Approximately 11% of the population has a food allergy, and even more people are on diets that cut out food groups such as dairy, gluten or meat. With this information, it’s easy to imagine that people have to adjust recipes to fit their diet, but how much do these substitutions and alterations change the end result?  

“People with food allergies have an allergic reaction when they come in contact with certain foods,” the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology (AAAAI) reports. “This happens because their immune system overreacts to the proteins in that food.” 

Some people are unable to eat specific foods or even have to avoid entire food groups whether it’s because of a food allergy or because of a specific diet’s health constraints. So I decided to test out what this might look like for someone who can but might choose to move toward consuming fewer wheat and/or animal products.

For this experiment, “The Best Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe Ever” by Joy Food Sunshine was used. For one batch, the recipe was followed to the letter. For the altered batch, the recipe was halved, so the regular ½ cup of butter was turned into ½ cup of vegan butter from the brand Miyoko’s Creamery. The egg was also substituted with ¼ cup of applesauce.

Both of the doughs were placed in the fridge for at least an hour, and once they were taken out to be shaped, the differences in the dough’s texture and consistency were very noticeable. The regular dough was very sticky and almost melty, whereas the vegan dough was firm and easy to work with.

Once both the vegan cookies and traditional cookies were ready, they were taste-tested. The results of the taste test concluded that the vegan cookies were actually better than the  dairy and egg-based ones. They tasted a bit like cinnamon despite not adding any to the recipe, but it was a nice change from the non-vegan recipe. 

Of course, one experiment like this doesn’t mean that all vegan or food allergy affected recipes are better than regular recipes, but it does show that with two simple changes you can get a much better tasting cookie as well as a much easier to work with cookie dough. Of course, this is all a matter of personal taste, but simply from how the dough acted, the vegan option, to this home chef’s taste buds anyway, is the superior recipe.