substituting oil for marg in baking

[OceanMomma]

I'm finding vegan baking more & more frustrating. Anyone have any joy with substituting oil for marg in recipes ? I've got a major craving for some coffee cake from the farm vegetarian cook book.

[cathe]

I have had some success but the only way to know is to try it and experiment. Here is a delicious coffeecake recipe that I have tried from Feeding the Healthy Vegetarian Family and it uses oil:

Note: make the struesel first in your food processor . . .

Coffee Cake
1 cup apple juice
1 cup applesauce
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/3 cup oil
2 teaspoons vanilla
3 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspon cinammon
1/2 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 350. Oil and flour 9 or 10 inch square baking pan or a springform pan. Blend juice, applesauce, syrup, oil, and vanilla in blender or food procesor.
In separate bowl, sift remaining ingredients. Add applesauce mixture. Saple half in pan, put layer of streusel, put remaining batther and than remaining streusel on top.
Take 40 minutes, or until knife inserted in center comes out clean.

Struesel Topping

1/3 cup light brown sugar
3/4 cup rolled oats
1 teaspoon cinammon
1 1/2 cups walnuts
2 tablespoons oil

Place first 4 ingredients in food processor, chop coarsely. Pour in oil and pulse to mix.

[milk4two]

I substitute coconut butter for butter or margarine in just about everything.

[TigerTail]

chemically, it just doesn't work well to sub (i know apricot can tell us why )

have you tried the spectrum palm oil spread, or other 'solid' fats like coconut oil for baking? (wish i could find pure, food-grade cocoa butter!)

there are surely some oil-based actual recipes (i've done cookies with oil, and some are pretty good), but no doubt you've tried them and found them wanting in variety...

anyway, good luck!

suse

[OceanMomma]

Thankyou so much for the coffee cake recipe. I'm going food shopping tomorrow so I will get the ingredients & give it a whirl

We don't get any of those spectrum spread things here. I could get a non-hydrogenated oil marg when I lived up north but it was literally 3 or 4x the price of normal marg & was made with & tasted just like flax seed oil. Totally ruined the cake I made with it Not to mention the disappointment!

So I think I will just have to stick to anzac bisuits, flapjacks & vegan chocolate cake & maybe a nice new coffee cake recipe

[twilight girl]

I have a banana bread recipe that calls for 1/4 c melted butter. I've found that recipe comes out just as good with 1/4 c. oil.

HTH,
Judi

[TigerTail]

oh gag, oceanmomma- flax seed oil is hard to disguise! (i know from bitter experience)

hehe, too bad shipping runs so pricey- we could do a trade say, some spectrum spread for some horlick's powder

suse

[OceanMomma]

The BIG problem with banana bread is well the bananas. The normal bananas we get in the shops are not very fair traded at all. Occasionally, I can get organic bananas that are OK. I used to be able to get heaps of locally grown ones when I lived up north, but banana trees don't grow down here Altho' I do plan to give it a go in my tunnel house once I get a bit more organised. So yeah, banana bread is not a very feasible option most weeks. I s'pose I could try zuchini bread instead?

Horlicks Suse!!! Yes we get that here. Ovaltine is another thing I remember from being a kid.

re: the new coffee cake recipe. I went shopping & got coffee cake stuff. Got home & I'd forgotten the maple syrup. As we live 11 miles out of town I couldn't exactly pop back. So I ended up making the one out of the farm cookery book. Instead of 3/4c of marg, I used 1/2 c of olive oil + 1/4 cup of soy milk. It actually tasted OK, much to my surprise. So I'm still waiting to try the new coffee cake recipe.

[fromscatteredtribe]

since I always cook vegan at home I am used to replacing almost everything in a recipe with something else...sometimes I don't even measure at all! The margarine oil thing doesn't always translate but I have found that muffins almost always work, even with no added fat if you combine the right amount of wet and dry ingredients, and I always throw some baking powder in to help with the egg-lessness. I have very rarely hated the muffins I make and I will throw random things in like flax seed meal (which doesn't taste like anything in there or soy protein. try www.veganchef.com too...she is really pretty good. I have tried the following recipe with a little flax meal instead of the wheat germ. (I can't remember where I got it, but it satisfies my cravings for coffee cakes and pastries)
1.5 c flour
1 cup wheat germ
2 t baking powder
1/2 t baking soda
3/4 t salt
1 t cinnamon
1/8 t nutmeg
egg replacer = 1 egg
1/2 c brown sugar
1/3 vegetable oil
1 c applesauce
1/2 soymilk
can be topped with 2t sugar mixed with 1 t cinnamon before baking
425 degrees 17 minutes

but like I said I RARELY FOLLOW the recipe and I substitute whatever sweeteners or flours or fruits or goodies I have, just to get the consistency right GOOD LUCK and have a good time

[ShannonCC]

I use oil in baking most of the time. How about carrot bread and zucchini bread?

These cookies were yummy! I subbed some of the honey with molasses just for the taste but if you don't use honey try all molasses. It calls for eggs but you can probably use egg replacer. http://www.grimmway.com/bakeyourown.htm

[Kylix]

Maybe I'm missing the point...Are you set on using oil as a substitute? Soybean margarine is vegan and I can find it at my local grocery store....

Kylix

[OceanMomma]

It's the evil hydrogenated fats in margerine that are the problem not the fact that it isn't or is vegan.

[Kylix]

Ah, I see

Kylix

[ShannonCC]

I'm not vegan (or vegetarian ) but I have lactose AND soy intolerances : I have found ONE margarine without soy oil in it and it's a spread and not for baking. In a pinch, dairy affects me less than soy so I'll use that, but I prefer not to use either.

I'm curious about the coconut butter. How do things turn out? The one downside of oil is that you can't seem to get a crispy cookie like with butter.