In general this is also how I think about baking. One thing I struggle with, though, is understanding the role of ingredients. For example, I’ve been trying to figure out how to make vegan Choux pastry. When I replaced the eggs with aquafaba, I can get a great foam and it pipes out great. But the eggs also seem to have some kind of structural role, and my dough collapses to a flat sheet on the baking tray. How would you go about figuring out what role eggs play in the recipe?
Are there cookbooks that look at the world this way?
Here is a recipe that might be helpful, as either a ritual approach or by looking at the different ingredients and then at what they might be doing chemically and structurally.
Egg whites are proteins and so are gluten in wheat and both will provide some degree or structural rigidity.
Since we don’t know your recipe I would make a rather wild guess that perhaps the use of cream of tartar. This suggests “A pinch of cream of tartar also helps stabilize whipped cream to prevent it from deflating”, so perhaps as well as functioning as a leavening agent with the baking soda it is also adding some strength.
Here is one more link. A quick scan of some sections suggests you won’t need a chemistry background but it does talk about how the ingredients work at the level. For instance, I never new salt worked to act as a strengthener for gluten during baking.
In general this is also how I think about baking. One thing I struggle with, though, is understanding the role of ingredients. For example, I’ve been trying to figure out how to make vegan Choux pastry. When I replaced the eggs with aquafaba, I can get a great foam and it pipes out great. But the eggs also seem to have some kind of structural role, and my dough collapses to a flat sheet on the baking tray. How would you go about figuring out what role eggs play in the recipe?
Are there cookbooks that look at the world this way?
Here is a recipe that might be helpful, as either a ritual approach or by looking at the different ingredients and then at what they might be doing chemically and structurally.
Egg whites are proteins and so are gluten in wheat and both will provide some degree or structural rigidity.
Since we don’t know your recipe I would make a rather wild guess that perhaps the use of cream of tartar. This suggests “A pinch of cream of tartar also helps stabilize whipped cream to prevent it from deflating”, so perhaps as well as functioning as a leavening agent with the baking soda it is also adding some strength.
Here is one more link. A quick scan of some sections suggests you won’t need a chemistry background but it does talk about how the ingredients work at the level. For instance, I never new salt worked to act as a strengthener for gluten during baking.
I did use an acid to stabilize the aquafaba the most recent time I did it, and while I got a better foam it still collapsed in the oven.
That recipe looks similar to what I tried but isn’t exactly the same, so I may try it at some point, thanks!