Vegan baked goods are a treat

[Guest guest]

By Christina SzuperMind & Body Writer How can a cookie taste good when it doesn’t contain any butter or egg? Vegan baking, which by definition contains no animal by-products, claims that such ingredients can be removed without sacrificing taste. The Daily interviewed Ilana Kadonoff, the creator and head pastry chef from the successful Toronto-based vegan bakery, Sweets from the Earth, to learn about how vegan baking works and how it can actually taste really good — maybe even better than non-vegan baking. McGill Daily: How did you start Sweets from the Earth? Ilana Kadonoff: I’ve been a vegetarian for a while and I had always wanted to become a vegan, but I had such a sweet tooth that I couldn’t make the transition. There weren’t many vegan baked goods available, and if there were they weren’t good. Having gone to cooking school to become a pastry chef, I started playing around with different

recipes to make them vegan. I brought some samples of my vegan baked goods to different vegetarian restaurants and health food stores and they took off. I quit my job and started Sweets from the Earth. MD: Considering that the four main baking ingredients are eggs, butter, flour, and sugar, doesn’t removing eggs and butter take away from taste? IK: Trying to bake without the staples is at first a strange concept, but there are many creative substitutes you can play around with, like sunflower oil, soy, and avocado, that make baked goods taste just as good. I’ve been able to find such great substitutes that people can’t tell the cakes are vegan until I tell them. It’s not supposed to taste healthy; it’s supposed to taste like a real dessert full of fat and sugar. Basically, if you can tell it’s vegan then it’s not any good. MD: Are vegan baked goods any healthier than regular cakes and cookies? IK: Vegan baking is healthier

because the baked goods are cholesterol free and much lower in saturated fat than regular pastries. MD: Are vegan baked goods affordable? IK: They are more expensive for two reasons. Firstly, we use better quality ingredients and secondly we aren’t mainstream enough to have a factory and thus we make everything by hand. Our cookies cost $1.50 each and slices of our cakes go for $2.50. MD: Who buys vegan baked goods? IK: Well most of our customers are vegan, but many health-conscious parents buy our baked goods for their kids. Also, we have many customers who are lactose intolerant or allergic to wheat. MD: What would you say is your biggest beef with skeptics of vegan baking? IK: Close-mindedness. I really don’t like when people try my pastries expecting them to taste bad. People have a misconception that vegan baking has to taste like Styrofoam but it doesn’t. My baked goods don’t taste healthy; they taste sweet

and rich, like they are supposed to. Some vegans snub our goods because they don’t taste ‘healthy’ enough. MD: What dessert from Sweets From the Earth would you recommend to a skeptic? IK: Hard to say, but the chocolate cake and the carrot cake usually blow people away. If you want to find Sweets from the Earth in Montreal, visit sweetsfromtheearth.com. Peter H

 

All New Mail – Tired of unwanted email come-ons? Let our SpamGuard protect you.