Many
recipes out there, on the internet and in books, refer to store-bought
egg replacers. It’s magic in a cardboard doo-thingey!
But
get real. As chef extraordinaires from Jamie Oliver, to Ina Garten, to
Guy Fieri discuss the importance of free-range, organic meats and
produce, why not make the same demands on the alternatives to those
products? If my parents casually scrutinize a container of eggs as if it
were the most natural of human instincts, inspecting the origins (must
be reasonably local, sustainable, free-range, and the list goes on) why
would I, experimenting with egglessness, pick up a generic egg-replacer
chock-full of empty emulsifiers, and chemical names I can’t pronounce!?
So
many options exist as egg-replacers that you will be flashing excited
eyes, scouring your pantry for the unlikely, surprisingly healthy
alternatives.
Many are aware of a tbsp of water and/or vinegar, if you need something in a pinch (if someone ate the last egg) but ¼ cp of banana or apple mash
will also do and can totally blast up the taste of your baking several
notches--the mere thought of blueberry-banana muffins render my palette a
sloppy mess. Local apples are by far the best way to go, though. Recall
my rant on palm fruit oil? Unfortunately, the treatment of labourers
who pick those lovely bananas amounts to similar degrees of unfairness
(even checking for where they’re from, or for organic does not make up
for the lack of fair trade). If you’re allergic to apples, in which case
they make you a hyper, irritable mess, ¼ cp of silken tofu will make a mouth-watering alternative. Or why not purée some stewed pears for a pear mash? But there are also some surprising fruit, soy/emulsifier-free egg replacements.
Flax meal
is an insoluble fibre that relates to the enzymatic breakdown of
ancient grains--if you’re making a spelt muffin or cookie, flax is a
fantastic pairing that will boost the nutrients, taste, and quality of
your baked good. Replace each egg with 1 tbsp of flax meal and 3 tbsp of
hot water, letting it thicken and cool for about 5 minutes. The only
thing to bear in mind with this method is that once the 5 minutes are
up, you may want to wait a touch longer or stick the mix in the fridge
for a tick, since most recipes are temperature-dependent. Humidity can
make your cakes fall, eggs too hot or cold can either sink your goods
into pucks or can begin cooking them during the mixing process, giving
you an inconsistent overdone product. Flax is a fantastic fibre source
for many, for some, as I have explained in other posts, proteins,
fibres, starches, etc. break down so differently that one person’s
regulator is another’s blocker.
Enter the mighty chia seed,
no longer the tacky plant of the 90s. Chia is a fibrous plant source
that has been of great assistance to me these past few months. My
primary yogi-holistic-yuppie-hippie go-to, Joy McCarthy of Joyous Health
(sorry Sarah Britton) casually posted this exciting power seed as an
egg-replacement in her post on utterly pointless but delicious cookies:
“2 tbsp of chia combined with 8 tbsp water (let sit till it becomes
pudding-like before combining).” Room-temperature, under 5 minutes,
water soluble, and a powerhouse of nutrients--boosting your empty
cookies to sources of dietary fibre.
What’s not to love?!
But
whether just plain water, flax, chia, fruit purée, tofu, vinegar, or
nut butters there are many alternatives to store-bought egg-replacers
easy to find in the home.
Sources for this post:
The lovely, genuine: http://www.joyoushealth.ca/2011/12/05/gluten-free-chewy-chocolate-chip-cookies/
The vegan basics are outlined by busy mom-of-five in Kelly Rudnicki’s, Vegan Baking Classics, proving that a no muss no fuss busy at home mom can make vegan/nut-free work.
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