Aquafaba Experimenting
(things I do to keep my food allergic child safe)
I’ve been silent for the past 2 weeks experimenting with Aquafaba in the kitchen. Between researching which recipes work best AND eating all my failed sugary goods, I’m pretty much sugared out!! This is my first attempt at sugar cookies and royal icing EVER. Back when we were still eating eggs and dairy I always felt decorated cookies were TOO PRETTY TO EAT. And now after experiencing the work that goes into decorating them, I was tempted to give up halfway (I kept procrastinating icing more cookies urgh). BUT… I had a 5year old who’s birthday was looming and his egg and dairy allergic 2-year-old brother who cannot be left out!
So mummy had to hunker down and keep going. Never satisfied with just simply finishing the job, I took this opportunity to learn how to control the consistency of royal icing. Researching on how to work with aquafaba as a substitute for egg in royal icing. My conclusion is the cookies were a blast and personally, it hit the right spot of taste and structure. The icing can do with a little tweaking but was good to work with (as long as I got the consistency right).
THE CHALLENGE:
Make a fully vegan cake and cookies void of eggs, dairy and nuts using aquafaba.
MY DEADLINE:
Riley’s 5th birthday party on the 17th November
MY TIMELINE:
1 week.
RECIPES (details my cookie dough and royal icing further down) Links of original recipes can be found here:
aquafaba cookie dough recipe is adapted from Gretchen’s vegan bakery.
aquafaba royal icing recipe I used was from The Vegetarian Baker.
vegan chocolate crazy cake
aquafaba buttercream for cake
CONCLUSION:
The kids LOVED the cookies. They disappeared faster than I could say “these are vegan sugar cookies and royal icing made with aquafaba liquid”!!
Here’s a look at the final product:
MY FULLY VEGAN CHOCOLATE CAKE WITH AQUAFABA BUTTERCREAM FROSTING, DECORATED WITH AQUAFABA COOKIES AND AQUAFABA ICING.
I must say I am quite proud of this cake. And for the fact that we did not have any refrigeration facilities at our party location, the aquafaba buttercream HELD UP after 3 hours in our Singapore 90% humidity. Ok, more like I was freaking out that the cake was going to collapse. But it did not! Not sure if it was because I used agar powder in the aquafaba buttercream frosting. It was definitely a little soft but did not lose its shape.
Aquafaba vegan sugar cookie and royal icing recipes
Here’s a progress report of the 2 recipes I worked with. The vegan sugar cookie recipe is awesome and all the cookies held their shape. Again I relied on Gretchen’s vegan bakery in my search for that perfect cookie. She has a few recipes but I liked this one for its neutrality. It has less sugar, held it’s cookie cutter shape well and was a perfect match for the sweet royal icing.
The aquafaba royal icing might need a little tweaking only because I made mine without cream of tar tar nor agar powder which I suspect might add stability (not sure, still researching!). Still, the royal icing hardened well on my cookies, but I wonder if I would be able to make transfer icing decorations (will report back in my next experiment batch!).
Ingredients
- AQUAFABA SUGAR COOKIE DOUGH
- vegan butter 226g (i used Nuttelex)
- granulated sugar 200g
- aquafaba 60ml
- all-purpose flour 375g
- baking powder 1.5 teaspoons
- salt a pinch (use 0.5 teaspoons if using unsalted aquafaba)
- vanilla extract 1 teaspoon
- AQUAFABA ROYAL ICING
- confectioners sugar 250g
- Aquafaba 45ml
- vanilla essence 0.5 teaspoons (or any other flavouring extracts of choice)
Instructions
AQUAFABA SUGAR COOKIE DOUGH:
Cream the chilled vegan butter with granulated sugar till light and fluffy in a mixer.
Add aquafaba and vanilla extract. Mix till well combined (scrape down the sides if necessary to aid this step)
Add flour, baking powder and salt (all sifted) and mix on low till combined.
Wrap the dough in cling wrap, and chill for at least 2 hours. I chilled mine overnight.
When ready to roll, work in some flour with the chilled dough till it comes together, looking like a cookie dough.
Roll it out till around 1/4In thick (honestly I just estimated this part), and cut out shapes using cookie cutters.
Using a palette knife, transfer cookies to a tray lined with parchment paper.
Bake in a preheated oven at 180 degrees Celcius (or roughly 350 degrees Fahrenheit), for 15 - 20 mins till light golden brown. Be careful not to overcook the cookies. They can brown very quickly. I found that an oven thermometer is extremely useful in checking the temperature of my oven.
AQUAFABA ROYAL ICING:
Using the whisk attachment, whisk the aquafaba on high till thick and foamy. This might take anywhere between 4 - 6 minutes
Reduce speed to low and add sifted confectioners sugar and vanilla essence
Once combined, whisk on high till required consistency. Scraping the sides of bowl down with a spatula to ensure well mixed. This step can take anywhere from 6 - 8 minutes.
Notes
For this cookie dough recipe, I used Nuttelex vegan butter. The vegan butter kind of separated a little overnight while it was chilling in the refrigerator. However after reworking with a bit more flour the cookie dough came together. But I had to work fast because my 90% humidity kitchen is not kind to vegan butter.
For the icing, this recipe is the cement base for fine piping (forming alphabets and fine details). For a runnier consistency like flow icing, add drops of water to a small bowl of icing till you get a desired consistency. I had to experiement a few days with this to figure out the consistency I liked. even so, there was some bleeding in my icing (which killed my confidence) so the lesson here would be not to wait till the last minute to ice cookies.
Did You Make This Recipe?
How did it go with this recipe? Tag me on Instagram at @amandaprosimple.
Ingredients
- AQUAFABA SUGAR COOKIE DOUGH
- vegan butter 226g (i used Nuttelex)
- granulated sugar 200g
- aquafaba 60ml
- all-purpose flour 375g
- baking powder 1.5 teaspoons
- salt a pinch (use 0.5 teaspoons if using unsalted aquafaba)
- vanilla extract 1 teaspoon
- AQUAFABA ROYAL ICING
- confectioners sugar 250g
- Aquafaba 45ml
- vanilla essence 0.5 teaspoons (or any other flavouring extracts of choice)
Instructions
AQUAFABA SUGAR COOKIE DOUGH:
Cream the chilled vegan butter with granulated sugar till light and fluffy in a mixer.
Add aquafaba and vanilla extract. Mix till well combined (scrape down the sides if necessary to aid this step)
Add flour, baking powder and salt (all sifted) and mix on low till combined.
Wrap the dough in cling wrap, and chill for at least 2 hours. I chilled mine overnight.
When ready to roll, work in some flour with the chilled dough till it comes together, looking like a cookie dough.
Roll it out till around 1/4In thick (honestly I just estimated this part), and cut out shapes using cookie cutters.
Using a palette knife, transfer cookies to a tray lined with parchment paper.
Bake in a preheated oven at 180 degrees Celcius (or roughly 350 degrees Fahrenheit), for 15 - 20 mins till light golden brown. Be careful not to overcook the cookies. They can brown very quickly. I found that an oven thermometer is extremely useful in checking the temperature of my oven.
AQUAFABA ROYAL ICING:
Using the whisk attachment, whisk the aquafaba on high till thick and foamy. This might take anywhere between 4 - 6 minutes
Reduce speed to low and add sifted confectioners sugar and vanilla essence
Once combined, whisk on high till required consistency. Scraping the sides of bowl down with a spatula to ensure well mixed. This step can take anywhere from 6 - 8 minutes.
Notes
For this cookie dough recipe, I used Nuttelex vegan butter. The vegan butter kind of separated a little overnight while it was chilling in the refrigerator. However after reworking with a bit more flour the cookie dough came together. But I had to work fast because my 90% humidity kitchen is not kind to vegan butter. For the icing, this recipe is the cement base for fine piping (forming alphabets and fine details). For a runnier consistency like flow icing, add drops of water to a small bowl of icing till you get a desired consistency. I had to experiement a few days with this to figure out the consistency I liked. even so, there was some bleeding in my icing (which killed my confidence) so the lesson here would be not to wait till the last minute to ice cookies.
