Attention: vegans, friends with food allergies, and people who love to eat raw batter! You are about to have the best weekend ever!
Everyone knows that one of the key ingredients in baked goods is eggs. Whether you’re cooking delectable desserts from scratch or popping open a package of Duncan Hines cake mix, eggs are critical to providing texture (and probably flavor, structure, and other important baking elements) to the finished product.
I don’t bake much so I don’t fully understand how all this works.
I do understand that eggs are an animal product so vegans won’t eat them and they also can carry salmonella so you’re not supposed to eat them raw even though raw cookie dough is the most heavily substance on earth.
But never fear! The New York Times is here to let us know that there is a cheap, easy replacement for egg whites available, and it might even be in your cabinet already! It’s… drum roll please… that water you drain out of canned chick peas!
::record scratch::
I know. Weird, right? I swear this is what the article says. Apparently there’s some magic mix of fluids and trace proteins in that water — which we’re calling aquafaba for some reason — that allows it to be whipped much like an egg white. It is not, however, a replacement for whole eggs, since the yolk has different proteins than the white.
Will aquafaba replace the eggs in your grandmother’s cookie recipe? Not unless it only calls for egg whites. But it can be used to whip up vegan meringues and macaroons, or even mayo! So vegans, rejoice and get baking!
