Tag Archives: alexa asks

asksnanswers

Alexa is working toward a vegetarian diet, and is loaded with questions. Jennifer’s got answers. We talk about anything as long as it is vegan. Are tattoos vegan? How do I politely not eat Thanksgiving dinner? How do I order without pissing off the waitress? We know you are dying to ask!

asksalexaDo you think Vegan desserts are harder to pull off? I have had some vegan desserts where the texture is a bit mealy and gross, and some that you wouldn’t even be able to notice the difference between that and a “traditional” treat.

Wow. It sounds like your friends are terrible bakers. I’ll give you a quick example of an everyday vegan baked good. Oreos. Bet you didn’t know those were vegan? It’s been that way for years. So why are there so many bad vegan baked goods? Although vegan alternatives can work well replacing butter, eggs, and milk, there may need to be minor changed to original recipes. That means converting Grandma’s chocolate chip recipe might not be as simple as 1 cup dairy milk to 1 cup almond milk. There is a lot of trial and error. It helps to understand the role of each ingredient in a recipe. 

Eggs: These guys are a binding agent in cakes and cookies. There are a huge array of replacements out there including, tofu, fruit, veggies, powders, flax seed, and more. Egg replacement is a little more tricky in frostings and meringues. Fork and Beans has a great in depth page on egg replacements.

Butter: It adds flavor and fats. Traditional baking is already making a shift away from butter as oils make a more moist and tender cake. But vegan margarines and shortenings are available and can be subbed pretty easily. Again, Fork and Beans has a great page about non-dairy fats in baking.

Milk: Usually milk is used to add more protein to baked good but most essentially moisture. Since protein is important sometimes soy milk triumphs over other substitutes. But sometimes, it doesn’t make a difference and any other milk replacement works fine such as rice, almond, oat, or hemp milk. 

So what are the major pitfalls of baking and picking a vegan recipe? Well, for starters, implement good baking practices. Weight flours, level measuring cups, completely preheat the oven, etc. If you are making bad cake with butter and eggs, you’ll make bad vegan cake.

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asksnanswers

Alexa is working toward a vegetarian diet, and is loaded with questions. Jennifer’s got answers. We talk about anything as long as it is vegan. Are tattoos vegan? How do I politely not eat Thanksgiving dinner? How do I order without pissing off the waitress? We know you are dying to ask!

Hey Guys, I am starting to feel that people are starting to honestly read this blog. People are leaving comments that aren’t spam, and articles are being read. On top of that, I got my first SLR (Single Lens Reflective) camera, which means our photos are going to be much better. So I feel like the blog is working more towards where I imagined it to be. 

Which means we are adding new segments- Alexa Asks, Jen Answers. Here Alexa asks common questions and I puts my know-it-all-ness to action. Some questions might not actually be from Alexa, but commonly asked questions that I would commonly hear in the past. So let’s get started with question number one:

asksalexaWhat were the hardest foods to give up when going vegan?

There are two ways of looking at this question. One way is what is the hardest thing for other people to understand that you can’t eat. This is something that affects you at restaurants and family get togethers. The second way of looking at this question is what is personally the hardest thing for you to stop eating.

For the first question, dairy is the hardest thing for people to stop serving you at family functions. I think meat, fish, and eggs are pretty straight forward- they are or will be animals. Lard, honey, and gelatin are a little less obvious but not as commonly used in modern kitchens. But no matter how many times I say I don’t eat milk, I find cheese in my kale salad or butter melted on the veggies. Traditionally, European cuisine uses meat or cheeses as the focus points in meals. So many people are unsure what to put in the dinner to make it pop.

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