Vegan bread does not contain animal-derived ingredients and can be made by modifying almost any recipe. Basic French and Italian breads are naturally vegan, as are many flatbreads, but ingredients should be checked. Vegan substitutes for milk, butter, and eggs are available.
The vegan bread does not contain animal-derived ingredients, including eggs, butter and milk. Many vegans also don’t consume honey, which is often used as a sweetener in whole-grain breads. The typical ingredients of some breads are naturally vegan, but almost any bread recipe can be modified to be vegan. Yeast breads, flatbreads, and quick breads can all be vegan breads.
Basic French and Italian breads are naturally vegan because the ingredients are just flour, water, yeast, salt, and sometimes sugar. Many flatbreads are usually vegan, including pita bread, lavash, and flour-and-corn tortillas. These flatbreads do contain some type of fat, however, so if they are bought at a grocery store, the ingredients list should be checked to make sure it contains vegetable oil or shortening rather than butter or lard. Many bagels are vegan, but some bagel recipes include eggs.
Health food stores, or the health food section of larger grocery stores, typically carry an assortment of vegan breads. Some rolls and other breads carried in regular grocery stores are also coincidentally vegan — that is, they’re not advertised as vegan, but contain no animal product ingredients. If the ingredients list on a package of bread doesn’t include eggs, milk, powdered milk, butter, lard, or whey, the bread is very likely to be vegan.
The options for homemade vegan bread are almost endless. In addition to bread recipes created to be vegan, almost any bread recipe can be modified to be vegan by using substitute ingredients. Various vegan substitutes for butter, milk and eggs are available.
Yeast bread recipes sometimes call for milk to make the bread moist and tender and to add flavor. Vegan milk substitutes such as soy, almond or hemp milk can be swapped directly for milk in a bread recipe. Rice milk, however, may not work as well as the others, because it’s nonfat, and the fat in the milk is what helps make the bread more tender. Vegan margarine can also be substituted for butter in any bread recipe. In recipes that call for melted butter, as some quick bread recipes do, an oil could also be substituted.
There are various vegan egg substitutes, and the best egg substitute depends on the recipe. A commercial egg substitute can be used in any recipe, however some egg substitutes actually contain egg, so ingredients should be checked before purchase. One tablespoon of ground flaxseed in three tablespoons of water can replace an egg in most recipes. For quick vegan breads, a quarter cup of applesauce, crushed banana or pumpkin can stand in for an egg, depending on the flavor of the bread.
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