Vegan in Austria
Hi all. I'd first like to say that I love this site and I have used a multitude of the recipes!
But, to the point:
I am a vegan living in Austria. I teach at a farming school where all of my students are pretty thrown back when I tell them I'm vegan and class discussion follows. They are very curious, not too accepting, but curious.
So, I thought it would be fun to make my students some vegan Christmas cookies to show them that vegan food isn't bad, but because I'm in Austria, I cannot find vegan butter or vegan egg substitute. I'm in a really small town. :'(
Does anyone have any vegan Christmas cookie recipes without these two ingredients?
I'd really appreciate any suggestions. So far I'm going to make some vegan banana bread, everybody so far has loved that!
Thanks!
JEN
Hey Jen! How sweet and generous of you to bake for your students! I bet they will get a lesson in veganomics once they discover how delicious your cookies will turn out! No vegan butter or egg subs? No worries! I don't have these ingredients either and I bake weekly. I a one-fourth to a half of a banana for an egg substitute but sometimes I don't want the banana taste, so I use cornstarch (1 TB + 2 TB of water), or I bet you can use flour; after all flour and corn starch are used to thicken gravies, so try using these if you don't want a banana taste.
As for butter, I NEVER use vegan butter because I hardly liked dairy butter or margerine when I was a non-vegan. You can substitute oil. I like canola and extra virgin olive oil because they help reduce the bad cholesterol. One of my favorite recipes on this site is Tollhouse-like cookies, a recipe which employs oil as a butter sub and banana as an egg substitute. Although some have replied to the recipe as having too much of banana taste, I don't think the taste is all that noticeable. Maybe give the a shot and see if you like it to determine if your students would like it. When I add the banana I add a little bit at a time, just until the mixture begins to thicken, so as to reduce a strong banana taste. Good luck with your baking! 2 thumbs up for your teaching of the vegan lifestyle to your students! ;D
Light (low-acidity, 0.4%--known as "salad quality") olive oil has been used in Spain for centuries for pastry, and it subs admirably for margarine. I'm quite sure you could use safflower or sunflower oil, which would be more available in Austria (after all, that's what most margarines are made of!) If you don't want to use banana instead of egg, try applesauce.