— Char Nolan

There is no one size fits all. I will say that not everyone agrees with me, but I agree with me. Um, this is ground flax and it is when one tablespoon of flax and three tablespoons of water are our mixed together becomes gelatinous. And that will help to bind baked goods, to bind them, not to leaven them. This is ground chia seed. It will do the same thing. Now I can only think of one or two recipes in my whole repertoire where I use flax or chia. I actually prefer chia, maybe three recipes. And I don't always use water as a liquid. Sometimes I use coffee, um, because I happen to love the, the taste of that. So it doesn't matter. But it's one tablespoon to three tablespoons of liquid. Some people say you can use yogurt. This is a plain yogurt and this is empty, but it's got a little note in there that says aquafaba. So aquafaba is the liquid that chickpeas were cooked in and you want to use unsalted if, if it's been salted your aquafaba, that's a going to be a good thing. Over my shoulder, no right here. I whipped up some aquafaba earlier today for meringue and you know, I love learning things and you learn things by doing. I have behind me, you can see I have a tilt head stand mixer, the, it's a pro and I, or ordinarily I do my aquafaba in a bigger KitchenAid mixer, electric mixer, one that doesn't have a tilt head. And I find that it's got a bigger whisk and a heavier motor and I find that it makes more aquafaba and it holds better. That said, I have students in the course who don't have electric stem mixers and they do this with a hand mixer. It's just tedious, but it's doable to me. The most reliable egg substitute is baking soda vinegar and a bit of baking powder. And that goes all the way back to the days during wartime when people couldn't get eggs. And when I was left the traditional world to go in, try to create vegan desserts, there were none that were worth eating 30 some odd years ago. I thought about what did they do during the war? And there were cakes made with bacon, soda and vinegar and the cakes rose really nicely. I figured I could do better and I feel that I have at this point. But these are called chemical lemons. I use aluminum free baking powder, I use baking soda. Actually the baking soda that I use is from Bob's drug milk. And I use apple cider vinegar and I find that gives the best rise to the cake, the best crumb that is actually equivalent to a good cake made with eggs. And I say good because not all conventional desserts are delicious. You might have noticed that. So sure. I think a short answer to your question is for a quick bread I would use, I think a combination again, I think a combination is best. I would use, uh, flax gel or chia gel and some extra baking powder and baking soda for a birthday cake. Definitely no flax, no chia, no aquafaba, I haven't been using that yet. We have a beautiful muffin in the course that is from book by ju diva called Aquafaba. And that is made with a whipped aquafaba. So you can do that and a cookie you can use. Other egg substitutes are fruit and vegetable purees. So apple sauce, for example, the apple sauce, banana prune puree, they have a lot of pectin in them and they help to bind a cake and add moistness.