The Elements of Baking – a Must-Have Guide to Baking Substitutions
Welcome to Cookbook of the Week . In this series, I highlight cookbooks that are unique, easy to use, or just special to me. While searching for a specific recipe online serves a quick purpose, flipping through a truly excellent cookbook has its own magic.
It’s no secret that I love experimenting with recipes. I love seeing how different flours create different textures in cookies , how batch cooking produces a perfectly poached egg , or how sour cream functions as an “egg wash .” There is a lot of freedom in not being tied to the “right way” to make recipes. Of course, I use recipes all the time, but if I’m missing an ingredient, I’d rather try to work around it than go out and buy one. This is hard-working laziness, and I learned a lot from it.
Katharina Zermel, clearly not driven by laziness, moved from craftsmanship to full-fledged scientific experimentation in The Elements of Baking . I’m highlighting this book in Cookbook of the Week because, frankly, we’re all probably about to adapt, eliminate and substitute ingredients in our baking. It’s good to have a guide so your cakes and cookies don’t turn out to be crap.
About the book
The Elements of Baking is a cookbook designed to help readers prepare recipes that are gluten-free, vegan, egg-free, or dairy-free. However, this is not just a book of allergen-free recipes. While they’re at it, the best part of this cookbook is that you can learn how to turn any existing recipe into an allergen-free recipe. (This book doesn’t explicitly mention being nut-free, but I think you can use sunflower seeds in these cases.) Turn Junior’s New York cheesecake recipe into a dairy-free version. Transform your wonderful grandma’s meatloaf into a gluten-free one. Make a batch of vegan pancakes.
Not only is it useful for people like me who are trying to avoid spending extra money at the grocery store, but it is a must-have resource for those who have dietary restrictions themselves, or for people who cook for others with dietary restrictions. You can stop endlessly searching the internet for recipes for vegan and gluten-free buttermilk cookies, which may or may not suck. Chermel has done the work of testing and documenting all her recipe successes in The Elements of Baking in informative yet accessible prose. However, the best part of this book is about the science.
A great cookbook for baking enthusiasts of all levels.
The TV show Complete America’s Test Kitchen cookbook does a good job of serving us food lovers with in-depth, practical cooking tips, but The Elements of Baking is a special treat for those of us who are obsessed with baking. Katarina Czermel packs the book with information, including the role of different ingredients in recipes, how to adapt recipes to fit diet-free diets, and ingredient substitutions you’ll need. There’s even a flowchart for adapting existing recipes so you can see which part of the book to go to. See what I mean? Don’t tempt me with fun.
Chermel doesn’t embellish (ha) the truth with free recipes. Substituting others for essential ingredients may alter the product, reducing flexibility, browning, or aeration depending on the substitution. But slightly different baked goods can still be just good. I really appreciate the detailed case studies and numerous image comparisons. You’ll see what your dessert should look like depending on the version you’re making (maybe a little lighter in color or with more aeration), as well as cuts of the cakes so you can check the texture of the crumb.
If you’re more of a baking enthusiast, Chermel will consider you too. You can actually skip the entire first part (with a nice flowchart and textbook-style practical examples) and go to Chapter 5. Here the book is broken down into color-coded recipe-free chapters: Gluten Free, Dairy Free, Egg Free, Vegan, Gluten Free Vegan, and finally Frosting, Frosting, Creams, and Curds. You don’t need to know how sausage is made, just go to your chapter and start baking.
Treats I baked this week
I’ve been testing out egg substitutes for cake recently, so I took the opportunity to try out some eggless cookie options. I looked at the flow chart and found that there are two ways to make unsweetened cookies: one that spreads and one that holds its shape. I decided to try both.
I decided to adapt my regular peanut butter cookie recipe and the chocolate chip cookie recipe from the back of a bag of Ghirardelli chocolate chips. Peanut butter cookies don’t spread, so the substitution is simply substituting the amount of milk (dairy or not) for each egg. Chocolate chip cookie recipes are typically spreadable cookies, so I was able to use Greek yogurt as an egg replacement in this recipe.
Both cookies turned out perfect. The chocolate chip cookies were almost identical in texture and taste to the unaltered recipe, and despite how tangy Greek yogurt can be, there was no noticeable flavor from them. The peanut butter cookies were excellent, although they were crispier and lacked the soft center that the unmodified recipe usually has. However, if I had a friend with an egg allergy, I don’t think I would hear any complaints.
Although I haven’t had a chance to try them yet, I’m looking forward to trying out the gluten-free bread recipes in this book.
How to buy
The Elements of Baking is available for purchase online in hardcover or as an e-book . It’s still relatively new, so you’ll likely see it in the windows of your local bookstore.