A Celebrity Baker Recommends Some Vegan Substitutes For Making Cookies

Times used to be tough for vegan bakers: For butter, you had Earth Balance, and that was about it. For eggs, some kind of weird egg replacer from the food co-op. Instead of milk chocolate, you reached for the ... carob? And you ended up with a chocolate chip cookie that, while possibly pleasant-tasting, was rarely in danger of winning any awards.

Now, though, we're living in a golden age of vegan substitutes, so we asked an expert to give us some recommendations. "There are so many 'vegan butters' on the market right now, and they are excellent for baking," said Zac Young, Sprinkle Master at PieCaken Bakeshop and Sprinkletown Donuts & Ice Cream. PieCaken Bakeshop rose to viral fame for its four-in-one holiday desserts, with the Original T-Day PieCaken combining pecan pie, pumpkin pie, apple pie filling, and spice cake into one glorious creation finished with cinnamon buttercream. The bakeshop now offers many other options besides, and it's clear that Young is a pastry chef who knows his butter.

The classic vegan butter was just vegetable shortening — a workaday ingredient that doesn't add much flavor. But today's plant-based butter options, Young explains exclusively to Mashed, "are different from vegetable shortening because they are blended with water and proteins to mimic actual butter." These products meet all sorts of baking needs, from pie crusts to cake batters to buttercream frostings. With egg substitutes that are also better than ever, plant-based pastries have never tasted so sweet.

Made from a vegetable oil blend, Earth Balance is still no slouch when it comes to vegan pastry. But rather than being a solo player, today it's a member of a growing team of plant-based butter that can be swapped in, one-to-one, in any pastry recipe where you'd use regular butter. Like Miyoko's, a popular European-style product from cultured cashew milk, coconut oil, water, and sunflower lecithin. If you're trying to stay away from nuts, another well-liked brand is Flora; its plant-based butters are made from palm kernel, palm oil, and pea protein. (Wondering about the nutritional implications? Check out our analysis of whether vegan butter is healthier than regular butter.)

"There are also a lot of great egg replacements on the market that mimic the binding quality of eggs," Zac Young explains. Mashed has a ranking of these egg substitutes, with the highest ranking Ener-G Egg Replacer and a similar product from Bob's Red Mill both made from plant starches and other powders. But if you don't have time for a store run, don't panic. 

Instead, reach for a can of chickpeas and use aquafaba, a surprising egg substitute for baking. Aquafaba is the liquid leftover as a byproduct of cooking legumes. This miracle egg substitute can help you make whipped cream, meringues, and many other pastries — use 3 tablespoons in place of a whole egg, 2 tablespoons for one egg white, and 1 tablespoon for an egg yolk.