Yes, I am getting my masters in Education--no this post of substituting is not about classroom time with the wee ons. It's the baking time of year so naturally a lot of us are whipping up recipes to put in the oven. But what happens when we are missing an ingredient? Are allergic? Or simply don't like an ingredient?
With baking you need to be more meticulous about the amounts and composition of the ingredients you add and subtract. For example, eggs have two functions in baking: Binding or thickening and leavening (leavening is what makes baked goods light and fluffy.) Identifying their function in a particular recipe will help you decide with how to replace them. Different egg replacers will work best in different recipes. In cookies and muffins, no binding agent is generally needed. In quick breads and cakes both leavening and binding is needed. In custard pies, like pumpkin pie, eggs are mainly for thickening.
Some substitutions need something like a tablespoon of lemon juice added to increase acidity. So how do you know where to start and end? I pulled two handy guides--one from The Joy of Baking which has simple easy conversions for a truck-full of ingredients. The other is a vegetarian & vegan source (non-veggies don't be scared of this one it has handy & healthy ideas for everyone).
The Joy of Baking substitutions
Savvy Veggie substitutions
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