Banaras bakeries going vegan with a vengeance

Demand for eggless cakes, pastries and even patties is more in the city making bakeries add more vegan items on their menu
With more and more people turning vegetarians, bakeries in the city are forced to add eggless varieties of desserts to their menus, much to the delight of vegetarian gourmets.
Demand and Supply
The demand for eggless preparations has made some confectionery shops in the city go vegan completely.“When I started last year, we had counters for both regular and eggless confectionery items, but the impressive sales of eggless delicacies made us go vegetarian completely. As items with eggs did not have many takers, we decided to discontinue them rather than let them perish everyday. It is fashionable to go vegan these days. A lot of celebrities are promoting vegetarianism, which is having a trickle down effect,” says Haseem Ahmad , owner of Bakers Street bakery.
Vegetarianism gels well with the spirit of the city too, feels Arun Lakhmani, owner of the Cakes and Cookies bakery. “Varanasi is a city of festivals where even the smallest of festival is celebrated in a grand way. To abstain from non-vegetarian food is a general practice on those days. People also prefer not to eat non-veg food items on certain days like Tuesdays and Thursdays for religious reasons, so eggless confectionery items, which were not available in such a wide range earlier is becoming quite popular these days.”
Dilip Kishnani, owner of Popular Bakery that came into business in 1984 says that of late, they have moved to only eggless confectionery items as the demand for them has gone up considerably. “Now a cake cutting has become a ritual almost in all social gatherings. It is happening even at small events like kitty parties. These social gatherings have mixed food habit participation and eggless confectionery comes as a safe proposition, as it can be enjoyed by everyone.”
On the other hand, bakeries which are still making egg based recipes are also offering more variety in the eggless section. “Our customers for the eggless confectionery constitute 80 per cent of the total clientele, so that’s why we are providing a wide range of items for vegetarians. Apart from the few puddings, which have egg as an ingredient, rest of our confectionery items are eggless. Right from pineapple pastries, gateau to muffins, all are being made without egg. Even the red velvet cake, which is a difficult preparation without egg, is made without this essential ingredient,” says Anuj Keshari, owner of Chestnut Bakery.
Tastes alike
Availability of handy premixes for the preparation of eggless bakery products has proved to be a perfect replacement for eggs for bakers in the city. “Earlier eggless confectionery did not taste as good.
The customers often used to complain about it not being as spongy as the normal confectionery but of late, branded companies are selling premixes for eggless cakes, which help us to make eggless confectionery taste as good as those with egg,” says Arun Lakhmani, adding, “Moreover, there are certain ingredients available now which are a perfect replacement for eggs. For example coconut macaroons that had egg white as a binding ingredient can now be made with binding powder, which makes the biscuit taste even better.”
“Similarly, in delicacies like patties, egg used for brushing on the crust is now being replaced with an ingredient that has milk as a component. That not only gives the perfect look to it but also does not interfere with the taste of the food item,” says Dilip Kishnani.
Costly affair
To whip up an eggless delicacy though is a costly affair, but that has not in any way affected the sales of confectionary items in Banaras. “The price of eggless confectionary is double of the egg variety. For example, the cost of a normal cake ranges between `250-300 while an eggless one is priced between `550-600 per kilograms. Despite such variation in the price, customers prefer an eggless one,” says Chandra Kishore, store manager at Chestnut Bakery.
The foodies, on their part, are enjoying the variety being offered. Raveena Chaurasia, a homemaker says, “To include confectionary items during parties thrown at home earlier was next to impossible as a lot of our friends are strict vegetarians. Not much variety was available earlier in the eggless section, so we used to confine ourselves to mithai for desserts but now we have more options in cakes and pastries.”