Friday, September 24, 2010
AN INTERESTING EXPERIMENT-- CRUNCHY EGG REPLACER MERINGUES!
Orgran "No Egg" egg replacer meringues with melted vegan chocolate and pecans!
When I went to my local health food store, Edible Island, in Courtenay, BC last week, I spotted an item that was new to the store-- Orgran "No Egg"
, an Australian brand of egg replacer that I had heard of but never been able to try. I had read that it will whip up to an almost-stiff peak like beaten egg whites. Up until now, I had only been able to achieve that with Ener-G Egg Replacer
, and I have been wanting to try Orgran because it is more readily available outside of North America. So I bought a box and I checked out their website.One of their recipes caught my eye-- crunchy baked meringues. I decided to give it a try. Not that I ever indulged in them that much as a non-vegan, but many people love them. They are sort of a sweet, blank canvas for fruit, etc, as with the Pavlova, beloved in New Zealand and Australia.
UPDATE: THIS RECIPE WORKS WITH ENER-G EGG REPLACER POWDER!
I wasn't quite sure about the "citrus pectin", but I went to our little local general store to see what they had. All the had was "light pectin" for canning, so I bought a little packet. (After further research, I see that you can buy "modified citrus pectin", but it is very expensive--it seems to be used for everything from the effects of radiation treatment to arthritis-- and the cheap the canning pectin seemed to work!)
It's a simple recipe and is baked pretty much the same way that egg white meringues are baked. The results in their photo looked great, but I wasn't sure what to expect. In any case, I followed their recipe, using my canning pectin. I also wasn't sure what they meant by "pure powdered sugar", but I just used organic powdered sugar.
Here were the results after beating for 10 minutes:
It fluffed up tremendously! It made ALOT of fluff!
After baking them as directed for 2 hours at 250 degrees F, and letting them try out in the turned-off oven with the door cracked open, I was rewarded with 2 trays of lovely, crunchy meringues!
They were airy and crunchy and slightly chewy in the middle, as they should be, but I didn't think they were quite sweet enough. I think I'll use more powdered sugar next time, although there might be a structural reason for using less sugar-- you never know until you try!
We ate them with strawberries on top:
And we ate them with chocolate and pecans:
They kept well and didn't get soft. I'll experiment a bit more and post again. As I said before, it was not something I longed for, and it doesn't contribute anything in the way of nutrition (it is fat-free, though), but meringue is the basis of many beloved desserts, so, it's worth finding a vegan recipe that works even if you only use it on occasion! I want to see if this recipe will work with Ener-G Egg Replacer (UPDATE-- it does!), and I want to use it as the basis of some cookies with coconut, etc..
Al the best!
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13 comments:
Thanks for posting this Bryanna. I might give this a try with my next long cooking class. They'd likely find it interesting. I haven't yet seen that product but maybe it will show up in my local store, if I ask.
amazon carries it (you have to buy 8 boxes, though!):
http://www.amazon.com/OrgraN-Natural-Replacer-7-Ounce-Packages/dp/B000EI1VLU
Ener-G has similar ingredients, so I'm going to try the meringues with it this week, I hope!
that was interesting, thanks for sharing!!
I miss lemon meringue pie sooo much!
Can't wait to see the results with ener-g. Thanks Bryanna!
Marie, I'm afraid that this is the cookie type of meringue, not the pie type! See this post about lemon meringue pie:
http://veganfeastkitchen.blogspot.com/2010/09/busy-labour-day-weekend.html
using Julie Hasson's vegan meringue recipe, which is available if you have a subscription to Everyday Dish TV:
https://www.everydaydish.tv/index.php?page=subscribe
thanks for drawing my attention to this recipe, As I'm an Aussie, Orgran products are available to me :) wonder if this would work to top lemon "meringe" pie..
Here we have pure icing sugar (powdered sugar) and icing mix which has wheat added to stop lumps. This is probably what was meant by "pure".
I prefer the orgran to the ener-g, which I found recently in my local organic store.
I have been trying to replace the egg in my zucchini pie, because of my daughter's egg allergy. But, alas, I haven't had success with either of these. If anyone has any brilliant ideas, I would be forever grateful.
Tracey, this type of egg replacer doesn't work in quiche-type pies. I find that a silken tofu mixture (perhaps with some agar and, of course, seasoning) works best.
I use a tin of ackees as an egg replacer in quiche ... a tin can be a little expensive . So it's only an occasional treat ... you might find in the Caribbean section of the supermarket..
Hey there... I don't suppose you could say what else was in your canning pectin besides pectin? The only kind I could find where I live has fructose and citric acid. I tried the recipe out, and followed the instructions, but they didn't expand in volume and certainly didn't keep their shape. My own hypothesis is that the pectin was not suitable, or possibly 10 minutes isn't enough time... any thoughts? Thanks so much! Nima
There seems to be dextrose in most North American brands of pectin-- evidently it is a thickener as well as a sugar. Maybe that was missing from your brand of pectin?
I haven't had a meringue for ages.= and I'm tempted to try these. I read your comment about the lack of sweetness. I think that could be because the recipe may have been written for an Australian market as whenever I cook American or Canadian cookie, muffin or cake recipes I cut the amount of sugar down as I always think they are overly sweet.
Many recipes for Orgran egg substitute are on the Orgran website (http://www.orgran.com/recipes ) and all those I've tried work extremely well - - (Particularly the meringue!)
Cheers
Dave
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