The Five Best Egg Substitutes I’ve Used for Baking (so Far)
Due to dietary differences and grocery budgets, eggless dessert recipes are in greater demand than before. Of course, eggs play an important role in the structure of your dough, so they can’t be ignored. (Well, sometimes you can .) It’s best to know which egg substitutes can be used for different types of baked goods. Here is a list of the best egg substitutes you can rely on during tough times.
By the way, if you change recipes often, I highly recommend you buy The Elements of Baking . It can give you the tools (and proportions) you need to modify almost any recipe to suit a variety of diets; You can read my full review of the cookbook here .
What do eggs do in baked goods anyway?
Eggs are an emulsifier and add moisture, structure, color and aeration to baked goods. A single egg can do all this, so finding a replacement can be a challenge. The following ingredients have a range of capabilities: They offer all the benefits of eggs listed above, or maybe just one or two. But a replacement doesn’t actually have to do it all. Depending on what you’re doing, sometimes all you need is moisture or aeration.
Aquafaba
Although originally a liquid byproduct of canned chickpeas, aquafaba is an effective egg replacement. It’s good for binding cookies and cakes due to its starch content, adds moisture due to its water content, and can even be whipped into a cake starter or used as a suitable meringue replacement (with a delicious nutty hint). Use three tablespoons of aquafaba for each whole egg you replace. Oh, and freeze the extra aquafaba you didn’t use for next time.
Bananas
Bananas are excellent at providing moisture and texture to baked goods. Yes, they add a nice banana flavor, but more importantly, as a substitute for eggs, they add springy moisture to cakes and cookies. Keep in mind that the humidity is unrelenting, it’s like adding pumpkin puree to a recipe – you’ll never get crispy cookies if you use bananas. Use a quarter cup of mashed banana for each whole egg in the recipe.
Tapioca, baking powder and other powdered mixtures
Instead of relying on one ingredient to try to replicate the many functions of eggs, why not enhance its properties with a mixture of ingredients? The baking aisle may have packaged store-bought mixes ready for you to take with you. I have used Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free Egg Replacer in cakes with great success. It’s made from potato starch, tapioca flour, baking soda and psyllium husk to mimic the leavening and binding of an egg.
You can also make your own simplified mixture using tapioca flour and baking powder. Before adding to the recipe, mix one tablespoon of tapioca flour with one tablespoon of water and add a quarter teaspoon of baking powder. The starches absorb moisture in the dough (of which you’ve added a little extra to account for this), they gelatinize and bind the dough when heated in the oven (no need to pre-cook the mixture to activate them), and the baking powder provides a slight lift, like an egg.
Soda
That’s true. Fanta. Diet Coke. Root beer. Good old cola. You can add moisture and a noticeable lift to an egg-free packaged cake mix with the sparkling drink. You’ve probably caught it – boxed cake mix. While I wouldn’t recommend using soda as the sole ingredient to replace eggs in cookies, cakes, or brownies you make from scratch, they are a surprisingly effective replacement for boxed cake mixes.
Washing eggs with sour cream
While sour cream is delicious in cake or cookie batter, I go a bit from substituting eggs in the batter to substituting eggs in the batter. If you don’t have an extra egg to make egg wash for pies, tarts and cookies, use a tub of sour cream. Despite my predictions during testing, this fermented milk product delivers superior browning and shine , even better than a regular egg wash.