Aquafaba - bean water, anyone tried it?

beckstar1975

Looks too good to be true but it's everywhere and great for vegans or those with egg allergies. Anyone tried it?

http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/sep/29/aquafaba-chickpea-liquid-baking-egg-white-substitute

VfM4meplse

I saw something similar on MSE a few months ago and made a mental note to try it. Skimmed The Guardian article and would give it a try if you are opening up a tin of chickpeas anyway, it can't harm to try it at least.

Ironically have not made chickpeas since I saw the post recommending this.

still_hopeful

I tried it for the first time at Christmas to make a royal icing for my vegan son, worked surprisingly well. Would like to try the meringues next.

wyrdsister

I've just made egg free Mayo for my daughter who is allergic to eggs, I used water that I had boiled dried chickpeas in, then I reduced it further, it cooled down to an egg white consistency. It worked really well! Tastes lovely too. I'm transitioning from veggie to vegan so I'll definitely be trying some other things with it.

beckstar1975

Ooh thank you - I made some vegan mayo using just plant milk and oil whizzed up which was fine but benefitted from mustard etc

I think I reduced the liquid down too far though, it's like jellied stock and brown now it's cooled down, it clearly thickens LOTS as it cools!

mashedavocado

I wondered about this. I'll be honest, it sounds disgusting! But my daughter can't have eggs so it'd be useful to keep in mind in future (she's still a baby so not so relevant now, but could be later on).

VfM4meplse

mashedavocado wrote: »

I wondered about this. I'll be honest, it sounds disgusting!

My mum was scoffing a bright pink macaroon the other day, and it made me think I could easily replicate the same for next to nothing with aquafaba and red food colouring.

nuatha

I've made both meringues and a soft meringue topping for a lemon meringue pie. Works really well, but I found the meringue don't keep very well, after 3 days they have a definite beany flavour.

Thank you VfM4meplse, I hadn't thought of macaroons.

*katie*

I made the meringues a few weeks ago and they came out really nicely. The texture was exactly the same as I remember meringues from before I went vegan and they didn't taste like chickpeas to me (although my dad tried them and said that he could sooo). The only thing was they took an age to make... must have been over three hours to make a small batch - so much whisking and they took far longer in the oven than the recipe said. I probably wouldn't make them again because of the effort involved but it was fun to try meringues again.

VfM4meplse

*katie* wrote: »

The only thing was they took an age to make... must have been over three hours to make a small batch - so much whisking and they took far longer in the oven than the recipe said. I probably wouldn't make them again because of the effort involved but it was fun to try meringues again.

We're getting down to brass tacks here

Exactly how much whisking? And how much time in the oven (low heat I presume?). Crisp through or mushy inside? Did you add cream of tartar, cornflour or vinegar?

*katie*

VfM4meplse wrote: »

We're getting down to brass tacks here

Exactly how much whisking? And how much time in the oven (low heat I presume?). Crisp through or mushy inside? Did you add cream of tartar, cornflour or vinegar?

Exactly I'm not sure, but it must have been pushing an hour. I started with a little handheld electric whisk, but after a while it became really hot through overuse that I switched to a manual whisk. Ten minutes later I brought out the big food processor which did a better job, although it still took 20 minutes more of whisking to get it to the right consistency. Maybe it would have been faster to use the food processor from the start but I underestimated how long it would like (I've never made egg meringues so I dunno if they take ages too?)

Umm well they weren't crisp through, they were kind of chewy in the very centre but I kind of liked that.

Didn't add any of those things, it was just chickpea juice and sugar.