The Return of Cooking Tips

Once upon a time, there was a little girl, and her name was "Cooking Tips." She skipped and galloped through another little girl's blog, leaving trails of flowers, joyful squealings, and little tips to all those who visited. Then one day, she met a little boy. She fell madly in love, and they went together on mystical adventures in far-off lands. For months and months, she was nowhere to be found.

But as always happens in the world of love, he slept with her best friend, she started drinking too much and wearing her pajamas all day, and they of course inevitably broke up--her throwing all his records out of the second story of their castle, him cutting the crotches out of all her negligee, the both of them ending up on Judge Judy (her suing him for an unpaid $750 loan, him suing her for illegally repossessing his horse and carriage).

So now she's back! (A bit bitter and with a new haircut and outlook on men, but back nonetheless!)

So you! Read this! Replace eggs! Do it!

On Egg Replacers

The Cook's Thesaurus

So if you're like me and often too cheap to spring for some bizarre, expensive ingredient that you'll probably only ever use once and then never be able to find another recipe for, *OR* if you happen to live in an area where you just don't have easy access to strange ingredients, *OR* if you just like to substitute ingredients for other ingredients (just because you're weird like that), you must check this out.

The Cook's Thesaurus

It gives you substitutions for pretty much any ingredient you could ever possibly think of.

Woot woot to that.

Baking Tips (Or "How to Avoid Unleashing the Wrath of Balloon Chef")

Vegan baking is *not* an impossibility, but at times it can be a bit of a challenge. (Damn you, eggs!) For that reason, here be some baking tips, both vegan-specific and not.

So put them in your pipe and smoke it. Otherwise the wrath of Balloon Chef shall strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger!

Bake! Bake in fear!



VEGAN-SPECIFIC BAKING TIPS:

• On "Baking Without Using Eggs, Milk, and Buttah" from The Post Punk Kitchen



• Ten Tips for Perfect Vegan Baking



• How to Bake Eggless Cakes and Cookies

NOT-SPECIFICALLY VEGAN BAKING TIPS:

• Hershey's Kitchen Baking Tips and Hints



• The Awesomest, Best, Most-Detailed Cookie-Baking Guide in the History of Humankind (Yip yip!)

USEFUL BOOKS ON BAKING:

• Great Good Desserts Naturally: The author apparently was (is?) a pastry chef, and about 1/3 of the book is dedicated to very specific and detailed tips on everything from what different types of flour are good for what different types of baking to discussion of substitutions in recipes to conversation about how to make those damn vegan pastries *fluffy* without eggs. Pretty much anything you might think of asking with regard to baking is answered here and in precise detail. If you're into baking, this is a definite must-have.


• Vegan Family Favorites: Although the content of this book does not deal strictly with baking-only, it does offer up some useful tips and tidbits on baking and substitutions in its intro.

Calling All Substitutions!

I've been digging on the whole notion of being able to bake (and cook) from scratch, especially now that I've got a lot of staples down. However, sometimes you run outta syrup, and you need to figure out how to substitute in some other sort of sweetener. Or you don't have Ener-G Egg Replacer, so you find yourself wondering what to use for eggs instead. And then you realize you need to pull a MacGuyver (using a toothpick, a paperclip, and some wire to create a fully functional blender), but how to do so? Wonder no more.

Egg replacers!

Eggs:

1 egg =
1 tsp. Ener-G Egg Replacer + 2 T warm water =
1/4 c. tofu =
2 T water + 1 T oil + 2 t baking powder =
1 T ground flax seed in 3 T water =
2 T water + 2 t baking powder

In baking of cakes and other sweets

1 egg =
1 banana =
1/4 c. applesauce

Egg Whites

1 egg white=
1 T plain agar powder in 1 T water... whip, chill, whip again

Sweeteners!

1 c. sugar =
1/2-1/3 c. maple syrup (reduce liquid in recipe by 1/4 c.) =
1/2 c. molasses =
1 3/4 c. packed powdered sugar =
1 c. brown sugar (slight difference in taste) =

Honey substitutions:

1 c. honey = 1 1/4 c. sugar + 1/4 c. more of liquid

Tamari!

2 t. of tamari = 1 T. of soy sauce

Make Your Own!

Make your own powdered sugar:

2 c. sugar, 1/2 c. cornstarch--food process the shit out of it

Make your own brown sugar:

1 c. light brown sugar = 1 c. granulated sugar + 1/2 T molasses
1 c. dark brown sugar = 1 c. granulated sugar + 1/4 c. molasses

Make your own vegan "buttermilk":

2 t. lemon juice or white vinegar per c. soymilk (*and* it's called "clabbering"--how cool is that?)

Other Fantastical Substitutions:

Ingredient Substitution Table from Joyofbaking.com
That's My Home Ingredient Substitute List
The Cooking Inn Substitutes
Fodd Recipe Substitution Links from About.com
The Vegan Wolf's Vegan Cooking Substitutions