Vinegar

Vinegar is mainly a combination of acetic acid and water, which is the result of a fermentation process. Although vinegar is mainly used in cooking, it has a lot of other uses too including as a household cleaning aid and disinfectant. In the kitchen the main use of vinegar is while making salad dressing. For us egg free/vegan bakers, vinegar is a boon, because it gives the nice airy and light texture without the use of eggs.

There are different types of vinegar. White vinegar, apple cider vinegar, malt vinegar, balsamic vinegar, red wine vinegar are just a few to mention.

In general white distilled vinegar and apple cider vinegar in combination with baking soda is used in baking recipes as an egg substitute. Personally I prefer the use of apple cider vinegar in all my baking recipes because it does not have the after taste of white vinegar. One can try both and find out their preference.

1 tablespoon of vinegar and 1 teaspoon of baking soda is used to replace 1 egg in a recipe. It is best to use in recipes which call for just 1 egg. I haven’t tried it in recipes which have more than 1 egg, because I can anticipate that more the vinegar we use the more the baked treat will smell all vinegary. You can also use a teaspoon or two of vinegar in recipes wherein lot of pureed fruit or other dense items is used to make it a bit lighter.

Finding vinegar should not be a problem at all in this day and age, especially white vinegar and apple cider vinegar. It’s easily available in all the grocery stores or try online.