How to replace eggs in pastry recipes
Eggs 🥚 are an essential ingredient in pastry making, allowing us to thicken and gel sauces and creams, create emulsions, form foams or bind different ingredients. Although they are difficult to replace in our elaborations, it is not impossible!
For this, it is important to know what function the egg whites, egg yolks and whole egg perform in each recipe, and thus to know with which ingredients they can be substituted. This is something we cover in depth in the B-Concept online and extended pastry course, along with knowledge of molecules and mastery of recipe formulation.
Whites contain a high percentage of water (88 %) and proteins (11 %), as well as other macro-nutrients in small quantities. Proteins are undoubtedly the protagonists, as they give structure to many pastry products through the gelling process. They also allow us to incorporate air into textures such as meringues, mousses or soufflés, and help bind the different ingredients in cookies or cookies.
The egg whites contain a high percentage of water, so if we want to remove them, we will have to add the percentage of water corresponding to the recipe. To incorporate air into our dough, we can use vegetable proteins such as soy, potato 🥔 or aquafaba.
On the other hand, in addition to water (50%) and protein (15%), egg yolks 🥣 contain 30% fat composed of both saturated and unsaturated fats. Thanks to this combination, egg yolks bring texture and creaminess to our preparations! We also find lecithin, which allows us to create stable emulsions in ice creams and creams. When they are removed, we can compensate the emulsifying capacity by using powdered, granulated or liquid lecithin from sunflower or soybeans.
Finally, in recipes where eggs are mainly used to bind ingredients, substitution is easier. We can work with flax or chia seeds, applesauce, bananas or nut pastes, which will help us to achieve a homogeneous dough that does not crumble after baking!
Thanks to the growing demand for plant-based alternatives, we can produce healthier, lighter and tastier pastry recipes using a wide range of vegetable proteins from legumes, nuts, tubers and seeds.
Did you know that half of the recipes in our book "Healthier, Lighter and Tastier Pastries" are egg-free?
🔬 Learn how to formulate them by following our B-Concept method!
