Avoiding eggs? Here’s a helpful reference for baking without eggs

Eggs – I used to love them scrambled, hard boiled, over easy, and just about any other way you could make ’em. Today, I have to avoid them, along with grains, dairy, gluten and several other more obscure foods, so I find myself testing various egg replacers while baking and cooking.

There are tons of reasons that you might be avoiding eggs; if you’re like me, you’re doing so because you’re following the Auto Immune Protocol diet which calls for an egg and nightshade-free diet. You might also be following the Paleo diet, some devotees of which avoid eggs.  There are countless other reasons including food allergies, vegetarian and vegan lifestyle choices  and potentially the avoidance of an increased risk of some types of cancers.

Personally, I still feed eggs to my son and I think I’ll have a tough time trying to convenience he and my husband to go cold-turkey on those guys, but until then, I’m using some egg replacement guidelines to help bake and cook without them since I’m egg free.

I hope these help you!

Egg Replacements for cooking/baking:

If a recipe calls for just one or two eggs, you can often skip them, or add a couple of extra tablespoons of water for each egg eliminated to balance out the moisture content of the product. However, if you feel they’re needed for consistency, or to hold the ingredients together, here are some helpful conversions for replacing eggs.

1 egg =

• 1/2 mashed banana
• ¼ cup applesauce or pureed fruit
• ½ cup soy yogurt
• 1-1/2 teaspoons of Ener-G  Foods Egg Replacer  +  2 tablespoons  lukewarm water (Ener-G is a powder commercial egg substitute)
• 1 tablespoon ground flaxseed meal + 3 tablespoons water
• 1 tablespoon ground flaxseed meal + 3 tablespoons water + 1 tablespoon mild flavored cooking oil + 1 teaspoon low sodium baking powder + 1 teaspoon tapioca or potato starch or corn starch
• ¼ cup mashed white potatoes or  sweet potatoes
• 2 tablespoon potato starch, cornstarch, or arrowroot
• 2-3 tablespoons of tomato paste
• ¼ cup cooked oats
• 2-3 tablespoons of bread crumbs
• 2-3 tablespoons of flour
• 1/4 cup of tofu blended (any kind) with the liquid ingredients in the recipe

While I stumble my way through testing all of these, I’d love to hear your thoughts!

If you’re uisng egg replacers, I’d love to hear what you use, and when. In other words, do you find one of the above is better for baking, while you use another replacement method for cooking? What are the pros and cons, etc?