Do You Dare to Cook Without Eggs?

Can you cook avoiding this ingredient?

There are people because of vegan beliefs or simply because of their health, due to intolerances, they can not cook with eggs.

This becomes very limiting if we love desserts and bakery because the fluffiness and consistency provided by the eggs are difficult to replace, but not impossible!

Anyway, in recent years, this food has been demonized a lot in terms of health, transferring the problems it gives to certain people and generalizing its non-consumption for everyone.

There are much less healthy alternatives that we are willing to use (synthetic xanthan gum etc.) that are much worse than an organic egg from time to time to eat it cooked or to make a dessert once in a while.

The question is to know how to discern when we should take it or not, the quantity, the consciousness by which we stop eating it, etc. At least don’t have to be my lack of knowledge.

Besides all this, there are ethical vegan beliefs that are totally respectable.

The egg is a product with unique qualities in the kitchen. When it’s heated, it’s protein expands and coagulates giving volume to the preparations. However, as we’ve said before, and for people who have limited its consumption for whatever is the reason, making appropriate mixtures with other ingredients can achieve similar or very successful results in terms of textures, appearances and flavours.

The preparations I propose can be interesting and add a variety of flavours and nutrients to the usual menus.

 

For the chefs of vegan restaurants or option to vegan desserts, this becomes a real challenge!

Depending on the effect we want to achieve:

VOLUME: if you want to boost it, you can replace 25% of the liquid in the recipe with sparkling water

LIGHTNESS: Add half a teaspoon of baking soda when you use fruit to replace the egg. It will make the result less dense

EMULSION: Ingredients that can be used to bind mixtures are dense like pumpkin puree, arrowroot, tapioca or kuzu.

SPONGINESS: You can replace baking soda, baking powder, vinegar, lemon or orange juice to enhance that quality.

Alternatives in Pastry

VINEGAR AND BICARBONATE: by mixing an acidic ingredient such as apple cider vinegar or lemon juice with bicarbonate in equal parts, carbon dioxide bubbles are released that help make muffins, biscuits and cakes lighter.

AQUAFABA: The aquafaba is the liquid resulting from the cooking of chickpeas. It can be assembled and with that preparation, we can get much more spongy doughs.

FLAX SEEDS SOAKED IN WATER: when the ground flax seeds are left in water, the soluble fibre is transformed into a jelly, able to mix all the ingredients of a recipe, giving it a juicy texture. To replace each egg mix one tablespoon of flax seeds and three of water with a blender. Wait half an hour until the mixture acquires a gelatinous texture and a pinch of bicarbonate is added. It will be ready to be used in cookies, pancakes and crepes.

PHYSILLIUM:  Gives a similar effect to flax seeds. Very suitable for recipes without gluten, this soluble fibre (plantago ovata) swells with water, and provides a gelatinous effect in the preparations.

RIPE BANANA: Half crushed banana is equivalent to an egg and like this one, it serves to bind the ingredients of a recipe and give juiciness to the dough. It’s a good option when it doesn’t matter if the preparation has the flavour of it, as in cakes and biscuits.

APPLE COMPOTE: Offers less flavour than a banana and more juiciness. It’s a good choice for moist cakes.

SILKEN TOFU: It’s the least firm tofu, which can be blended until becomes a cream. 60 gr per egg is used in puddings, quiches, custards, mousses, pie fillings or cheesecakes that Will become deliciously dense and creamy.

KUZU OR ARROWROOT: these two starches can be dissolved in cold water (two tablespoons per one egg) and heated until the mixture thickens. Then it is combined with the rest of the ingredients in the preparation of custards and other desserts.

AGAR-AGAR: With this seaweed, you can get transparent gelatin as a substitute for the egg white. One of its main advantages is that it has no flavour. Just add it to the rest of the dough ingredients in the preparation of cakes, which will be enriched with iodine, calcium and iron.

RECIPE

Cranberry and Oat Spongy Cupcakes