Essential Vegan Desserts
Course Overview
Essential Vegan Desserts is an online course based on Fran Costigan’s popular Vegan Baking Boot Camp. This 90-day course focuses on essential techniques and recipes so you can create professional quality vegan desserts with confidence. The course starts with an explanation of key equipment, ingredient selection and function, and foundational techniques for creating desserts without the use of eggs and dairy. As you progress, learning activities and practice recipes will showcase your ability to prepare and finish an array of vegan desserts ranging from gels, mousse and puddings, cookies, cakes, pies and tarts, pies, cakes, tarts and cookies. You’ll learn to use aquafaba, make sauces and creams, and create component desserts.
Course Objectives
At the end of this course you'll be able to:
- Identify and use a range of equipment used in the pastry kitchen
- Describe and effectively utilize diverse food ingredients used for dessert production
- Explain ingredient functions, including fats, sugar, flours, thickeners, egg replacements, and flavorings
- Apply principles of mise en place, including measuring and portioning of ingredients
- Select and demonstrate applications of various types of chocolate
- Demonstrate preparation of products such as non-dairy cream, pudding, mousse and aquafaba
- Demonstrate preparation of various quick breads, cookies and bars
- Demonstrate preparation of various cakes
- Apply techniques of cake assembly and finishing including layering and frosting
- Demonstrate preparation of pies and tarts
- Apply techniques of pie and tart assembly including working with doughs and fillings
- Explain and practice principles of baking without dairy, eggs, refined sugar and other select foods
- Create and share your own versions of vegan pastry and desserts
- Modify or adapt many standard recipes to plant-based versions
Course Syllabus
Unit 1: Welcome and Orientation
This introductory unit prepares you for complete success in your course. It introduces the overall learning objectives and teaches you how to best navigate Rouxbe’s learning management system as well as how to accomplish the required activities and assessments.
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Lesson 1
Course Orientation
Unit 2: Navigating the Vegan Pastry Kitchen
Getting organized in the kitchen is a very important first step. This unit helps you insure that you have the correct kitchen equipment and tools on hand to successfully complete the course. It covers key topics such as mise en place as well as methods for measuring and mixing.
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Lesson 1
Unit Orientation
Lesson 2
Why Vegan Pastry?
Lesson 3
Setting Yourself Up
Lesson 4
The Pastry Tools
Lesson 5
Unit Review & Assessment
Unit 3: Key Ingredients and Functionality
Success in the vegan pastry kitchen starts with having the right ingredients and products for the job. This unit details the various types of ingredients that you will use in this course including flours, fats and oils, sweeteners and sugar, dairy and egg alternatives, thickeners and leavening agents.
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Lesson 1
Unit Orientation
Lesson 2
Flours
Wheat is one of the most common grains used in everyday foods. In this lesson, we will examine gluten, the magical component in wheat that enables us to make so many wonderful products. You will learn what gluten is, where it comes from and when gluten is and isn’t your friend.
Lesson 3
Fats
In this lesson, you will learn about the role of fats in a plant-based kitchen. You will learn about different types of fat, their role in recipes and how to limit or use them appropriately.
Lesson 4
Sweeteners and Sugars
In this lesson, you will learn some key plant-based substitutions for dairy products, as well as techniques for how to use them. You'll also learn some basic recipes for creating staple dairy alternatives, so you'll be able to convert dairy-based recipes to plant-based recipes.
Lesson 5
Acids: Vinegars, Alcohol & Citrus
In this lesson, you will learn about different types of acids, their role in creating balanced flavor profiles and how to use them effectively.
Lesson 6
Working with Fruits
Lesson 7
Dairy Alternatives
Lesson 8
Gels and Thickeners
In this lesson, you will learn about thickeners, gels and stabilizers in the plant-based kitchen. You will learn about different types of plant-based thickeners, their applications and their limitations. You will also learn some advanced techniques for creating texture in your finished dishes.
Lesson 9
Replacing Eggs and Leaveners
Lesson 10
Unit Review & Assessment
Unit 4: Chocolate, Creams, Pudding and Mousse
This unit serves as an introduction to chocolate, non-dairy creams, pudding, aquafaba and mousse. In addition to learning about how chocolate is processed and prepared, there is also a focus on production of chocolate base recipes as well as other recipe preparations that serve as components of desserts.
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Lesson 1
Unit Orientation & Objectives
Lesson 2
Choosing Quality Chocolate
Lesson 3
Chocolate Staples
Lesson 4
Non Dairy Creams
Lesson 5
Aquafaba
Lesson 6
Pudding, Mousse and Finishing Accents
Lesson 7
Unit Review
Unit 5: Quick Breads, Cookies and Bars
This unit offers a broad introduction to a variety of dessert and pastry products, including quick breads, cookies, bars, brownies, scones and biscuits. In addition, rustic and old-fashioned fruit desserts such as cobblers, crumbles and crisps will be introduced.
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Lesson 1
Unit Orientation & Objectives
Lesson 2
An Introduction to Quick breads
Lesson 3
Scones and Biscuits
Lesson 4
Rustic Fruit Desserts
Lesson 5
A World of Cookies
Lesson 6
Bars and Brownies
Lesson 7
Unit Review
Unit 6: Cakes, Glazes and Frostings
This unit focuses on cake production and assembly with fillings, frostings and glazing. The unit focuses on building memorable cakes that will be evaluated based on techniques learned in the course.
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Lesson 1
Unit Orientation & Objectives
Lesson 2
Preparing Cakes
Lesson 3
Fillings, Glazing and Frosting
Lesson 4
Cakes
Lesson 5
Unit Review
Unit 7: Pies and Tarts
This unit focuses on the production and assembly of pies and tarts, including variations in crust style, troubleshooting doughs, using fillings and assembly sequencing. This unit details the process to create classic and modified examples of pies and tarts using techniques from the lessons.
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Lesson 1
Unit Orientation & Objectives
Lesson 2
The Fundamentals of Pie Crust
Lesson 3
The Core Recipes
Lesson 4
Unit Review
Unit 8: Final Showcase and Assessment
This unit provides an opportunity for students to practice and apply an array of techniques to prepare high quality vegan desserts. A final showcase of desserts will be prepared and evaluated as a capstone to this course.
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Lesson 1
Celebrating with Desserts
Lesson 2
Final Assessment
Practice Recipes
A few of the practice recipes you'll learn in this course.
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