A CHANGE OF TASTE VEGANS FINALLY FIND DESSERTS THAT ARE MORE THAN ONLY FRUIT, NUTS.

Byline: Brent Hopkins Staff Writer

No sugar? No eggs? No cream? No problem.

Vegan desserts, devoid of all animal products, used to be bland concoctions that even their loyal consumers acknowledged really weren't that tasty. Since they were rarely available in supermarkets, devotees of the strict diet had to make do with homemade recipes or survive on the few crummy, crumbly cookies or unpalatable pies they ran across in the health aisle. It wasn't easy being vegan.

But now, fueled by a public hungry for healthier fare, bakers who kick butter out of their kitchens and eschew refined sugar for chicory and fruit juice are finding success. New recipes have made the food tastier, while greater awareness has grown the market. Though still a tiny industry, so small even leading vegetarian and vegan organizations don't track the size of the market, local bakeries who target a vegan sweet tooth all report dramatic expansions in business.

The trick, they've learned, is in the taste.

``If it tastes like cardboard, it doesn't matter if it doesn't have something in it,'' said Steven Fabos, president of Fabe's All Natural Bakery. ``You don't eat dessert because you want to improve your body, you eat it because it tastes good.''

He's been in the bakery business for more than 20 years, beginning with standard cream and sugar-laden sweets. His regular line, sold under the Steven-Robert Desserts mark, sells to national chains like Quiznos, Olive Garden and Red Lobster, bringing in more than $20 million annually, but it's Fabe's that seems closest to his heart. Now mainly found in health food chains like Whole Foods and Wild Oats, he envisions it as a mainstream product in the not-so-distant future.

The line's been around since 1989, when his wife asked him if he could make a dessert without the animal products that the traditional bakery industry is built on. After starting off as a night-shift production in a tiny retail bakery in Glendale, it's expanded to become a 200-employee operation with factories in San Fernando and Denver. Fabos said it enjoys annual sales of several million dollars, a figure he expects to grow significantly in coming years as it expands from California to nationwide sales.

Making a vegan dessert isn't that hard - just strip out all animal products. Refined sugars are often processed with bone char, made from cow or dog bones, so they're out as well. Making a vegan dessert that people want to eat, however, can be difficult.

``It's evolving,'' said James Brady, a Woodland Hills artist who's followed the vegan diet and even stricter ones for 20 years. ``They've perfected some of the ingredients to stay within the vegan formulations, but still taste good.''

Sweeteners like fruit juice, xylitol, agave and sugar cane juice take the place of their refined counterparts, while nonhydrogenated margarine and palm oil supplant butter. While prepared to appeal to vegan tastes, bakers report that the treats are catching on beyond the relatively small market.

This is key to their success, as the Vegetarian Resource Group reports that only 3 percent of consumers follow vegetarian diets and just up to half of them adhere to vegan rules. But Vicki Slotnick, co-owner of Toluca Lake-based Summerland Foods, which makes the Organica and Sidney & Eloise lines, says the cuisine has begun creeping into mainstream mouths.

Since she and her husband founded the business three years ago, they've watched sales double each year, passing the million-dollar mark in 2003. She sells to independent grocers and health food chains, but also in mainstream chains like Ralphs, Albertsons and Cost Plus. Though most sales come on the coasts, Slotnick said they'd made big gains in the Midwest and particularly in Texas.

``People are now excited to taste vegan offerings, because they're aware that they're not what they used to be,'' she said. ``It used to be nothing, just fruits, vegetables and nuts.''

Now she sells 14 kinds of cookies, with plans to expand to other snack foods and a children's line. While she hopes to compete on taste, her ingredients appeal to widely different consumers. Some choose the vegan diet for religious reasons, others on moral grounds, others opt for it to care for their health.

``I have digestive problems, so if I have animal products, I feel awful,'' Juana Berumen, a Canoga Park housewife, said in Spanish. ``These are better for my stomach. They're more expensive, but it's worth it.''

Price is indeed a sticking point for vegan creations. Four-packs of Fabe's muffins retail for $4.95, cakes go for $15. A 12-ounce bag of Uncle Eddie's Vegan Cookies, made in Glendale, retails for $3.79. Ryan Lewin, grocery manager of Follow Your Heart in Canoga Park, notes the products, though pricier, contain premium components.

``You're getting a lot more wholesome ingredients,'' he said. ``Also, if you're buying a mango muffin from a vegan company, you're paying for someone's time to go wash, cut up and prepare a real mango, not just someone dumping mango flavor in the mix.''

More than half the products in his grocery store fall under vegan guidelines, and its restaurant produces a variety of muffins, pies, cakes and a tofu-based chocolate mousse. He noted that they aren't necessarily low-calorie or low-fat - they all still use some variety of oil - but said they were selling more and more as diners begin to question what goes into what's for dinner.

When she decided she'd had enough of animal products more than eight years ago, Marci Frumkin found it hard to still find gourmet treats, even as a worker in a Whole Foods. Now marketing director of the chain's southern pacific region, she finds plenty of options and thinks they'll soon make their way into everyday life for all varieties of eaters.

``They even have them at the airport,'' she laughed. ``When I saw a sign at LAX for vegan cookies, I thought, all right, my people have finally made it.''

Brent Hopkins, [phone]

brent.hopkins(at)dailynews.com

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo:

(1 -- 2 -- color) Steven Fabos, owner of Fabe's All-Natural Bakery, shows off vegan bakery goods. Below, employee Lorena Nava packages boxes of chocolate chip cookies that have just been baked and cooled. All are free of animal products.

John Lazar/Staff Photographer