Egg cakes or ‘eierkoeken’ are typical Dutch treats. They look and taste more or less like these pretty babies here. But these ones don’t contain egg! How does that work?
Well, they contain black salt or kala namak, which gives it the egg-like taste! How cool? It appears to have a high sulphur content, which causes the smell and taste. It smells quite horrible, more like rotten eggs, but if you use just a tiny bit, it can be pretty nice! This was the first time I used the stuff and I think it worked well. Black salt looks nice too: it has a pink colour. It can be used in other ‘fake egg’ dishes as well, like in ‘scrambled eggs’.
The recipe for the vegan egg cakes I found here on Vegetus. I have translated the Dutch into English for you. I’m sure she doesn’t mind!
Here goes:
Recipe for No Egg Cakes
Preparation time: 10 min
Baking time: 20 min
Makes: 4-5 cakes
The secret of the vegan egg cakes is in the two spoons of chickpeaflour for an extra soft, airy structure and a little bit of black salt (kala namak) and lemon zest for the authentic egg cake taste. They are really easy to make, but you do have to make sure the lower side doesn’t burn. It’s better to take them from the oven too early than too late. Fresh from the oven they are nicely crunchy, the next day they are softer and hard to separate from supermarket egg cakes.
Ingredients:
- 120 g (1 cup) white flour
- 60 g (⅓ cup) sugar
- 2 tablespoons chickpea flour or cornstarch
- 1½ teaspoon baking powder
- 1 pinch salt (preferably black salt, for the egg-like taste)
- 120 ml (½ cup) plant milk
- 1 tablespoon oil
- ½ teaspoon lemon zest
Preparation:
Preheat the oven to 175 °C/350 °F and line a baking tray with parchment paper.
Mix all the ingredients together in a mixing bowl to a nicely thick, but smooth dough. Optionally add an extra tablespoon plant milk if the dough is too stiff. Put the mixture on the parchment paper using a spoon, forming 4 to 5 round heaps on the baking tray. Leave as much space as possible in between the cakes, for they will rise during the baking process.
Place the baking tray in the middle of the oven and bake for 15 to 20 minutes. Then take them out and immediately remove the cakes from the baking tray, so they won’t burn after all. Leave them to cool, take them from the parchment paper and keep them in an air-tight bag or box.
Translated from Geen eierkoeken recipe on Vegetus.
How I like them
Mine turned out pretty well! They didn’t get so airy as the ‘real ones’, but maybe they just needed a bit more baking powder, or something else to make them rise more. In any case, it’s a pretty interesting recipe to experiment with. I hope you like it!
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