I had been hearing of this Aquafaba thing and didn't know exactly what that was, so I investigated and found out aquafaba is the cooking liquid of beans (or, most usually, chickpeas) that thanks to its content of plant-based proteins and other properties can be whipped like the egg-white and used to make a vegan version of the well known macarons, but many other recipes too, among which baked goodies.
When I bake, I usually replace the eggs with ground flaxseeds (aka flaxegg), so I thought let's give this Aquafaba a try.
As I had some dried chickpeas at home and wanted to make some hummus with them I thought I'd use the cooking liquid of these instead that of canned chickpeas.
I let the chickpeas soak in cold water for 12 hours, then drained the soaking water, thouroughly rinsed the chickpeas, put them in the pressure cooker with fresh water and cooked them for 30-40 minutes.
Warning. If you choose to use beans, please be careful, do not cook them in the water they have been soaking in and make always sure that they are thoroughly cooked, never eat them raw/undercooked because they can be highly toxic. You can read here for more infos.)
Once ready, I drained them, keeping the cooking liquid and letting it cool down.
This first part can be 100% skipped by opening a can of cooked legumes and using the cooking liquid in it (it must not contain salt). Definitely easier and quicker.
Then, just like with egg-whites, I whisked it with a hand-mixer.
You'll have to be patient and whisk for a good 10 minutes until it gets firm, then add the icing sugar and the cream of tartar and whisk another few minutes.
And at this point you'll have a fluffy batter, very similar to whipped egg-whites, sweet and oh, not tasting like legumes 😉 Try and see!
I used it to bake a cake and since it came out fluffy and yummy, I thought I could share that recipe too maybe? Let me know!
Ciao!
Sonia
P.S. Should you be curious to know more about Aquafaba, check Aquafaba.com 😉
Ingredients
100 gr of non salty cooking liquid of beans/chickpeas (either canned or homemade)
1 tablespoon of icing sugar
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
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