How to cook without Eggs how to substitute eggs

Many people choose to stop eating eggs. Some people have high cholesterol and are commanded by their doctors to quit the eggs, some people are vegan, others may be allergic, some want lower fat food, others don't like the taste, and more.

I'm vegan and thought long and hard about how to substitute eggs. I came up with a substitute in baking by thinking "what does an egg do in baking?" I came up with three things an egg does in baking:

1) it makes things rise

2) it makes things stick

3) it adds moisture.

So I came up with an egg substitute which does all of these things (below) and generally produces nice fluffy muffins, brownies, etc.

See below for the secrets!

The items I came up with which do the same things as eggs (in baking) are:

1) Rising - Baking Powder (if you're out you can try a bit of baking soda and vinegar)

2) Sticking - Tapioca Flour/Starch (if you have none, try rice or potato starch, if in a super pinch you might try regular flour or dry mashed potato mix which is starchy)

3) Moisture - Applesauce (some people like bananas but I feel this flavors the food rather than just leaving a sweet moist flavor like applesauce). If you do not want the sweetness of applesauce, use a purred vegetable)

Now, to get the results you want, you will have to mess with the measurements a bit, but here is the "general" rule which seems to work for me most of the time:

For one large egg, use: 1 Tablespoon Tapioca Flour 1 pinch baking Powder, 1 Tablespoon applesauce.

Make sure you put the dry ingredients in a bowl first and stir them up with your tapioca starch and baking powder (leave the apple sauce out for now) to make sure you don't develop tapioca ball lumps in your recipe. Add the apple sauce with the other wet ingredients once the starch is well mixed into the dry part of your recipe.

What seems to work best when preparing is to ALSO: reduce any oil in the recipe by 1/3 (eggs also soak up oil! So you get to reduce your oil when cooking eggless which is GREAT for weight and health).

I usually substitute half of the water in the recipe (or all) with soymilk, because heated soymilk solidifies a little and helps with the "sticking" aspect of things.

Usually a little trial and error with the amounts of these items and you should have an egg substitute which works superbly. Muffins and such well made without eggs are often a bit sweeter, moister, and tastier according to many people, as there is no savory eggy taste in the finished sweet product.

If you get stuck, you can always purchase ENER G Egg Replacer, which is mostly composed of starches; however leaves a bit of a bitter taste in my opinion.

For other egg substitutes, its easy to use tofu.

For an egg "McMuffin" sandwich, I use a slab of lightly fried, salted and peppered tofu on a bun with vegan cheese and non-animal sausage.

If I'm making "scrambled eggs" I simply take tofu, drain it well, then crumble it into a pan of sauteed onions (I like to saute a few onions or leeks in a vegan butter) then softly cook the crumbled tofu and add salt, pepper (I add nutritional yeast for a cheesy flavor, vitamins and color. For variety, sometimes add some vegan cheese or fried tempeh bacon). Serve it on some toast with fruit as a side and some OJ.

Raw Tofu has a soft slippery texture which is very similar to cooked egg whites, you just need the right seasonings to make it taste like those eggs you love.

There are other egg tricks,for instance there is an indian spice which tastes much like eggs (I believe it is called Black salt (or Kala Namak). Sprinkled on items it gives a distinct eggy flavor.

These are just a few of the easy egg substitutes out there, happy research and happy eggless hunting!