Biscuits and cakes with olive oil as the fat source

[FollicleSchmollicle]

Hello!

Does anyone have any good recipes for vegan cakes/biscuits which don't use margarine/butter substitute (or anything else "processed")? Trying bake for DH, who's gone vegan, and I really don't want to use processed stuff (and I'm a bit of a shite baker....).

Thank you in advance :)

Baking is chemistry and each ingredient has a specific purpose , and I just don’t think using olive oil as the sole fat source would work in any recipe for biscuits or cake, particularly if you only have cold pressed oils as they have a very strong taste. If you want to bake vegan biscuits/cake then I think you need to acquiesce to processed ‘fat’ products - look at Trex, or Pure , both good vegan subs for butter /marg.

I've seen olive oil cake on TV, it's definitely a thing. I'll see if I can find a recipe.

Nigella has a vegan chocolate cake that uses coconut oil - it's amazing! Would you use coconut oil? The icing might contain something weird but, from memory the cake doesn't

Dammit they've all got eggs in. Presume no eggs? I'm just about to go out but I'll try again later. Gotta be possible!

We use vegetable oil in muffins but as the recipes also contain egg and milk they are not strictly vegan. The notes suggest increasing liquid if egg is omitted and you could use a dairy free milk substitute. We use the Susan Reimer recipe book (3rd and 4th editions).
Muffins: Fast and Fantastic https://amzn.eu/d/dPN04tM

Nigella lemon polenta cake is vegan and delicious!

I can't vouch for this recipe as I haven't tried it, but it's vegan. https://domesticgothess.com/blog/2021/03/05/olive-oil-chocolate-chip-cookies-vegan/

Olive oil has a very strong flavour, so you might want to consider more neutral oils such as rapeseed unless you're actually looking for that taste. However, it's probably the eggs that will be the issue as PPs have said - the least processed is probably aquafaba. The best cookie recipe I have found uses oil instead of butter anyway, and always comes out perfect (I use rapeseed instead of sunflower because that's what I have) - but I'm not vegan so you could try it with 3 tbsp of aquafaba instead of the egg. It's Sue Lawrence's super chewy chocolate chip cookie recipe (so you can google just in case the link doesn't work).

Blended olive oil has a very neutral taste and is what I use for cooking. I only use EVOO if it's not going to be heated.

Can DH not do his own vegan research and baking?

Is he expecting you to do the heavy lifting on this, or is it something you think you need to do for him?

It's tricky if you are excluding processed food. For years I have made GF scones with Biona sunflower margarine which is pretty good for baking and spreading. It's been out of stock recently so I am using olive oil. It doesn't really do the job for scones, I find. Hoping it's available soon.

I have had success was thin crepes, though. I use mixed buckwheat and rice flour with a pinch of salt, about 1 tablespoon of olive oil per 100g flour. Mix with tepid water and leave standing for a few hours. I make the batter to the consistency of single cream, then add more water than I think it needs! Pour thinly into a hot pan. A couple of minutes each side and they bubble up beautifully. I put mine in the freezer and take out one at a time to re heat 5 mins at 180 fan.

Just remember: Light olive oil is your friend when baking cakes. No taste, very mild. You don’t want to grab the richer, extra virgin olive oil. Sorry if I’m preaching to the converted.

It works absolutely fine from a chemistry perspective. I’ve even got non-vegan cookbooks that call for vegetable oil and you can use most oils then, The only thing to be aware of is potential flavour and that some oils don’t heat especially well, but olive oil is fine for baking temperatures.

This is my go-to banana bread recipe: https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/vegan-banana-bread?IGNOREGEO_REDIRECT_GLOBAL=true&v=943432204 the olive flavour can be covered with more spices. I also recently made a cake from this book: https://www.waterstones.com/book/simply-vegan-baking/freya-cox/9781922616432 and used olive oil as it was all I had, I just added extra vanilla extract and it was fine. Usually I would use avocado oil though as it’s a bit more neutral tasting.

What about muffins?

These are made using vegetable oil and you swap the eggs for bananas.

My vegan brownie recipe

140g plain flour
200g sugar
100ml coconut oil
200g dark chocolate
20g cocoa powder
240ml vegan milk
Orange or vanilla extract.

Melt the dark chocolate and basically just mix everything together. Bake at 160 for 30 minutes.

Oil is not the problem. It is easy to bake with oil, especially cakes. Straight substitution: use 80% of the weight of butter. Omitting eggs is a little more challenging.

Here is a lovely, easy recipe for Italian Olive Oil Cookies

90ml olive oil
160g soft brown sugar
60ml milk (non-dairy is fine)
200g plain flour
¼tsp baking soda
pinch of salt
150g dark chocolate (chips or grated)

Beat together olive oil, sugar and milk.

Combine flour, baking soda, salt and chocolate in a separate bowl.

Stir wet and dry mixtures together.

Spoon in mounds onto lined baking trays, 10-12 to a tray.

Bake at 180C for 15-17 minutes.

Leave to cool and firm up for a few minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack.

Makes 20-24 cookies.

Vegan Gothess has really good recipes. I often make banana bread. It's really easy and tastes great.

I can't track down the recipe unfortunately but I made a very nice vegan coconut and lemon cake, it used a tin of coconut milk, plus dessicated coconut. No olive oil though.

You can use aquafaba instead of eggs.

I'm not vegan but I make these (I think initially for a friend with dairy intolerance iirc) and they're really good. Very rich though. https://allplants.com/blog/recipes/vegan-brownie-cookies

Thank you all SO much! This is all super-helpful. I will definitely be following up your ideas and links....

You can also replace eggs with flax or chia seeds mixed with water https://minimalistbaker.com/how-to-make-a-flax-egg/

Look up Deliciously Ella - website and books.

He can bake for himself

I.mean...do you think the OP hasn't considered this, and discounted it for whatever reason?

OP I'm dairy-free and make a lot of stuff with olive oil. As a pp said, you can generally sub in about 80% of the weight of the fat in a recipe. Smittenkitchen.com has a few oil-based baking recipes, and I'll try and dig out some of my other favourites for you.