in an unconventional home, mostly around my grandparents. My mothers ideas of cooking and baking ended somewhere between the microwave door and premade cookie dough. But my grandmotherswow, could they bake! I quickly became a baking addict. I didnt wait up on Christmas Eve to sneak a peek at Santa; I waited until the adults went to bed to raid my grandmothers Christmas cookie reserves. Providing delicious food, in the good times and the bad, was how my grandmothers showed their love. Even when times are tough, it doesnt require much to whip together some cookies or a cake, and the joy that it can bring is priceless.
Baking was something I rarely had the chance to do in my parents house growing up, so it was reserved for special occasions at my aunts house or trips to see my grandmothers. Once I moved into my own place, my kitchen was never clean again and Im all the fatter, I mean, better for it! My favorite thing to provide my family and friends is a warm meal and a row of desserts.
When I became vegan, I was driven by the ethics of it, and I went into it with the assumption that the flavors I had grown to love were going to disappear and life would be bland, especially when it came to baking. My mind was filled with visions of oat bran and whole-wheat flour, unappetizing brown blobs that no one would be eager to eat. I couldnt have been more wrong! My husband, Jim, and I always talk about how the food we eat as vegans is much more flavorful and satisfying than the food we ate when we were still courting cows milk and eggs.
Vegan baking was the first thing I jumped into when we made the change, and I was delighted to find that everything I enjoyed in my egg-eating days was still delicious and, in many cases, even better! Soon, I was in baking overdrive, concocting new creations and adapting old favorites. As cakes, cookies and breads started taking over our house, Jim suggested that I write a book. That book, The Damn Tasty Vegan Baking Guide, came out in May of 2007. A year and half later I was invited to compile a new book, which would include my previous recipes, along with a complete update. This expanded the book to over twice the size! The challenge of creating a whole new batch of recipes got the creative juices flowing and soon our house once again turned into a patisserie.
Baking is magical and mysterious. You mix up some basic ingredients, create a moist, sticky substance and it turns into a treat that could pacify the worlds biggest cranky pants. Once it is in the oven, its out of bounds, which can prove scary to some people, especially those who fancy cooking. My primary goal with this book (aside from providing vegan treats that taste great!) is to offer tips and tricks that can shed light on some new methods, to demystify how baking works and to help inspire you to pick up a spatula and make a wowzer of a cake. My other objective is to make this book as approachable as possible. Whether you are a first-time baker or a seasoned flour-slinger, you will find recipes to fit your skill level. Dont be afraid to try something challenging, just be sure to read all of the instructions before starting so there are no surprises. I also made a point to make the ingredients as easy to come by as possible. There are a lot of exotic ingredients that can be fun to bake with, but they arent necessary. You dont need to run to two co-ops and an Asian grocery store to gather the ingredients for a pie. I tried to keep the ingredients as big-box-grocer-friendly as possible to make your baking prep easy. In addition to this book, there is a whole website devoted to my recipes, complete with pictures of the goodies, tutorials, tips and my blog. Please stop by www.nomnomnomblog.com and check it out!
Baking is my gift to my family. I hope you enjoy these recipes enough to give them to your loved ones, as well. From picky eaters to food snobs, everyone will appreciate these recipes and theyll never know its vegan!
Happy Baking,
Kris
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This book was delightful to make and there are many people who had a hand in it. Thank you to my amazing best friend and partner in crime, Jim, for all your taste-testing, grocery store runs and entertainment. Thank you to all of the friends who recipe-tested, recipe-tasted and otherwise put up with me: Amy, Sandy and Leslie, you are all wonderful. Thank you to my wonderful grandmothers for instilling in me such a passion for baking that a day doesnt go by where I dont dream of my next pastry. Thank you, of course, to my family for always being there. Thank you to all of my wonderful blog readers for your support and community. Thank you to the kind folks at Ulysses Press for having such good taste in books. Last, but certainly not least, thank you to my father, Randy, for always believing in me, encouraging my dreams no matter how far-fetched they seemed and for teaching me what a real work ethic is. I wish you could see this.
VEGAN BAKING: AN INTRODUCTION
Vegan baking means using no animal products. No eggs, no milk or cream, no butter and, for some people, no honey. This also means products that contain these things are out, like commercially made frosting or Cool Whip.
Vegan baking may seem impossible, especially if you are someone who has been subjected to some awful vegan baked goods. But its not veganism that makes them bad. Think of how many conventional baked goods you have had that were lackluster or downright gross. Dry, crumbly cakes, hard cookies, soggy piesweve all eaten them. And lets be honest...the first time you ate a vegan baked good, didnt you expect something to taste different, and so it did? A delicious vegan baked good is not about whats in it (or whats not, for that matter), its about technique and having a well-written recipe to work from.
Baking without animal products may seem like a radical concept, but its truly not. There are plenty of foods out there that are naturally vegan and no one is the wiser; the recipes are just that good. During WWII when many goods were rationed, women in the U.S. became revolutionary bakers, swapping out animal products for things as far-reaching as salad dressing to continue making baked goods. Vegan baking isnt limited to times of hardship. Many cookbooks, restaurants and companies all have prized recipes that are coincidentally vegan. So Im not advocating the use of Italian dressing in a cake, because wacky things like that arent necessary. You can easily cut out the animal products and still have cake that is moist and fluffy, cookies that are soft and chewy, and bread that has a texture and flavor you will savor. But vegan baking is more than just eschewing animal ingredients; its about understanding what role those ingredients play in the recipe and creating the same structure in a cruelty-free way!
I know baking can be very intimidating to some people. Once you put it in the oven its hands-off, which can be very scary. Lets break things down to get a better understanding of the components of baking. Having this information under our belts will give us the knowledge we need to kick some serious butt in the kitchen!
A COMMON MISCONCEPTION People often think that vegan baking is inherently healthy. To be clear: It certainly can be, but this book is standard melt-in-your-mouth, creamy, yeasty, frosting-topped fare. This is not health food, and while it would be delicious and quite popular, a diet of vegan baked goods is not advisable.
