A WHOLE NEW WORLD
It may just be bean water, but aquafaba can easily replace eggs for vegan-friendly baking
Most people pour the viscous liquid from canned chickpeas down the drain, but creative bakers have discovered they can use this so-called aquafaba to add volume to delicate baked goods like meringue, angel food cake, chocolate mousse and macaroons.
“The greatest thing about it is that it is now opening up a world of food to vegans and those with egg allergies and allowing them to eat foods that previously have not been available to them,” says Rebecca Coleman, author of Aquafabulous: 100-Plus Egg-Free Vegan Recipes Using Aquafaba (Robert Rose Inc., 2017).
A fluffy meringue results when a few spoonfuls of bean water — canned or left over from cooking your own — some sugar and a little cream of tartar are whipped for about 10 minutes.
“Even though I’ve done it a hundred times now, every time I do it I’m still kind of amazed. ‘This is a miracle. I just took bean water and made a meringue out of it,’” Coleman says.
“It’s like a magic trick.” Coleman says she used a blowtorch with spectacular results on desserts like baked alaska and lemon meringue pie.
Vegans have long used everything from applesauce to mashed bananas to prunes to add volume and moistness to baked goods, but none of those worked in more delicate applications.
Goose Wohlt, a software engineer in the U.S., hit upon the concept of using the liquid from beans in 2015 and is credited with coining the name aquafaba, which combines the Latin words for water and beans.
The fluid is animal-free, dairyfree, gluten-free, cholesterol-free and extremely low in calories.
When the proteins in aquafaba are combined with certain ingredients, they behave like an egg white, but have only about one-10th of the protein.
“What a lot of people are excited about is that we’re taking something that’s a waste product and making it into something really cool,” says Coleman, who writes a blog called Cooking by Laptop that focuses on recipes and her love of culinary exploration.
The liquid from chickpeas is most commonly used because it is neutral, though any kind of white beans like cannellini or navy will work. Coleman has also successfully used tofu water.
The fluid from black and kidney beans works fine too, but the result is an unappealing brownish colour.
“If you were mixing it in with something that had chocolate in it like brownies you could probably get away with it because the colour would probably be masked,” says Coleman, who teaches courses in social media marketing at Vancouver-area universities.
Aquafaba won’t add a beany smell to baking, Coleman says. Recipes for cookies and cakes generally call for small amounts and often contain flavouring like vanilla or chocolate, which would mask any unpleasant odour.
And Coleman says she’s never experienced that often embarrassing side-effect of gassiness, again likely because of the small amount used.
Aquafaba can be whipped without using a stabilizer, but Coleman recommends using cream of tartar or xanthan gum, which don’t add colour or flavour, when making meringue as the aquafaba stays whipped longer, will have stiffer peaks and a better texture.
She finds xanthan gum, a sugar residue often derived from corn, works better when thickening ice cream and giving marshmallows a stretchy texture.
The liquid can also be folded into savoury applications as an emulsifier, binder and a thickener. It can be added to wet ingredients in a similar manner to oil, milk or eggs.
Developing recipes using aquafaba required a lot of experimentation and many endeavours were inedible, especially when it came to cheese. But Coleman was determined to devise a nut-free version for people who are allergic.
Most nut cheese has a texture closer to cream cheese or brie. Her aquafaba cheese can be sliced and is akin to smoked Gouda. Coleman calls it “a pretty decent, reasonable facsimile.”
Even though I’ve done it a hundred times now, every time I do it I’m still kind of amazed. ‘This is a miracle.’ … It’s like a magic trick.