Satisfy Your Sweet Tooth With This Incredible Vegan Substitution Baking Guide

Baking is a delicate science that requires a balance of all ingredients. When you’re cooking with ordinary ingredients, this usually isn’t too hard to manage. But baking gluten-free and vegan can require a lot more creativity, and if you aren’t sure how best to work with the ingredients, your final products may turn out a little disappointing.

To help you better understand how to bake vegan, try looking over this ultimate gluten-free vegan baking substitution guide, for baking success with every recipe!

Ultimate Gluten-Free Vegan Baking Substitution Guide

Gum and Gluten Replacements

Gluten is what gives all baked goods their structure, so when you bake without gluten, you need to ensure that a suitable replacement can stand in it’s stead. A great replacement for gluten is xanthan gum, which works in the same way as gluten to give your baked goods structure.

How to use:

For yeast products: add 1 teaspoon of xanthan gum (or guar gum) for each cup of flour blend.

For non-yeast products: add ½ teaspoon of xanthan gum per cup of flour

Gluten-Free Flour Blends

Unfortunately, using just one type of gluten-free flour can’t replace the normal white or whole-wheat flour that is used in regular baking. To replicate the texture and consistency of normal flour, try making this homemade blend from various vegan gluten flours.

Homemade High-Protein Flour Blend:

1 ¼ cups bean or legume flour (i.e. chickpea, navy bean, soy)
1 cup medium-weight flour (i.e. brown rice, sorghum)
1 cup light starch (i.e. tapioca, cornstarch, potato starch)

If you need to make your flour blend self-rising, add 1 ½ tsp. baking powder and ½ tsp. salt for every 1 cup of gluten-free flour blend.

However, if you aren’t up for buying a dozen different types of flours and gums, never fear! There are plenty of pre-made gluten-free flour blends that can do the trick for you. (Find links to some of these brands here)

Increase Other Ingredients

Although some people say that regular ingredients can be simply interchanged with vegan and gluten-free products, the reality is, you need to make some adjustments. Here are a few tips to solve some of the most common problems you’ll encounter with gluten-free ingredients.

To increase lightness, increase baking powder and/or soda by 25%
For moisture, increase vegan butter or oil levels
Use fruits instead of sugar for sweetness

For flavor, increase sugar, spices and vanilla
Double the amount of yeast

Adapt Baking Times and Temperatures

This is an important tip to follow for any recipe, because gluten-free baking tends to need a little more time in the oven. If you use a regular recipe with gluten-free and vegan substitutions, sometimes the times will need to be adjusted. Gluten-free baked goods tend to cook faster on the outside then it does on the inside, so its easy to think that your products are done when they still need time.

Here’s what to do: