'Egg Replacer'...two words which are rapidly starting to fill me with dread!
As I have written about before, I have a number of customers who are keen to have bakes which are both made without gluten and also vegan. I spend many a happy hour idly scrolling, searching the internet for recipes which satisfy both.
But honestly - there just are not that many! And what I find tend to be small variations on a very limited theme. I want to bake light and fluffy sponges, delicious layers of delicate vanilla, coffee, caramel, lemon...surely not every vegan coeliac is satisfied with a dense hunk of a brownie or a flapjack (I am not dissing the traybake...I just think that a bit of healthy competition wouldn't go amiss).
So I have been experimenting with egg replacements - and the headline verdict so far is...eggs have not got anything to worry about!!! Flax seed goo has a funny after taste, and frankly life seems too short for grinding a powder I have little faith in.
Egg replacer powder...I mean what even is that and what is it's point? I've seen lots of videos on Youtube of bakers extoling its virtue and praising its economy...but honestly, we just don't seem to get along. My sponges are coming out sunken and a tiny bit chewy - as though they contain a bit of PVA.
Now since the discovery that they have started to sell aquafaba as a 'thing' in its own right I am keen to give this more of a chance - not only for the fact that I like saying the word, and it puts me in mind of fossilised remains of sea creatures one might discover on a Dorset beach, but early trials are proving more promising - although starting off with ice cold product seems to be key. And now every bake does not have to be accompanied by a bowl of homemade humous.
I also have some silken tofu standing in the wings for the next stage of experimentation. I just want the gluten free vegans to enjoy a Victoria sandwich like the rest of us. Its only fair!