EGG Substitutions (Recipes and Favorite Brands)
Replacing eggs in baked recipes like cookies, brownies, muffins, etc can be tricky because changing the chemistry sometimes changes the end product. The tricky thing is, here is not one egg replacer that is ideal for every recipe. Sometime ground FLAX SEED is the best, other times ENER-G BRAND EGG REPLACER works best, and other times no egg replacer is needed. But don't despair, Vegan websites & books are a wonderful resource because they have perfected the ratios of ingredients without eggs.
What did I do? I got rid of most of my baking recipes and replaced them with so many wonderful Vegan recipes. The internet is full of great Vegan bakers! The few recipes I held onto are: a muffin recipe (I use Ener-G egg replacer), a banana bread recipe (I omit the eggs), meatloaf & meatball recipes (I omit the eggs), pancakes (omit egg or use ground flax).
Ener-G Egg Replacer
photo taken from www.ener-g.com
The Ener-G egg replacer is a mix of starches that act like an egg does in many recipes. The box has ratios of the powder blend to water for each egg it is replacing. I recommend mixing the powder blend with water thoroughly before adding it to the rest of the recipe to avoid clumps in your final product. Usually the ratios recommended are good, but sometimes I have found I need to add a little bit more water (or milk substitute). I think it depends on the current humidity in the air which affects how dry the mixture is (I always seem to need more liquid on dry winter days).
Ground Flaxseed
photo taken from www.walmart.com
If you are unfamiliar with Flaxseed, they look like a teeny tiny miniature pumpkin seeds. They are nutritious and beneficial to grind up and add to many recipes. I think they go well with most things nuts can be added to (pancakes, muffins, cookies, etc). I grind them in a vitamix, but I've heard people grind them by hand (with a mortal and pestle) or other brands of electric grinders or coffee grinders.
Here is a Whole Foods web page on flaxseed and the health benefits.
There are several ratios of water to flax seed that work. A pretty "standard" ratio is 1 tablespoon of ground flaxseed to 3 tablespoons of water.
Here is a Whole Foods web page on flaxseed and the health benefits.
There are several ratios of water to flax seed that work. A pretty "standard" ratio is 1 tablespoon of ground flaxseed to 3 tablespoons of water.
How to "bread" items without egg
baked coconut curry chicken
1. One option is to coat things with OLIVE OIL and then roll in thin breadcrumbs. This works well for thinly breading things with small breadcrumbs.
2. I wanted to get some really thick breading on my chicken (in this case flakes of coconut), so I invented a gooey coating that works really well!
Sara's egg-like mixture
coating the chicken
1 cup of rice* milk
1/8-1/4 cup of flour
boil for about 1 minute until thickened. It should have a thick gravy-like texture.
*or other dairy-free milk of choice