John Myers
Egg substitutes are important if you want to bake and cook without eggs. Eggs are excellent binders for sauces, puddings, and pancakes. Eggs also make cakes nice and fluffy. It is therefore not advisable to simply leave out the egg when baking and cooking without an egg. An egg replacement is needed. And that’s not difficult at all.
The Best Egg Substitute – Baking without an egg is not difficult
If you’ve decided to eat fewer eggs or maybe not to eat them at all, you need an egg substitute – at the latest when you want to bake your favorite cake from the old (not yet egg-free) days. Luckily, cooking and baking without eggs is no problem at all. Because in reality, you don’t need eggs to bake fluffy cakes or thin crepes.
Yes, eggs are used in so many recipes only because they are so incredibly cheap these days. Unfortunately, the only reason why they are so extremely cheap is that eggs are the result of industrial mass production, in which production costs are constantly being reduced in order to generate enough profits for the consumer despite the permanently low prices. Hardly anyone thinks about the chicken, which has been degraded to an egg production machine, and its miserable living conditions.
Why it’s better not to eat eggs, however, is a whole other — very vast — topic that we plan to discuss elsewhere. Here, however, the first thing to do is to find a suitable egg substitute, i.e. how to replace eggs in cooking and baking if you have already decided on an egg-free or low-egg diet.
Just leave out the eggs? Don’t!
Eggs have very different properties. They make the cake fluffy and juicy. It also rises nicely when it contains eggs. Biscuits become tender with the addition of egg, and sauces are turned into emulsions of uniform consistency by the binding abilities of eggs. Pancakes stick together nicely with eggs, and you can throw them in the air without breaking them. Of course, this is no longer possible if you simply leave out the eggs.
However, eggs are not the only foods with these properties. Vegan foods can also make cakes fluffy, biscuits tender, and sauces delicious. And even a vegan pancake can be thrown into the air – without breaking it. You just have to know WHICH vegan foods have egg properties and can therefore serve as egg substitutes.
A replacement is actually an unfavorable term. Because the foods that are referred to as egg substitutes do not basically replace the egg, but only have similar cooking or baking properties to the egg. And if psyllium pudding has the same properties as an egg, then psyllium pudding is no more an egg substitute than an egg is a psyllium pudding substitute. Both simply have the same properties that we can use specifically in the kitchen.
However, because “egg substitute” is so frequently searched for, we will stick with the term egg substitute and present you with the following interesting options for cooking and baking without eggs – without noticing a big difference in the result.
Egg Substitutes – The 9 Best Ways to Substitute Eggs
Not every egg substitute is equally suitable for every recipe. Therefore, choose the right egg substitute depending on the recipe. So if, for example, 60 g of applesauce can replace 1 egg in a cake, it’s of course not much use if you stir a glass of applesauce into the pancake batter. In pancake batter, on the other hand, it makes more sense, e.g. B. soy milk as an egg substitute, which – like eggs – contains a lot of lecithins and therefore also has excellent binding properties.
Egg Substitute – Chia Gel
Chia seeds can be used as an egg substitute in cakes, waffles, burgers, pancakes, spaetzle, and much more. A tablespoon of chia gel replaces an egg. To prepare chia gel, mix 1/3 cup of chia seeds with 2 cups of water in a glass and stir to avoid lumps. Leave to soak for 30 minutes. The chia gel lasts for approx.
Egg Substitute – Arrowroot Flour/Arrowroot Starch
As an egg substitute, take 3 tablespoons of arrowroot starch for each egg to be replaced, which is mixed with 1 tablespoon of water. Arrowroot flour is suitable for sauces, soups, groats, jams, etc. It can also replace the missing glue in gluten-free bread. For every 1000 grams of gluten-free flour, use 40 grams of arrowroot starch.
Egg Substitute – Applesauce
If a fruity note goes well in a cake, then you can use 60 g of applesauce per egg, e.g. B. in this light and airy carrot cake made from spelled flour.
Egg substitute – psyllium pudding
1½ tablespoons of psyllium husk powder are pureed with 200 ml of cold water in a blender. The mixture is allowed to rest for 10 minutes. This amount is enough as an egg substitute in combination with applesauce for a small cake.
Egg Substitute – Bananas
Use ½ large banana or one small banana per egg and puree them. It should be well-ripe. This egg substitute goes very well in muffins.
Egg Substitute – Chickpea Flour
Instead of 1 egg, you can also use a mixture of 1 tbsp chickpea flour mixed with 2 tbsp water. Chickpea flour is very rich in protein and – like eggs – has binding and emulsifying properties. In India, chickpea flour has long been used for recipes that would use eggs in our latitudes, e.g. B. the so-called pakoras, deep-fried pieces of vegetables in a batter made of chickpea flour. The egg substitute made from chickpea flour can also be used for biscuits.
Egg Substitute – Egg substitute from the health food store
Egg substitutes in powder form are also available in health food stores or health food stores. It is a mixture of different flours, e.g. B. from Natura or Arche from lupine flour, corn starch, and locust bean gum. 1 tablespoon is mixed with 30 ml water and serves as an egg substitute for 1 egg. Other products are made from tapioca flour and potato starch, and others from corn starch, various vegetable proteins, and gelling agents. In any case, follow the instructions on the packaging.
Egg Substitute – Flaxseed
A very inexpensive and easy-to-produce egg substitute – especially for savory pastries from the dehydrator – is linseed. Grind 1 tbsp of flaxseed per egg and mix the flaxseed with 3 tbsp of water. Let the mix sit for 10 minutes and use it as an egg replacement for raw-quality whole-grain pastries (cookies and crackers).
Do not grind the flaxseed with a grain mill, as it could stick. It is better to use a blender or a suitable food processor. It is better not to buy the flaxseed already ground, as it is rich in polyunsaturated fatty acids, which oxidize quickly.
Egg Substitute – Locust Bean Gum
Locust bean gum is also a great egg substitute. It is used in particular to thicken desserts, creams, and puddings, but also sauces, soups, dumplings, spaetzle, pies, or mousse. For 1 egg, take 1 slightly heaped teaspoon of locust bean gum mixed with 40 ml of water.
Locust bean gum is a good egg substitute, especially for cold dishes, because you don’t have to heat it to activate its binding ability.
Below are the individual dosing options:
- For cold liquids, use 2 g of locust bean gum for 250 ml of liquid.
- For warm liquids, use 1 g per 250 ml of liquid.
- For cold mass (e.g. desserts) use 1 g for 0.5 l of cold mass.
A very good binding agent or a very good egg substitute is the mixture of locust bean gum and corn semolina. We have described the recipe for the mixture in the previous link.
Egg Substitutes – Soy Products
Like eggs, soybeans contain a lot of lecithins. Soy products can therefore be used as an excellent egg substitute.
- 1 tbsp soy flour (full fat) is mixed with 2 tbsp water and replaced with 1 to 3 eggs.
- Silken tofu also has a binding effect and is suitable for creams and fillings, 50 g stirred silken tofu replaces 1 egg.
- Soy milk can be mixed with a little vinegar to make a kind of buttermilk (1 teaspoon vinegar for 125 ml soy milk). This mixture loosens up the cake and is often used in muffins. Vinegar also helps the leavening agents (baking soda and baking soda) work better. You cannot taste the vinegar in the finished pastry or cake.
- Soy yogurt also binds well in the dough and makes the cake nice and moist.
A blueberry muffin recipe with the two ingredients mentioned above would be e.g. B. this:
- 125 ml soy milk mixed with 1 teaspoon of naturally cloudy apple cider vinegar
- 250 g spelled flour type 630
- 2 packets of organic vanilla sugar (from cane sugar)
- 100 g coconut blossom sugar
- 1 ½ tsp cream of tartar and ½ tsp baking soda
- ¼ tsp rock salt
- ¼ tsp cinnamon
- 200 g natural soy yogurt
- 60 ml oil e.g. B. mild sunflower or rapeseed oil
- 140 g blueberries mixed with 1 tsp spelled flour
Preparation:
Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Mix all dry ingredients (from flour to cinnamon) together. In another bowl, mix the yogurt with the oil. Add this mix to the dry ingredients together with the soy milk vinegar mix and stir briefly. Fold in the blueberries. Then fill the batter into muffin cases and bake for about 20 minutes (toothpick test!).
Egg replacement tips for baking and cooking without eggs
Sometimes you can also add one or the other ingredient to the recipe, which then makes the cooking or baking result even fluffier. Or you exchange some of the original ingredients in the original recipe for more suitable ingredients, e.g. B. water against carbonated mineral water. The latter makes z. B. pancakes, but also sponge cake is much airier. Add a tablespoon or two of oil and the cake will be even juicier.
If you have a cookie recipe with e.g. B. 1 egg can be replaced by a spoonful of high-quality margarine instead of the egg. This softens the cookies nicely.
Raising agents can also be used as an egg substitute in a way, because baking soda and baking powder make cakes rise – and baking soda does it better than baking powder. If you add some acid, e.g. B. in the form of vinegar, then baking soda and baking powder work even better.
So you can see that there are many options for vegan egg substitutes and that you really don’t need eggs at all. But before you are not sure which egg substitute is best for which recipe, it is better to choose ready-made vegan recipes from the outset, in which the egg substitute and the ratio of dry and wet ingredients are precisely coordinated.
We hope you enjoy cooking and baking without eggs!
