An unexpected ingredient for vegan macarons

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academics 1:27 An unexpected ingredient for vegan macarons

By:

Clark Dehart

7 Mar 2024 421

Sophie Miller is a Food Science & Technology student who is using what she's learned in her classes to develop and test her own recipe for vegan macarons. After several tests, she's closer to developing her own recipe that's more accessible to people with food preferences and egg allergies.

I like baking things for my friends, family, even strangers, and just seeing them light up when eating my food. My name is Sophie Miller and I'm a student in food science and technology. The main ingredients of macarons are almond flour, egg whites, powdered sugar, and granulated sugar. So the egg whites is what makes it non vegan. So I'm deciding to substitute the egg whites with aquafaba. Aquafaba itself is literally bean water. It can come from any beans, but in this recipe I use it from chickpeas. So egg whites have polysaccharides, sucrose, and multiple proteins. And saponin is what makes the eggs foam, and that's what comes into play with macarons. So the aquafaba, as the vegan substitute, has the saponin proteins which foam up. I've baked over a dozen batches of macarons, and every time I learn something new. Eggs and gluten are common allergies, so making these macarons vegan makes them more available to more people. And I think food is such a universal experience. Everyone loves food and it brings communities together.

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