Oh yeah, I should probably share this here, too...

[soc_puppet]

I GOT THE JOB! The one at Breads From Anna, that is. Anna called me up at 10:30 on Friday to let me know. Since my schedule and hers/theirs don't match up too well at the moment, I don't start until November, but I'm still employed which is way cool. We'll be working out more specific scheduling details closer to the end of the month.

With that out of the way, it's considerably more likely that I'll be applying for the hotel bakery job. I'll want to get scheduling sorted out ASAP, but yeah. Yay, job(s)!



In other news, this will be my last week of Baking for Dietary Restrictions. The class, not the action. Tomorrow we're doing dairy-free, and then Tuesday we're doing egg-free. Wednesday and Thursday are our written and practical finals, though I can't remember which is which. The practical final involves everyone in the class getting the same base recipe and then drawing from a hat to find out what sort of modification we need to make to it (modifying for: Diabetes, Gluten-free, Heart disease, Dairy-free, or Egg-free). Our teacher has strongly encouraged us to treat our recipes for tomorrow and Tuesday the same way: that is, to bring in some standard recipe we'd use for other reasons and figure out how to sub out the diary and/or eggs on the fly. Since she grades on a bias, you can understand why I'm a little miffed. I may end up making two recipes either tomorrow or Tuesday, because I went out and bought chickpea/garbanzo flour for a recipe after she didn't have it (or much of anything else, really) on our first day of gf-bring-in-your-own-recipe baking, and I still want to make that chickpea flatbread. Partly out of spite. ...Okay, mostly out of spite. But I do also want to see what it tastes like.

*sigh* Anyone have any tips for subbing out sugar(s), dairy, eggs, and/or glutenous flours, on the fly?

Comments

[monanotlisa]

On the fly depends a little on how close and well-stocked your stores are...

Gluten: xanthan gum works well, and to some degree eggs do -- the gluten really makes for a particular texture and cohesiveness of the baked goods that is unfortunately hard to replicate 100%. I suggest adding components that make the baking moister, too -- parts ground nuts, e.g. almond flour, or adding a dash of wine/liquor.

Dairy: anything soy*, and I'd hazard a guess that almond milk et al work too...if you make sure that the fat and protein content is matched to the original dairy percentages, at least roughly. That's never the case with the store-bought stuff for weight-conscious hippies, but you could add some ground almonds here, too.

Eggs: Honestly, NOTHING CAN REPLACE EGGS. I have baked without them when I still ate gluten, and it totally works...but nothing will ever be as moist and delicious as it would be with eggs. There are some substitutes floating around the web -- I've tried some; they are like the replacement wheel in the trunk, though: might get you there, sure, but the journey ain't fun, and you don't want to drive around like that again.

Sugar? Table sugar, or all sugars versus artificial sweeteners? I don't use the latter, or won't until forced to by the diabetes someone as sweet-loving as me is bound to develop, but whatever you do, don't use stevia in anything but licorice (I love liquorice, but only by itself and not as a side flavor of that much-touted natural sweetener).

[redsixwing]

WOOT! Congratulations! \o/

Banana can stand in for egg if you don't mind the texture changing some, particularly in sweet muffins or fruity breads. The internetz tells me that apple puree can do it too, but I haven't personally tried that.

I've successfully subbed almond milk for cows' milk in just about anything; if you look at medieval cooking, they use an awful lot of almond milk in pastry.

I have occasionally forgotten that it tastes very different than cow's milk, though, resulting in one very strange omelette and a couple other oddballs.

[krait]

Oddly enough, I JUST had a conversation with my vegan coworker a couple days ago about eggs! She said that 1 tbsp flax or chia seed soaked in 2 tbsp warm water for a few minutes makes a viable substitute for one egg. (Can only be used in recipes with 1 or 2 eggs, though; more and it doesn't work.)

I also think a couple of bakers of my acquaintance have said that any recipe containing only one egg doesn't really need it, and that a little more oil can be easily substituted instead; google around a little or ask any vegetarians you might know, to confirm?

[krait]

Okay, a little more research brings me this nifty list.

A lot of the suggestions do include egg in some form (mayo, egg whites) but these don't:

* 1 egg = 2 tablespoons liquid + 2 tablespoons flour + ½ tablespoon shortening + ½ teaspoon baking powder (Recipe from Substituting Ingredients by Becky Sue Epstein and Hilary Dole Klein.)

* two tablespoons flaxmeal plus 1/8 teaspoon baking powder plus 3 tablespoons water for each egg

* dissolve 1 tablespoon unflavored gelatin in 1 tablespoon cold water, then add 2 tablespoons boiling water. Beat vigorously until frothy.

* 1 tablespoon cornstarch plus 3 tablespoons water

* 1/2 of a mashed ripe banana plus 1/4 teaspoon baking powder

* 1/4 cup silken tofu

* 2 tablespoons fruit-based fat substitute*

Bonus: someone there mentions the flax seed thing, but says 3 tablespoons water, so go with her answer; I'm probably misremembering my coworker's proportions. Interestingly, though, the part about the water being warm, and soaking the seeds, isn't repeated in any of the several mentions of flax I've seen. (In this, I'm inclined to take my coworker's directions; knowing what I do about chia seeds, and extrapolating to flax, I don't see how just whisking for a few seconds with cool water could produce anything useful.)

*I'm not entirely sure what a "fruit-based fat substitute" is; my first thought was mashed avocado or coconut oil, but beyond that I'm stumped. Applesauce, banana, maybe the tomato soup trick someone mentions elsewhere on the thread? (Tomato soup concentrate, 3 tbsp.)

[krait]

EnerG is a gluten-free, egg-free, wheatless, nondairy, vegan egg replacer that's apparently sold at some grocery stores and health food stores. Definitely not an "on the fly" type of ingredient, but it might be worth looking into anyway, because it has such a broad range of special-diet applications!

This page is very helpful in that it gives you an idea of what kind of baked good several different egg replacers are best for, and what changes the substitution will make to the end product!

I was also intrigued by the suggestion of plumped raisins as an option for making fruit puree for substitution purposes; I'm not a fan of raisins, but they're certainly something that a lot of people would have on hand!

[soc_puppet]

Well stocked tends to be hit-or-miss with our kitchens. On the one hand, it's part of a culinary program based in a four-diamond hotel with attached restaurant. On the other hand, the teacher didn't seem to know the first thing about gf flours beyond "Generic gluten-free blend" and maybe "rice flour" and there wasn't a single beet to be had in the entire building, so.

Gluten: Wonderful, helpful suggestions, thank you! I hope to learn more under Anna's tutelage, but that won't be for a while yet, and this is an excellent step in the right direction. I'll probably be looking up more at Bob's Red Mill as well.

Dairy: Our teacher confirmed that we can sub in water for any kind of milk with essentially no ill effects on the results of the recipe, aside from maybe a little less calcium. Butter and margarine are a little harder (and part of me was indeed dismayed to learn that our margarine does in fact contain milk), but I can use veggie shortening if I have to.

Eggs: Our teacher has raved about flaxseed-meal-and-water as a replacement; krait goes into more detail downthread. I've had decent luck with it the one time I tried it, but in general, yeah: eggs do all the things.

Sugar: Mostly whatsit - processed sugars, that's what I'm thinking. Fructose and so forth take longer to digest, so they're less bad. Adding in fiber is an alternative to getting rid of sugar/other sweeteners; one gram of fiber basically cancels out one gram of sugar, so just make sure you've got a lot of fiber in your life and you should be able to put off diabetes for a little longer, at least ;)

[soc_puppet]

Thank you! ^_^ I'm super happy about it :D

I've also heard about apple puree (or apple sauce, or any other fruit puree). I think it was four ounces of fruit puree plus half a teaspoon of baking soda(?) per egg to replace? That's mostly for moisture and not structure, though.

Oh-ho! Now if only we had anything in class aside from chocolate almond milk... I guess we'll see what happens on Thursday :/a

XD LOL!

[soc_puppet]

OMG you are amazing ♥_♥ All the egg replacement options! All of them! I will absolutely be researching these in more depth between now and the practical final. Yes.