Maja Brekalo - Bake It Vegan: Simple, Delicious Plant-Based Cakes, Cookies, Brownies, Chocolates and More

Simple, Delicious
Plant-Based Cakes, Cookies,
Brownies, Chocolates and More

Maja Brekalo

Founder of Delicious & Healthy by Maya

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dedication

This book is dedicated to all the amazing people that follow and support Delicious & Healthy by Maya. Without your continuous love, I wouldnt have this job that I love so much, and this book wouldnt have been possible.

Some of my favorite childhood memories involve baking with my mom. Although instead of baking, it was really me stealing and tasting the batter of whatever my mom was baking. Even today I love dipping my hands in flour, measuring ingredients, grinding nuts and mixing it all together. I started baking on my own at a pretty young age. I was about ten years old when I took my first baking steps. At the time, I only knew how to make conventional cakes and sweets, but I never ate them, as I could never digest those kinds of desserts. I didnt follow a vegan diet as a child, but I had a very sensitive stomach and conventional desserts made me sick. I struggled a lot with weak digestion, heartburn and nausea until I started following a pescatarian diet, and later I became a vegan.

You can imagine how my life was changed when I first discovered healthy vegan baking and vegan desserts. I could finally have cake! Since then, my fascination with vegan baking has never tired.

Coming up with healthier and vegan versions of conventional desserts has become my mission in recent years, as I realized that most people, including my family, find it so much harder to follow a vegan diet when it comes to making and eating cakes and sweets compared to savory foods. Vegan baking is also often more intimidating than vegan cooking because making traditional desserts work with unconventional ingredients is so much more difficult than veganizing savory favorites. And if youre trying to create those desserts using only wholesome, unprocessed ingredients, it becomes even more complicated.

My goal is to solve this problem by creating amazing, approachable vegan desserts that are good for you without sacrificing that feeling of indulgence. This cookbook is a collection of fuss-free, delicious, wholesome recipes that can be easily made by even the most inexperienced bakers.

Ive also worked hard to develop plenty of gluten-free vegan recipes for this book. This is because gluten-free food, or at least conventionally grown wheat-free food, suits me so much better. I say conventional wheat-free food because I do use spelt flour in addition to gluten-free flours like rice and buckwheat. Spelt is considered to be a distant relative of wheat, but it hasnt been genetically modified and contains much less gluten compared to conventional wheat. I find it to be great in recipes that need a small amount of gluten, while still being a healthy and wholesome option.

I realize that many of you, like me, are out there searching for gluten-free baking recipes that actually work, so Ive made it easier for you to find them in this book by marking them gluten-free, GF, in the table of contents. Ive also marked applicable recipes grain free and nut free throughout the manuscript, so vegan bakers with other dietary restrictions will also know which tasty options will work best for them. I hope these classifications will help you get the best use out of this book!

Here youll find only nutritious real-food ingredientsyou wont find any shortcuts, secretly processed vegan products or ingredients adding empty, unhealthy calories. Ive also tried to incorporate as many highly nutritious ingredients as possible, like substituting wheat flour with higher-quality grains; swapping part of the flour with nuts or seeds; using healthy fats like extra virgin olive or coconut oil; and sneaking in veggies or beans for added protein, fiber, healthy fats and overall nutritional value. Vegan butter is the only refined ingredient included, but it will only be used in the smallest amounts; vegan butter can also be nutritious, as long as you make sure to use one that does not contain trans fats or any other highly processed ingredients.

These recipes are for everyone, whether youre vegan and craving your old favorite desserts, or youre just trying to eat healthier by switching to a plant-based diet. Even though some of these plant-based desserts wont taste exactly the same as their conventional, unhealthy, sugar- and fat-loaded counterparts, their flavors will still be out-of-this-world amazingor even more so because you can feel confident that youre indulging in a dessert that not only tastes good, but serves your body well.

Im so excited for you to try these recipes, especially since Ive been getting so much positive feedback from my Delicious & Healthy by Maya blog and Instagram followers as well as from real-life friends. They dont say that these recipes taste really delicious for a healthy dessert. They say, These are sensational! Please open a pastry shop!

Thank you for picking up this book and having faith in my recipes. Maybe youve been following my Delicious & Healthy by Maya blog or Instagram account, or maybe you just ran into this cookbook at the bookshop or online. Either way, Id like you to know that I appreciate you, and I appreciate all the support Ive been given over the years. Without your support, this cookbook would not have come to be.

My first book baby, My Happy Fooda vegan cookbook published in my home country of Croatiaquickly became a #1 bestselling cookbook and reached #4 on the overall bestsellers list. I was stoked that my predominantly non-vegan country had embraced my vegan cookbook. Im so grateful for all the support, amazing reviews and hundreds of messages Ive received from readers saying how much they enjoyed the simplicity and deliciousness of my recipes.

I hope Bake It Vegan will connect with and inspire readers in the same way. I also hope bringing these recipes into your life will give you that feeling of joy and indulgence that, for me, only healthy and delicious food can give.