RE: Bitter cookies, beans and baking

[Guest guest]

> The cookie recipe used flour, baking powder, sugar, spices,

> vegan marg (i used pure sunflower spread) and water. I think there wasn't

> enough sugar but that still doesn't explain the aftertaste properly. Must

> be the marg!

> What do you think?

 

Sounds like it could be too much baking powder / bicarb to me... Could be

that with less of the strong flavours in something (e.g. butter in cookies),

that the underlying flavours like bicarb come through rather than being

buried. A spot of vanilla can smooth out flavours... (cocoa powder is pretty

bitter, and chocolate has vanilla in it to make it palatable).

 

> Also i buy tinned beans - chickpeas, black eyed beans,

> kidney, cannelini, broad and flageolet. But i don't know the difference

other

> than the way they look so i'm not really sure which to use for what. I

> really should google this one and see what comes out.

 

Black-eyed, chickpeas, and broad beans are usually firmer, so use them when

you feel like having bits to chew on, most of the rest will more-or-less

collapse down when cooked. Chickpeas are probably the crunchiest.

 

Kidney beans, broad beans and cannelini probably have the strongest taste,

but it can vary lots.

 

For purees, mix raw/cooked veg. and cooked beans and whizz them up in a

blender... add spices / garlic etc. to taste. I also find that I always cook

too much food, so one of the wonders of vegan food is that vegetable dishes

whizz up into purees, and are often pretty edible cold :-)

 

Soaking and cooking dried beans is a bit of an effort, but you can vary the

texture by choosing how long to cook them for, whereas tinned beans are

always relatively mushy. Also if you soak / part-cook a batch, then they can

be frozen in smaller portions for eventual use. Frozen broad beans are

available, and are much better than tinned...

 

The other thing that I find helps meals feel livelier is cooking recipes

based on the colours of the ingredients, with carrots & tomatoes use red

kidney beans, use flageolets with broccoli... it helps stop stews looking

like a generic murky brown vegetable stew.

 

> I guess egg replacer is a big one, for baking. Is it any

> good? I've read about using cornflour and soya milk or something instead

but

> not sure which works best.

 

Actually, I just avoid it. I have yet to find a recipe that *requires* egg,

that seems reasonable to attempt to make in a vegan form... (I suspect I'll

never try and make vegan meringues). Cake mixes seem to bind fine with oil

and water. Usually I just judge the mix by how it feels / looks and cross my

fingers it'll be okay. Not that I do a huge amount of baking though, so if

you're an accomplished cake-expert my idea as to " a good cake " may be rather

basic :-)

 

Light chocolate sponge cake = mix flour, sugar, baking powder, cocoa powder,

a bit of oil, stir in water 'til it looks okay, bake 'til cooked.

 

Heavier chocolate cake is the same but with more oil to make the mix clump

together more :-)

 

For " eggy " savoury dishes, I'll use scrambled tofu with a bit of a

flour/water batter to bind it. It can be pretty quiche-esque.

 

Steve W

[is the list busy enough yet ?]

[Guest guest]

> " Steve Welburn " <

>Sounds like it could be too much baking powder / bicarb to me...

 

So many people have said this is must be true!

Yay! I'm so happy knowing that not all vegan baking tastes awful!

Shall buy vanilla extract to cover taste as suggested!

 

Thanks for tha advice on beans and purees etc. It helped alot and my

lunchbox will appreciate it!

 

>Cake mixes seem to bind fine with oil and water. Usually I just judge the

>mix by how it feels / looks and cross my fingers it'll be okay. Not that I

>do a huge amount of baking though, so if you're an accomplished cake-expert

>my idea as to " a good cake " may be rather basic :-)

 

basic works for me. Just want to be able to make a chocolate cake for when

i have friends over etc to show them i don't just exist on twigs. It has

nothing to do with the fact that i absolutely love chocolate cake!!

I'm not that good at judging amounts, in fact i'm terrible, but i'll give it

a go and it can't be worse than the evil cookies!

 

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[Guest guest]

, " Laura Moore " <child_of_the_80s@h...>

wrote:

 

> I'm not that good at judging amounts, in fact i'm terrible, but

i'll give it

> a go and it can't be worse than the evil cookies!

 

I use:

 

1 tablespoon soya flour or gram flour

1 tablespoon water

 

per egg. It works well and I don't get that soapy-metallic taste

either.

 

And I've found the " Rose Elliot's Vegan Feasts " basic cake mix good -

I've done the chocolate version but my favourite is the ginger cake

with lemon icing!! Her cookie recipe is rather scrummy too

 

Siofra

[Guest guest]

Thanks for the tip about the soya flour. I'm off to beanfreaks today so

that will be on my list

Vegan Feasts is one of the vegan cookery books i bought so i'll definitely

give the recipe a go!

Thanks,

 

Laura

 

 

> " wee_siofra " <c.macneill

>

>

> Re: Bitter cookies, beans and baking

>Fri, 14 Mar 2003 16:57:33 -0000

>

> , " Laura Moore " <child_of_the_80s@h...>

>wrote:

>

> > I'm not that good at judging amounts, in fact i'm terrible, but

>i'll give it

> > a go and it can't be worse than the evil cookies!

>

>I use:

>

>1 tablespoon soya flour or gram flour

>1 tablespoon water

>

>per egg. It works well and I don't get that soapy-metallic taste

>either.

>

>And I've found the " Rose Elliot's Vegan Feasts " basic cake mix good -

>I've done the chocolate version but my favourite is the ginger cake

>with lemon icing!! Her cookie recipe is rather scrummy too

>

>Siofra

>

 

 

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