Bake an Impact: Simple Swaps for More Sustainable Baking

By Genevieve Meli

When people think about baking, sustainability isn’t necessarily the first thing that comes to mind. This is, in part, because our craft has traditionally relied heavily on ingredients including dairy, eggs and refined flours—not the most sustainable, right? But by simply thinking a little differently, we can make small, impactful changes. That’s the mindset I applied to my new book, Baking and Impact: Small Changes for More Sustainable Baking (CIA Press).

As pastry professionals, we’re a pretty creative lot—baking up beautiful, delicious works of art. And we have countless tricks up our sleeves for making magic. Too often, though, especially with home or hobby bakers, people run out and buy a ton of ingredients for one single recipe. And doing that multiple times can add up to a whole pantry full of ingredients that may turn before we use them again, which leads to food waste. It doesn’t have to be that way. By simply swapping what you have on hand, you can still achieve an incredible bread or dessert, while lessening the use of animal proteins and mitigating waste.

Here are a few examples of simple swaps I’ve made.

Blackberry Zucchini Bread This is a go-to recipe of mine. I want to replace the eggs with something that is readily available at most retail stores, and that does not use eggs. I choose to substitute flax seeds for the eggs. Grind flax seeds into a meal and then add water—approximately 1 Tablespoon flax to two Tablespoons water is the equivalent of one large egg. Let it sit for 10-15 minutes until it becomes almost gel-like. I choose flax seeds since I can utilize the entire plant, so there is no waste. Growing flax also offsets carbon emissions as the plant breathes in CO₂ and coverts it into oxygen.

Another swap I love involves a decadent chocolate truffle. I make dairy-free with dark chocolate and I swap oat milk for heavy cream. I choose oat milk since, out of all other plant-based milks, oat milk requires significantly less water than traditional dairy and other plant-based milk—and oats have low carbon emissions. Blue spirulina, which is derived from seaweed, not only makes for a visually stunning truffle, with its vibrant blue hue, it also provides depth of flavor. Green spirulina can also work in this recipe.

In the fall months, one swap that’s especially tasty is caramel apples. The main ingredient in caramel is sugar. White granulated sugar must go through a refining process, so inherently, it is not very sustainable. In considering other options, I choose maple sugar, which comes from maple syrup. Maple trees trap the maple syrup. Similar to flax, the trees remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and turn it into oxygen. Maple sugar also gives a beautiful flavor to the caramel apple. To finish the apple, I place rose stems on top because apples and roses come from the same family. And this is just the tip of the iceberg—with a little creativity, bakers can fire up a whole host of sustainable options, and if everyone makes one or a few small changes, what an incredible impact we can have!

Genevieve Meli is a certified master baker, certified higher-education professional, and associate professor of Baking and Pastry Arts, at the Culinary Institute of America. Her latest book, Baking and Impact (CIA Press), was released in August 2024.

Photo Courtesy of The Culinary Institute of America

(This article appeared in the Fall 2024 issue of Pastry Arts Magazine)