Beginner’s Guide to Vegan Egg Substitutes
Author - Alyssa Rimmer
Get easy tips for egg-free baking and the best vegan egg substitutes you can use! Now your favorite baked goods are simple to make healthy and vegan!
Helloย my friends! Hope you're having a fabulous day and are ready to dive into the world of egg-free baking!
I get a lot of questions/requests for vegan recipes, so I thought it would be fun to walk you through my favorite vegan egg substitutes, give you some of my general vegan baking tips and also give you some examples of how you can use these egg replacements in your own baking.
Ready to dive in? Let's DO this!
Quick Vegan Baking Tips
In general, I suggest that you don't try to replace more than 2 (sometimes 3) eggs at a time. If a recipe calls for 4 eggs, replacing them just won't give you the same results.
Eggs have very specific purposes in baking, the first is to act as a binder. The eggs help hold the baked goods together, so it's not crumbly and dry.
The second reason is structure. Eggs can provide lift and texture to baked goods, and when that is the main purpose, I haven't found success replacing them. Something like a sponge cake or gluten-free sandwich bread, relies on those eggs for lift, but also that squishy, crumb texture. If you replaced all the eggs, you'd likely end up with a gooey, underbaked mess on your hands.
So…stick with recipes that use one or two eggs, or that have specifically been designed to be vegan already.
Best types of recipes for replacing eggs:
- Cookies
- Muffins
- Pancakes
- Waffles (if eggs aren't separated)
Common Vegan Egg Substitutes
There are actually quite a few ways to replace eggs in baking and today we're going to talk through the most common ones.
I'm excited to be partnering with my friends at Bob's Red Mill to bring you today's post because they actually care three of my favorite egg substitution ingredients. I'll be linking to their specific products through the post, so make sure to go over to their site and check them out!
1. Flaxseed Meal
This is probably the one you'll see me use most often. It's simple to make, has a great texture and adds more nutrition to your baked goods.
How to make a flax egg: mix 1 tablespoon flaxseed meal + 3 tablespoons water and let sit for 5 minutes
2. Chia Seeds
Similar to flaxseed meal, you can also use chia seeds or ground chia powder to replace eggs in vegan baking. Made the same way flax eggs are made, chia eggs have an equally nice texture but can change the color of your baked goods slightly because of their dark color.
How to make a chia egg: mix 1 tablespoon chia seeds (or chia seed meal) + 3 tablespoons water and let sit for 5 minutes
3. Vegan Egg Replacers
There are also products that are made specifically for replacing eggs. Bob's Red Mill has a vegan + gluten-free egg replacer that I really like. It's made with high-quality ingredients, has a lighter texture than flax seed meal (or chia) and works well in pretty much every recipe I've tried. You can find it on their website or also on Amazon!
How to make a vegan egg: follow the instructions on the package! ๐
4. Fruit Puree
My final egg substitute recommendation is fruit puree! Yep, you can actually use mashed up fruit to replace the eggs in your baking. To keep things straightforward, here are my favorite fruit replacements:
- Banana
- Unsweetened Applesauce
- Pumpkin
- Sweet Potato
- Butternut Squash
- Pear Butter
- Avocado
Yes, even avocado!
One thing to keep in mind if you're making eggs out of fruit, is that some have a strong flavor/color. For example, if you add banana, your baked good will taste like banana. Pumpkin/Sweet Potato, it will have an orange hue. Avocado? It will likely taste like avocado.
The most plain-Jane one is definitely applesauce and for the others (minus the banana), you can somewhat mask the flavor by incorporating them into a recipe that already has a strong flavor like chocolate or coffee. But the dark color of those two options will also hide the orange color ๐
Healthy Vegan Recipes
Now that you knowย how to substitute eggs in your vegan baking, let's talk specific recipes! I wanted to give you some of my favorite vegan recipes from the site, but also break them down by category. As I mentioned above, I have found the best success when replacing eggs in things like cookies, muffins and pancakes!
Vegan Cookie Recipes
- Chunky Monkey Quinoa Breakfast Cookies (using flax + chia)
- Chewy Almond Flour Cookies (using flaxseed meal)
- Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies (using pumpkin + flax)
Vegan Muffin Recipes
- Skinny Chocolate Chip Quinoa Muffins (using banana + flax)
- Skinny Pumpkin Quinoa Muffins (using pumpkin, banana + flax)
- Healthy Strawberry Oatmeal Muffins (using banana + flax)
Vegan Pancake Recipes
- Fluffy Vegan Blueberry Pancakes (using flax)
- Healthy Carrot Cake Pancakes (using flax)
- Banana Buckwheat Pancakes (using banana + flax)
Other Vegan Recipes
- Vegan Gingerbread Loaf (using pumpkin + egg replacer)
- Vegan Lemon Blueberry Donuts (using banana)
- Vegan Pumpkin Cornbread (using pumpkin + flax)
Do you have any other vegan baking questions? Let me know in the comments below!
This post is brought to you in partnership with Bob's Red Mill. As always, all opinions are my own. I only share companies I love and trust, so thank you for continuing to support Simply Quinoa!
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Hi!
I’m really excited to try some of your recipes and I particularly like your recent video on how to use hemp seeds three ways (though the cookie recipe on your site confused me immensely and I had to go back to your vid to realize the “egg” listed in the ingredients was a flax egg. I’m looking for vegan recipes.). Anyway thanks for this guide on vegan egg subs. Could you please have it an available PDF format for printing like you do your recipes? Either the chart or even the whole article. Until I’m used to this new way of food prep, I’d really like to be able to print it so I can place it at the front of my recipe binder.
Great idea! I’ll work on putting this into a guide ๐
[…] Beginner’s Guide to Vegan Egg Substitutes […]
This has to be one of the most helpful vegan egg videos I’ve come across! The flax egg is my favorite as well, but I’ve had success with mashed butternut squash, egg replacers, and chia eggs! I really want to see if silken tofu could work as well, but I’m not sure how successful that endeavor would be!
So glad you found it helpful! I’ve also been wanting to try aquafaba ๐ Keep me posted on the silken tofu experiment!
Just wondering if you’ve explored aquafaba yet? I’ve been using it for several things, but have not necessarily tried it in foods that use egg for structure.
I haven’t done much with it, to be honest! But I’ve heard others have had great success!