Question for the Baking Braintrust

[gnomi]

I bake pareve desserts (other than dancingdeer's brownies) very rarely. For Shabbat this week, we're out for both meals, but I volunteered to bring dessert for lunch. I have a milchig (dairy) cake recipe that calls for one cup of milk (that's the only thing that makes it dairy), and I was contemplating substituting a cup of soy milk. If I were to do so, do I have to adjust cooking times at all? Is there anything I should be aware of (other than a chance of a slight change in flavor)?

Comments

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

Yay for desserts made by gnomi!

[caryabend.livejournal.com]

Having never experienced desserts by gnomi (that I'm aware of) I'd say the same thing on general principle.

And then I'd ask to be the recipient of a dessert! :)

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

:-)

[morgan-lowri.livejournal.com]

You SHOULD be able to swap dairy for soy or almond milk with no adjustments. I've never had significant problems with it. I'd try your recipe the normal way with a direct swap and then adjust from there if needed.

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

Oh, excellent. Thanks.

[pale-chartreuse.livejournal.com]

Soy (bean) is a legume. We follow European traditions, so I won't use soy during pesach. I am going to try using coconut milk this year.

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

We won't use it, either, on Pesach. Which makes a lot of things interesting (we frequently eat various soy products during the work week).

[morgan-lowri.livejournal.com]

OOO! I hadn't thought of subbing coconut milk in. That would be very rich and tasty. I usually use almond milk instead of soy. There have been some concerns popping up over the last few years of the long-term effects of using raw soy as a regular part of your diet.

[42itous.livejournal.com]

OMG coconut milk! Why didn't I think of that? From now on, whenever a recipe calls for milk I will sub in coconut milk. Well, okay, I'm exaggerating, but. I love that stuff.

I had some mango-coconut sorbet last summer that I would never have guessed had no cream in it if someone hadn't told me.

[sharonaf.livejournal.com]

I have done this in a few recipes (lactose-intolerant husband and all...) and the only thing I'd warn you of is that soy milk is very sweet. I'd recommend decreasing your sugar by a little bit to accomodate for that.
Our corn muffins taste awful (to me! Phillip still loves them!) when I make them with soy milk and don't decrease sugar.

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

Oh, good to know. Thanks! This shouldn't make much difference in chocolate cake, but I shall make a note of it.

[rikibeth.livejournal.com]

I personally would use rice milk. I find that soy has a chalky aftertaste.

That said, it might not be noticeable in chocolate cake, and in terms of texture and baking qualities, it substitutes just fine. Rice Dream in the refrigerated carton by preference, unflavored or vanilla Silk refrigerated as next best, use the stuff in aseptic packages only if you're desperate.

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, the Silk is dairy (for reasons that have never made sense to me), so I'll have to use one of the other options.

Thanks for the rice milk suggestion!

[doeeyedbunny.livejournal.com]

Ditto what several people already said about coconut milk (instead of rice or soy.)

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

Alas, this time of year finding kosher coconut milk has become something of a challenge (too close to Pesach, I think).

Also, our lunch host has an aversion to coconut milk. But maybe a future time.

[elul-3.livejournal.com]

If you use coconut milk I will cry. Or maybe not.

You can buy unsweetened soy milk, which will sub nicely for cow's milk, but does indeed have a bit of a funny taste overtone. Rice milk probably is the better substitute, though for reasons unknown to me, I keep forgetting to buy it instead of soy.

With a chocolate cake, the chocolate flavor will probably be strong enough to mask an flavor oddities from the milk choice.

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

I don't plan to use the coconut milk (for one thing, I have trouble finding it this close to Pesach).

The chocolate frosting I made with soy milk last week (for the Shapamsters' brownies) tasted just like the regular frosting (recipe calls for real milk), so I'm not too concerned. I was more concerned about what it might do to cooking times.

[aunt-becca.livejournal.com]

I have nothing new to add, except that you hould bring leftovers to shul on Saturday morning :)

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

::snerk::

Actually, the whole thing might be coming to shul on Saturday morning, as it is lunch dessert. So I'll be bringing it to shul and then to lunch unless I can arrange to get it to our hosts ahead of actual lunch.

[malkaesther.livejournal.com]

I've been swapping with hazelnut milk and not needing to adjust cooking times.

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

Good to know! Thanks!

[magid.livejournal.com]

I've never had any issues substituting soy or rice milk for actual dairy in baking.

I will note that frequently, they're available in chocolate versions, if you want to go overboard on the chocolate :-)

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

Given that it's a very chocolate-y cake to begin with, I think I'll stick with the plain stuff. But thanks for the suggestion!

[(Anonymous)]

A nut milk might not only work better but also be tastier with the chocolate in the cake.

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

I believe there may be nut allergies involved with some of the guests, but I'm not sure.

[eal.livejournal.com]

{tentatively raising hand with dumb Gentile question}

Soybeans are not used during Pesach because . . .

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

Soybeans fall into a category (which contains all legumes plus a bunch of other stuff) called kitniyot (http://www.jewfaq.org/holidaya.htm#Laws). People of Ashkenazi descent (those of us from Eastern Europe) do not eat kitniyot on Passover lest one be confused and think that because we can grind these into flour we can grind wheat and the other grains into flour and use *them* on Passover.

[cellio]

I've never baked with soy milk, but I have cooked with it occasionally. It has the consistency of skim milk, more or less, so if you're used to cooking with whole milk and that matters, you might need to tweak something. But I'm not sure what.

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

I tend to use skim milk anyway, so if it has the same consistency, I know what to expect. Thanks for the tip!

[vettecat.livejournal.com]

Probably 90% - 95% of my baking is pareve (all but Shavuot, or the occasional social thing), and I've found that you can use Coffee Rich as a straight substitution for milk with no adjustments. Often you can't even tell the difference. I pretty much always keep some on hand just in case. Hope that helps!

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

I've used Coffee Rich as a substitute in the past, actually. In this case, I'm concerned that it's thicker than I'm wanting for this particular recipe.

[gingicat]

I love the answers you've gotten. Would you consider posting a digest to kosher_cooking? (says the moderator)

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

If I have time to write up a summary of the answers, I'd be happy to do so.

Otherwise, I could just post something there pointing over here, if that would be OK.

[autotruezone.livejournal.com]

Remember when you guys came over for Y's birthday party and had chocolate cake? That was made with soy milk. I use it a lot in recipes that call for milk, and haven't had any trouble.

Re the comments others have posted regarding sweetness, thickness, etc. Not all soymilks are the same -- they vary in sugar content, fat content, etc. I've mostly been using the generic store brands, and gotten good results. VitaSoy is probably about the closest to real milk, but the others are fine. And, as indicated in previous comments, it also depends on what kind of milk you're substituting for.

Make sure you get plain, not vanilla. Vanilla *is* definitely sweeter than regular milk.

I've sometimes used almond milk. I wish someone would make some with Pesach hashgacha.

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

I found a pareve soymilk at Star that seemed to do well. The cake behaved as the recipe has behaved as a milchig cake in the past.