You Would Never Guess This Baking Ingredient is Vegan!

When it comes to vegan baking, you can really get by with a lot of substitutes. There are so many options for flours, binders, and even sugar substitutes.

However, there is one thing that really sets vegan baking apart from regular baking and that is the omission of butter. Though there are vegan options, none are quite like it, because of the consistency you get with butter that really cannot be duplicated. But there is one ingredient that comes really close, and surprisingly, it’s vegan!

Shortening is usually a product made from animal lard, but there is also another kind of shortening called vegetable shortening!

Vegetable shortening has no animal products in it whatsoever, and though it’s definitely not healthy, it is vegan! What shortening can do that other vegan butter substitutes cannot is it acts just like butter, and has almost the same temperature properties, which makes it much easier to handle.

People get a little freaked out by shortening because of the ingredients, but when you look at it compared to vegan butter, it’s almost identical.

Also, vegetable shortening ends up being cheaper than vegan butter, so if you want better bakes that cost you less money but are still vegan, vegetable shortening is the way to go.