Vegan pastry is not a fantasy if we have the right ingredients. Replacing animal products requires knowing the alternatives that are closest to their composition to achieve the various results that are sought. For this, it is essential to have the highest quality ingredients that have the technical specifications to achieve the objective.
The Basic Ingredients of Vegan Pastry
Preparing a dessert with 100% vegan ingredients is complex. There are 5 basic elements in pastry that are of animal origin and perform very important functions. Eggs, butter, milk, cream and animal gelatin not only add flavor; in most cases, they fulfill an essential technical function to achieve a great result.
Replacing them in the equation is a great technical challenge, but it will allow us to elevate flavors and textures in our preparations.
Knowing the composition of each of these ingredients allows us to offer alternatives that can provide the same technical performance without sacrificing the essence of a dessert or altering its balance. To achieve this, we must not only understand the product but also the objective behind its incorporation into the recipe.
These are the main technical characteristics that these products offer:
- Emulsion: Consists of uniting fats and water in a homogeneous way. Eggs and dairy products fulfill this function due to their composition of proteins and lecithin.
- Aeration: Air is introduced into the preparation (agitation, fermentation or chemically), keeping it inside. For this, a protein from eggs or dairy products is usually essential.
- Coagulation: When heating the egg, we transform the state from liquid to solid, thanks to its protein content.
- Stabilization: Helps to ensure that the texture and appearance of the preparation are prolonged over time. In this case, animal gelatin is usually chosen.
- Gelification: Thanks to the collagen in animal gelatin, we can convert liquid into solids with different hardnesses.
- Fat contribution: Fat is a great transmitter of flavor, while giving a unique texture and creaminess. Dairy products, especially butter, along with egg yolk, are the most classic products used for this.
Achieving all these techniques without using elements of animal origin is possible. Learning to use them properly, we can achieve much better results and achieve a higher quality dessert with totally new and surprising textures or flavors for our customers’ palates.
Egg Substitute
The egg is one of the most complex elements. It has two elements: the white and yolk that have different compositions and provide different techniques to each preparation.
The egg is mainly made up of water (75%), with the rest being divided almost equally between protein and fat. Its use allows to achieve coagulation, aeration, emulsion and fat contribution.
The yolk is where most of the fat is concentrated (32%) and has less water (only 50%). To replace it, we will use a preparation with the same proportion of water (it can be replaced by infusions to improve the flavor), vegetable oil (to replace the proportion of fat) and two specific products.
- Potatowhip at 10%: Potato protein that allows the mixture to be given the coagulating capacity.
- Natur Emul at 8%: Allows to apply the emulsion technique.
In the case of the white, it is used differently depending on the preparation that is pursued. For those in which aeration is needed, such as a meringue, we recommend a mixture of water (95%) and Sojawhip (5%) or Potatowhip Cold (5%). The use of these substitutes does not add flavor or color; achieving a neutral preparation.
We must bear in mind that using these vegetable proteins we will not obtain a coagulating effect.
If we want to use it for a cake recipe in which we need coagulation, we will use Potatowhip (8%) and the rest, water.
TIP: Try replacing the water in the preparations with infusions, juices or fruit purees to enhance the flavor.
Butter Substitute
Within dairy products, butter is one of the essential elements for providing fat, texture and emulsion.
There are a wide variety of prepared products that can replace butter, but we can also prepare our own substitute formula, which gives us a range of opportunities. Allowing us to provide different flavors and textures.
If we want to replace butter in preparations such as cake doughs, we propose a combination that includes: coconut oil (58%), refined sunflower oil (25%), water (15%) and 1% respectively of the following products: Natur Emul and Sojawhip.
With these ingredients we achieve an emulsion with a texture very similar to butter, but neutral in flavor in relation to the dairy of butter. This allows us to enhance the rest of the flavors of the recipe; such as in a chocolate or nut cake.
TIP: It is possible to replace refined sunflower oil with other vegetable oils with more flavor; such as: sesame, almond, avocado. Getting flavored butters.
Milk Substitute
It is one of the easiest components to replace. We will only have to use some of the vegetable drinks that we can find on the market. We have to analyze its flavor to know which is the option that best suits our recipe. Soy, rice or coconut are the favorites of professionals who work with this type of pastry.
Cream Substitute
This dairy derivative fulfills the function of providing fat and aeration. Recipes that have this can look for only one of these options or both. It is important that we understand the instructions to decide which vegetable alternative to choose.
If we want to replace the aerating capacity of the cream -as in a mousse-, we recommend replacing it with a vegetable meringue, made from a liquid and Potatowhip Cold
Regarding the liquid, we will choose between water or flavored liquids such as fruit purees, juices or infusions.
To replace the contribution of fat, as in cream and creamy, we can choose between adding vegetable fats such as Bio deodorized coconut fat, or with technical ingredients such as Hot Inulin.
Animal Gelatin Substitute
This product provides stability and gelification in a wide variety of different processes. For its replacement we have a large number of alternatives, but it is essential to know the function that we are going to carry out to choose the correct one.
- Vegetable gelling agent for veils or other options in which elasticity is sought.
- Gellan Gum for fillings that are going to be subjected to heat.
- Vegan Mousse to replace gelatin in vegetable mousses.
- Pro-pannacotta to obtain a flan-like texture.
- Pectin Fruit NH to make acid-type glazes such as fruits.
- Pectin Nappage X58 for chocolate or nut glazes.
- Agar-agar for slow gelling processes.
Vegan pastry is a reality.
If you want to know more about vegan pastry, we invite you to download the Dossier: Essentials of Vegan Pastry.
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