Aquafaba | Imamother

MagentaYenta

Thu, Nov 03 2016, 2:20 am

Has anyone been playing around with aquafaba? (FYI Aquafaba is the water that bean or legumes are soaked and cooked in.)

I cook dried beans with frequency and decided to try a chocolate mouse recipe using aquafaba. Most of the aquafaba recipes I've found were using chick pea water so I gave it a try. I soaked my chick peas overnight. The next day I cooked them in their soaking water without salt. When done, I stored the beans in the water overnight, refrigerated. The next day I followed the mouse recipe and whipped the aquafaba into a stiff meringue. I added a touch of vanilla and a bit of powered sugar. Voila, a stiff vegan meringue for my mouse.

For those who have egg sensitivities, this could be a solution to cake baking and other sweet treats. It even browns like an egg white meringue. It's not going to be something I use every week, but I know that I have a great vegan desert when needed. I also get to use the by product of my chick pea cooking for a fancy treat.

etky

Thu, Nov 03 2016, 3:22 am

Last time I cooked chickpeas (before the chagim) I froze the cooking water thinking I'd like to try experimenting and playing around with it once the chagim were over and the cooking demands went into lower gear.
I hate raw eggs and/or egg whites and would love to have an alternative. I'm also going to try whipping the top layer of canned coconut milk as a parve and healthy sub for whipped cream.
What kind of mouth feel does the aquafaba have once whipped? Does it feel heavy and rich like whipped cream or foamy and airy like whipped egg whites?
Is there any trace of beaniness?

water_bear88

Thu, Nov 03 2016, 4:11 am

Could you post the recipe you used? I tried an aquafaba meringue frosting a few months ago and it flopped- it was leaking into a watery puddle around the base of my cake by Shabbos morning.

Etky, regarding beaniness- I think chocolate covered up whatever flavor there was. I find I'm not a huge fan of plain egg meringues, either- I don't like the tangible flavor of egg in desserts.

yOungM0mmy

Thu, Nov 03 2016, 9:12 am

I tried it erev yom tov, my son is egg allergic (and more) and I've been meaning to get to it for a while. I used the liquid from canned chick peas, and it took a long time to whip up - probably at least 15 minutes. I added confectioners sugar because I was going to use it as the cream with meringue. My son thought it tasted delicious, I thought it was too light and nothingy, more egg white texture than cream. I was wary to use it, BH had a back up dessert plan, and by the time I came to clearing up that evening, not having used it, it had completely separated and went down the sink. I would maybe try one more time to make meringues, thinking that if they bake maybe they'll stay solid but would probably be more light meringue than chewy meringue. But I wont use it as a cream again.

Shoshie

Thu, Nov 03 2016, 10:57 am

Magenta Yenta, how much water did you use when you cooked the chickpeas? How long did you cook them? How much water was left when you started whipping it? I'm asking because I tried this once and the resulting liquid was way too runny and I could never get it to firm up properly. I've only successfully used the liquid from canned chickpeas.

I have used aquafaba to make marshmallow fluff, but not meringue. The fluff separates overnight but can successfully be beaten again the next day. I froze it and scooped it out like Cool-Whip. Tasted great on fruit-topped pound cake.