Mission: Vegan

I know if done right, vegan baked goods can taste incredible. Back home, at my favorite vegetarian/vegan restaurant, they make a really good chocolate cake and vanilla frosting. I have no idea how they do it without milk, eggs, and butter, but they do. And sure, there are hundreds of bakeries with vegan goodies that even a carnivore would eat. However, after eating the vegan baked goods at my school's cafeteria, my faith in vegan baking was waning.

Seriously. The vegan muffins that appear on weekend brunches taste as sickly as they look. (maybe that's an over exaggeration, but they don't taste nearly as good as a normal muffin)

So, after a promise to a vegan friend that one day I would bake treats he could eat, I found a vegan banana muffin recipe and a daunting task: make it edible.

The first time I ever baked something vegan was at Jenny's house way back in high school. She didn't have some non-vegan ingredient in her house, probably eggs, so a bunch of us decided instead of going out to get the ingredient, we would just make a vegan dessert and settled on peanut butter bars. They turned out flaky (in a bad way) and tasteless.



These muffins worried me at first. The batter looked watery and tasted too floury but I followed the recipe so there wasn't much else to do. I popped them in the oven and as they were baking, they rose to HUGE heights! Totally thought I filled the muffin tins too high with batter but after they were finished baking and had cooled, they were perfect. And a little funny looking. I did happen to run out of cupcake liners but the muffins came out of the tin without struggle and with a tan. The tops of the muffins were a pale cream and the sides were a golden brown. Silly looking, but the taste? You wouldn't even know it was vegan. They were moist and banana-y and delicious! It's a recipe I would use over and over again.

And my vegan friend approved. Those muffins barely lasted 48 hours.
Yo, cafeteria. You better step up your game because vegan muffins can taste pretty damn good.

oh so hipster martha stewart.
<3