Egg Substitutes

Having a daughter with food allergies has forced me to come up with alternatives for many things. Eggs are difficult to work around, as so many recipes call for them. Over the years I have come up with several good replacements that make cooking without eggs easier.

Knowing what substitutes work for eggs will make cooking and baking easier for everyone. There are so many times that I am running short on eggs or just plain out of them. I can still cook though, because of good substitutes.

Ener-G Egg Replacer a great substitute for eggs. You can purchase this at your local health food store, or even some grocery stores. I paid $6.39 for a 16 ounce box, which seems like a lot, but when you are using one tablespoon at a time, it seems to last forever. Egg Replacer is gluten free, wheat free and contains no eggs or animal protein. The box indicates that you should mix 1 & 1/2 teaspoons Egg Replacer with two tablespoons of warm water for each egg. You should mix it up before adding it to your recipe. I have found that doubling this amount for each egg you are replacing makes this Egg Replacer work a lot better.

Other, more common alternatives for eggs are oil, applesauce and soy flour. One heaping tablespoon of soy flour mixed with one tablespoon of water is equal to one egg. Four ounces of applesauce (unsweetened works best) is equal to one egg. Oil is a bit trickier. Many recipes already call for oil so you need to be careful adding more oil. If a recipe does not call for oil, adding oil instead of an egg works pretty well. If a recipe calls for oil already I have better luck using the soy flour or applesauce instead of extra oil.

I have found that using actual eggs is the best thing for baking. Some recipes call for two or three eggs though. When a recipe calls for multiple eggs I always substitute for one egg. This allows me to stretch my eggs further so I don't run out as quickly. Also this means there are fewer eggs in the recipe. If you substitute with applesauce it is a healthier alternative than lots of eggs.

Cooking and baking without eggs can be difficult, though it is possible. I like having lots of alternatives for items that I frequently use - this limits the number of times I have to make a run to the store at the last minute. Using egg substitutes is somewhat trial and error though. You have to be careful how many eggs you replace. Using egg substitutes in scratch recipes works better than trying to use substitutes with boxed mixes. Finding substitutes that work for me though has been a life saver many times.