Michelle Darmody: Three delicious baking recipes with a surprising vinegar twist
Three recipes that use vinegar
Vinegar can be a surprisingly useful ingredient in baking. It reacts with bread soda to add air to cakes, as well as adding a bit of umph to a meringue. I often use it when I need buttermilk in a recipe and have forgotten to buy some. A spoon or two of vinegar added to regular milk will turn it sour and create a similar consistency and taste to buttermilk.
This same method works with non-dairy milks as well, so it helps in dairy free or vegan baking. You follow the same process, adding vinegar to oat or soya milk for example. A tablespoon of vinegar will work for about 300mls of non-dairy milk. Stir in the vinegar and leave to stand at room temperature for about fifteen minutes. By that time, it should have separated and look lumpy.
Vinegar can also work in the place of eggs when paired with bread soda. One teaspoon of bread soda mixed into a tablespoon of vinegar will replace one egg in many recipes. It works best for small batch baking where one egg is needed.
Free-from chocolate cake
Perfect with a cup of tea, this chocolate cake uses vinegar as a substitute for eggs
Servings
6Preparation Time
15 minsCooking Time
40 minsTotal Time
55 minsCourse
BakingIngredients
300mls of oat milk
1 tbsp cider vinegar
180g golden caster sugar
1 tsp bread soda, sieved
5 tbsp cocoa powder
300g self raising flour, sieved
2 tsp vanilla extract
100g of dairy free chocolate, broken into small even pieces
To decorate:
120mls oat cream
180g of dairy free dark chocolate, broken into small even pieces
Method
Preheat your oven to 180°C and line an 8-inch round cake tin with parchment. I use either a loose-base or spring-form tin.
Stir your vinegar into the milk and allow it to sit for about fifteen minutes until it separates.
Gently mix the sugar, bread soda, cocoa powder, flour and vanilla together. Add in the milk mixture and combine it well. Stir in the chocolate chips.
Scoop your mixture into your prepared tin and bake for about 40 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. Once cool enough to handle place onto a wire rack to cool completely.
To make the ganache heat the cream but do not boil, whisk in the chocolate chips until smooth. Allow to cool to room temperature and spread over the cold cake.
Vanilla meringues swirls
Impress with these perfect meringue swirls from your own oven
Servings
8Preparation Time
15 minsCooking Time
2 hours 0 minsTotal Time
2 hours 15 minsCourse
BakingIngredients
3 egg whites
150g golden caster sugar
½ tsp white vinegar
2 tsp vanilla extract
Method
Preheat your oven to 100°C and line two flat baking trays with parchment.
Whisk the egg whites until stiff peaks form. Slowly add the sugar until combined. Continue to whisk and add the vinegar and vanilla.
Pipe swirls of meringue with a piping bag placing them about an inch apart on the prepared trays. Bake for an hour then turn off the oven without opening the door. Leave the meringues in the warm oven for another hour. Once cool enough to handle peel off the baking parchment and place on a wire rack to cool completely.
Vinegar reacts with bread soda to add air to cakes. Servings Preparation Time Cooking Time Total Time Course Ingredients 130g golden caster sugar 230mls almond milk 80mls olive oil 1 tsp vanilla extract ½ tsp sea salt 250g self raising flour 1 tsp bread soda 1 tbs cider vinegar 220g of cherries (either fresh destoned or frozen) Method Preheat your oven to 180°C and place 12 paper cases into a muffin tin. Stir the sugar, almond milk, olive oil and vanilla together until well combined and the sugar is starting to dissolve. Stir the salt into the flour and add this to the wet ingredients. Mix the cider vinegar and bread soda and just when it begins to bubble stir it into the mixture. Stir in the cherries. Spoon the mixture between the paper cases and bake for 30 minutes or until baked through. Once cool enough to handle place onto a wire rack to cool completely.Vegan cherry muffins
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