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With dietary differences and grocery budgeting, eggless dessert recipes are more sought after than they used to be. Of course, eggs play an important role in the structure of your batter, so you can’t just leave it out. (Well, sometimes you can .) You’re better off knowing what sorts of egg replacements you can use for different types of baking. Here’s a list of the best egg replacement you can lean on during lean times.
By the way, if you find yourself modifying recipes a lot, I highly suggest you buy The Elements of Baking . It can give you the tools (and ratios) you need to modify almost any recipe for different diets; you can read my full review of the cookbook here .
What do eggs do in baking, anyway?
Eggs are an emulsifier, and they provide moisture, structure, color, and aeration to baked goods. One single egg can do all this, so finding a replacement can be tall order. The following ingredients have a range of capabilities—offering all of those egg features above, or maybe just one or two. But a replacement doesn’t really have to do it all. Depending on what you’re making, sometimes moisture or aeration is all you need.
Aquafaba
Despite its humble beginnings as the liquid byproduct of your canned chickpeas, aquafaba is an effective egg replacement. It works well for binding in cookies and cakes due to its starch content, adding moisture due to its water content, and can even be whipped to leaven cakes or suffice as a suitable meringue replacement (featuring a delightful nutty note). Use three tablespoons of aquafaba per every whole egg being replaced. Oh, and freeze any extra aquafaba that you didn’t use for next time.
Bananas
Bananas do a top-notch job at providing moisture and structure to baked goods. Yes, they’ll provide a lovely banana flavor, but more importantly when replacing eggs, they deliver a springy hydration to cakes and cookies. Keep in mind that the moisture is unflagging, kind of like adding pumpkin puree to a recipe—you’ll never get a crisp cookie if you use bananas. Use a scant quarter-cup of mashed banana for each whole egg in a recipe.
Tapioca and baking powder and other powdered blends
Instead of relying on a single ingredient to try and replicate the many functions of eggs, why not target its attributes with a blend of ingredients? There may be packaged store bought mixtures readily available in the baking aisle you can grab. I’ve used Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free Egg Replacer in cakes with great success. It’s made of potato starch, tapioca flour, baking soda, and psyllium husk to duplicate the leavening and binding of an egg.
You can also make your own simplified blend with tapioca flour and baking powder. Stir together one tablespoon of tapioca flour with one tablespoon of water and add a quarter-teaspoon of baking powder before adding it to your recipe. The starches absorb the moisture in the batter (of which you added a bit extra to account for this), they gelatinize and bind the batter upon heating in the oven (no need to pre-cook the mixture to activate them), and the baking powder provides that subtle bit of lift like an egg would.
Soda
That’s right. Fanta. Diet Coke. Root beer. Good old fashioned cola. With the help of a carbonated drink, you can add hydration and noticeable lift to your boxed cake mix without the eggs. You probably caught that—boxed cake mix. While I wouldn’t suggest using sodas as the sole ingredient for replacing eggs in cookies, cakes, or brownies you’re making from scratch, they make a surprisingly effective replacement in boxed cake mixes.
Sour cream egg wash
While sour cream is delicious in cake batter or cookie dough, I’m pivoting slightly from replacing eggs in doughs, to replacing eggs on doughs. When you can’t spare an extra egg to make an egg wash for your pies, tarts, and biscuits, grab a tub of sour cream. Despite my predictions during testing, this fermented dairy product produces excellent browning and shine , even better than a regular egg wash.
