Egg "Sensitivity" - Question Re: Baking

[esulerzy]

I have a sensitivity to eggs; which I need to avoid for the near future. However, with the holidays coming up I want to do some baking. I found a list from the Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network website:

"Baking
For each egg, substitute one of the following in recipes:
1 tsp. baking powder, 1 T. liquid, 1 T. vinegar
1 tsp. yeast dissolved in 1/4 cup warm water
1 1/2 T. water, 1 1/2 T. oil, 1 tsp. baking powder
1 packet gelatin, 2 T. warm water. Do not mix until ready to use.
These substitutes work well when baking from scratch and substituting 1 to 3 eggs. "

My questions:

1) Does one of these methods work better than others?
2) If I use the water/oil/baking powder version, what type of oil should I use?
3) For the baking powder/liquid/vinegar - what do they mean by "liquid" - water?

I'm thinking, if there is no difference, that the water/oil/baking powder would be the easiest.

Thanks!

 

[SueM in MN]

I knew which was better depended on what the egg was being used for (to hold things together or to provide light, airy texture), but I didn't know which to use for which.
This website looked helpful.
Here's another website that looks helpful.

Hopefully, you will get some reports from people who actually use egg substitutes.

 

[esulerzy]

that I need the substitute for.

SueM. those websites helped, thanks! But, I'm still not sure why the egg is in the pumpkin pie - for a binder or for leavening......I can follow a recipe but can't figure out the substitutes.....

 

[SueM in MN]

that I need the substitute for.

SueM. those websites helped, thanks! But, I'm still not sure why the egg is in the pumpkin pie - for a binder or for leavening......I can follow a recipe but can't figure out the substitutes.....

That one I know. It's for binding. The pumpkin is pretty liquid and uses eggs to make it more solid (when I was growing up, I read cook books for fun).

Hope your pie turns out.

 

[welovedis]

Sorry, the only one I've ever tried is the gelatin for making a pumpkin pie and it worked out fine, just used slightly less than a package of gelatin.

HTH!

meant to add that I'm allergic to eggs and have some great egg-free recipes that I can pass along. i'm working on getting them on my computer but if you PM me with your email addy I can send them when I've got them done!

 

[esulerzy]

SueM - thanks, that helps tremendously! Since you read cookbooks for fun Can I take this one question further - if a more liquid recipe (pumpkin pie) needs eggs for binding; then can I assume that a recipe that uses lots and lots of flour (I have a great almond cookie recipe that is very dry) uses the egg(s) for leavening? Or, am I off base with my thinking? Obviously, I can't quite get the concept of binding and levening.....

welovedis - Thanks for your offer - I sent you a PM.

 

[cara76]

My son is allergic to eggs and I have some egg free recipies too. The best thing I ever bought was an egg free cook book. It's awesome. It's called Bakin Without Eggs and it's by Rosemarie Emro. It has everything you ever wanted to bake and everything is egg free and everything I baked from it is awesome.

 

[SueM in MN]

SueM - thanks, that helps tremendously! Since you read cookbooks for fun Can I take this one question further - if a more liquid recipe (pumpkin pie) needs eggs for binding; then can I assume that a recipe that uses lots and lots of flour (I have a great almond cookie recipe that is very dry) uses the egg(s) for leavening? Or, am I off base with my thinking? Obviously, I can't quite get the concept of binding and levening.....

welovedis - Thanks for your offer - I sent you a PM.

Cara's cookbook sounds great. One thing I do know is that in some recipes one or the other egg substitute works best, so a cookbook with recipes adapted to not use eggs would give the most consistent results. Then, from looking at that cookbook, you can probably compare recipes in it to ones you have and want to adapt.
I hope more people who cook without eggs reply since I'm just going on theory and they are going on practice.
Maybe I didn't explain binding well enough. Binding can be used to make something thicker or more solid (like the pumpkin) or to hold something together (like to make dry ingredients stick together).
if it's something that raises (?rises?) as it cooks, then the egg might be more part of the leavening (like cake or bread).

Cookies are usually pretty flat, but do rise a little (the leavening part). For something like cookies, the egg is probably being used mostly to keep the flour stuck together with the other dry ingredients (a binder).

 

[chell]

My sister makes me the best pumpkin pie for me every year now. It is wonderful! When they get back home I'll try to get the recipe from her and pass it along to you. I know that it does have flour in it and you have to cook it over the stove for about 30 minutes stirring often or constantly. But it is so worth it.