I just want to bring this to your attention because it’s so crazy! Whenever you open a can of chickpeas, you probably throw away the liquid that they come in. No longer! That liquid can be used as a substitute for egg whites in baked goods!
In desserts known for their lightness and fluffiness, this is often due to whipped egg whites. Whisking egg whites with an electric beater (or by hand if you’re feeling bold) incorporates air into them and totally changes their texture. When you put the whisk in the mixture and pull out the whisk, if the peak on the tip of the whisk stands up straight without flopping over, that’s called a stiff peak. If it flops over, that’s called a soft peak.
The process of incorporating air into egg whites is the action that contributes most to a meringue’s consistency. It turns out that you can pretty seamlessly replace egg whites beaten to stiff peaks with chickpea liquid beaten to stiff peaks. Just look up the conversion of number of egg whites to number of ounces of egg whites (that can be done on WolframAlpha) and use the chickpea liquid just as you would egg whites! Here’s what the liquid from a can of chickpeas looks like after it’s been whipped for awhile. So frothy!
I just made a pavolva (a baked meringue), following this recipe, https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/12126/easy-pavlova/ (but replacing the egg whites with the appropriate amount of chickpea liquid, which came out to 4.3 oz of chickpea liquid) and here’s how it came out!
Truly delicious with no evidence of chickpeas!
Ben's Math Musings 