The Fresh Loaf

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charisma's picture
charisma

beginner

hi,

Im a beginner at baking...cooking actually.

Id like to know if there is a permanent substitute that i can use  for egg as im vegetarian, so it seems like i have to give up on lots of good recipes and takes a lot of ti,e looking up for substitutes!!!!

i want to know an egg substitute in cakes, breads and tarts. Please help.

 

Charisma

Comments

ananda's picture
ananda

Hi Charisma,

Well egg is almost a complete food in its own right, which makes it fairly special, and difficult to find a direct replacement.

Probably the simplest substitute is a mix of soya milk and soya flour.   I did some thinking about this a few years ago, when I was doing some consultancy work for a wholefood grocery co-op in Manchester.   The principles were radical: vegan and refined sugar-free!   I came up with a paste of soya milk and soya flour which gave a 75% moisture, akin to egg, and also the equivalent amount of protein.   I'm sure it's not a like-for-like substitution.   The trouble is, that the only other route I could think of at the time was additive;   I don't have any interest in going down that road.   Functionally, however, I don't think you can find an egg substitute to match...otherwise it would be in mainstream use already!

If I can find the work buried on my pc somewhere, I'll post back, if you're interested?

BW

Andy

charisma's picture
charisma

Hi Andy

 

Thanks so much!! It would be of great help if you do. Soy milk and flour are easily available and quite healthy too, so ill def use this one and get bak to you on that.

 

Charisma

ananda's picture
ananda

Hi Charisma,

Document below is what I worked on to produce a formula for vegan cake batter.   For a meaningful recipe look at the formula % column, where flour is 100.   The yield for that would give just short of 420.   You could read that as grammes if that helps.   So if you want to make 1kg of mix, then multiply all the figs by 2.5.   Shown as follows: 2.5 x 419.7 = 1049.25 [that's your 1kg plus as few grams spare]   Multiply all your ingredients up by the same to give your recipe.

Anyway the sucrose and moisture figs won't mean much to you at this stage.   But you might spot that the remaining moisture in the cake is quite high; this means the shelf life before mould appears on the cake is likely to be quite short.

See how you get on.   Mixing method is probably best to blend.   There seems little point in creaming and beating, as there is no means to aerate.   However, you should be wary of working the flour in the mixer, as that will toughen the protein and detract from a tender crumb.   You could combine flour fat and sugar first, then stream the liquid into that?

See my work document below; it's from about 4 years ago now, but I did look it over, take out some unwanted additives, and make sure it all balanced before posting:

 

ANDY SMITH

 

VEGAN CAKE BATTER

 

INGREDIENT

%moisture

moisture

As % of flour

SE value

TSE

Soft Flour

14

14

100

0.2

20

Sipal Organic Palm Fat

0

0

72

0

0

Sipal Organic Brown Rice Syrup

20

21

105

0.8

84

Organic Refined Soya Flour

6

1.8

26.7

0.001

0.0267

 Soya Milk

94

103.4

110

0.001

0.11

Baking Powder

6

0.3

5

3.0

15

Salt 

0

0

1.0

11.0

11

TOTALS

-

140.5

419.7

-

199

Total % moisture content/ SE content

 

33.5%

 

 

130.14

 

Weight loss in baking is 10%; 41.97g

Retained moisture is Baked weight [419.7 - 41.97] = 377.73

Moisture retained is 140.5 - 41.97 = 98.53

Moisture content of baked cake is therefore [98.53/377.73] x 100 = 26%

 

Sucrose Equivalence                     130.14                        = 1.32

Moisture Content                             98.53

Best wishes

Andy

charisma's picture
charisma

Hi everyone!!!

Can you help me with the fact that i have a microwave oven with convection. It has an option called 'combination cooking'. Will i be able to bake with this well? I also need too know what am I missing out on by not having a conventional oven to bake with?Does Baking in microwave lose out on the texture and taste?

Cheers!!

Charisma

pmccool's picture
pmccool

Hi charisma,

I noticed that serenityhill, aka Johanna, mentioned that she uses a microwave/convection oven combo for her baking in this thread.  Perhaps she could give you a user's perspective.

Paul

manicbovine's picture
manicbovine

Ground flaxseed makes a decent egg replacer in most baked sweets.

ananda's picture
ananda

Hi,

Sounds like a very good idea.   Do you just mix it with water to give overall moisture content of 75%, as for eggs?

Thanks

Andy

hanseata's picture
hanseata

Hi, Charisma,

What you can substitute for eggs depends somewhat on what you are going to bake:

1 egg = 1 tbsp ground flax seeds + 3 tbsp water (in pancakes or whole grain pastry, but not so good in chocolate recipes)

1 egg = 1/4 cup silken tofu, blended (in dense cakes and brownies). For lighter cakes use only 1/2 cup tofu per 3 eggs. In cookie recipes add 1 tsp. starch per tofu "egg".

1 egg = 1/2 ripe banana, blended (in quick breads, muffins, cakes, pancakes where banana taste is welcome. Browns nicely.

1 egg = 1/4 cup soy yogurt (use like silken tofu), makes nice moist cakes.

These substitute suggestions are from Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero, authors of the wonderful: "Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World", and other vegan cookbooks. I'm not a vegan, but I found these work really well!

Karin

 

charisma's picture
charisma

Thanks so much for the detailed reply, will get back once i try it

 

charisma's picture
charisma

Thanks so much for the detailed reply, will get back once i try it

 

hanseata's picture
hanseata

According to Moskowitz and Romero Ener-G Egg Replacer works best for cookies, but the taste is less good than with the other non ready made substitutes like silken tofu etc. I found that, too, and therefore I use it only if nothing else is at hand.

ananda's picture
ananda

Hi,

From the internet, this is product info given for this :

You can decide for yourself whether or not you want to work with this, as it contains functional additives, unlike the other suggestions.

Egg Replacer- kosher-parve
Mimics what eggs do in recipes, Greatly simplifies baking for people who cannot use eggs. It replaces egg whites as well as egg yolks in baking. Pack equal to approximately 100 eggs. Recipes provided on pack.

Ingredients

Potato Starch, tapioca starch flour, leavening (calcium lactate [not derived from dairy], calcium carbonate, citric acid), sodium carboxymethylcellulose, methylcellulose

Free of

gluten, wheat, casein, dairy, egg, yeast, soy, nut, low protein, rice

 

BW

Andy