Vegan Cooking with Beverly Lynn Bennett

Beverly Lynn Bennett is a vegan chef who recently completed her first electronic vegan cookbook, Eat Your Veggies. She's been working in the restaurant industry since she was 12. Please visit VeganChef.com to get some great vegan recipes and to learn more about her.

Question:

I really miss eclairs and cream puffs, which I used to make frequently, but all of my vegan attempts (Ener-G, Egg-Not) have been dismal failures. What is it about eggs that makes these things puffy? Would yeast work? Baking soda and vinegar? Help!

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Answer:

I have never heard of a vegan recipe for cream puffs, and personally I wouldn't even know where to begin to convert such a recipe. They contain very few ingredients: flour, fat, milk, and eggs, basically, and each plays their part in their "puffy" appearance. It's a challenge to replace such a large quantity of eggs in a recipe. It seems that the heat of the oven coagulates the gluten and egg proteins to set the structure and make the product firm on the outside. The dough is leavened during the baking process by steam which expands the product quickly and forms the large holes in the center of it. Like a soufflé, there is such a large quantity of eggs needed for a "puffy mass" that I wouldn't even know where to begin to attempt to duplicate such an item, therefore, I can't help you much with your inquiry. If you want to experiment, try starting with yeast, and maybe add vital wheat gluten or barley flour (also for color) to help with the structure, beyond that, I'm as stumped as you are.

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