How to Substitute Eggs in Vegan Baking

“Being vegan is too restrictive. All you can eat is grass and carrots”……..

If I had a dime for how many times I have been told statements like that, I could probably pay for a year of dental school (kidding….kind of ;)).  What most people don’t realize is that with a little education on health and the baking properties of different foods, you can make delicious vegan treats that are even better than their animal product counterparts (If you ask me ;)).

So yes you can still eat cookies, cakes, chocolate, and other delicious treats when you are a vegan. I love that using vegan swaps in baking makes the treats healthier without sacrificing flavor or taste. I personally use healthier vegan swaps, and 90% of the time make my recipes without oil. I have finally begun to get the hang of vegan, gluten-free, oil-free baking. My family can vouch for that.

Baking with gluten free flours, no egg, and no oil can take a little bit of experimentation. Lucky for you, I have had many baking failures over the past 1.5 years and have learned what works best. Of course I have to share these swaps with you as Thanksgiving and Christmas are right around the corner. These swaps are perfect if you are a vegan, want to lighten up your desserts, or just ran out of an ingredient and don’t feel like running out to the store.

In this post I am going to specifically talk about replacing eggs in vegan baking. I originally was going to include all of the vegan swaps that I use in one post, and realized that was just way too much information. I have so many swaps just for eggs! So, I decided to start there. I will be doing another post on how to swap butter in recipes for vegan alternatives as well as another post on how to bake without oil. Stay tuned for those as they will be coming soon!

Egg Substitutes

Subbing eggs in recipes has never been easier. Especially with all of the great products on the market today. My go to is ground flax, but there are other options as well such as chia seed, and egg replacers like neat egg, etc.

Flax Seed

How to substitute it:

Replace each egg that the recipe calls for with 1 tbsp of ground flax/flaxseed meal with 3 tablespoons on water. Measure out the flax and water and put it in a small dish and give it a good stir. Allow it to sit for a few minutes to thicken up into a gelatinous texture/consistency.

What it works best in:

Ground flax has a little bit of a nutty flavor, and is an excellent binder making it a great choice for pancakes, brownies, cookies, and other whole grain baked goods like quick breads/muffins.

Ener-G Egg Replacer, Neat Egg, Etc.

How to substitute it:

Brands that sell egg replacers are popping up in all kinds of grocery stores. You can definitely find it at your local health foods store, but may even have luck finding it at a traditional grocery store, or even a superstore like Walmart. You can just follow the instructions on the package on how much of the water and powder to combine.

What it works best in:

Virtually everything. Or so I have heard. I actually have not tried the traditional egg replacer products since they are more on the pricey side and I always have ground flax or chia seed on hand. You can use these in cakes, cupcakes, sweet breads, cookies, etc. They would also work great in cooking/binding veggie “meat balls”, for breading veggies, etc.

Ground Chia Seed

How to substitute it: 1 tbsp of ground chia (you can grind it up in a blender/food processor if you  buy it whole) + 3 tbsp water

What it works best in:

Puddings, Cookies, Muffins, Truffles/Protein Balls, Blondies/bars.

Ripe Mashed Banana

How to substitute it: Swap each egg in a recipe for 1/3-1/2 of mashed ripe banana. The best thing about using this as a substitute is you can cut down the sugar in the recipe as well because super ripe bananas really sweeten up a recipe.

Works best in:

Cookies, brownies, cookie/other dessert bars, banana bread (obviously ;)),

Apple sauce

How to substitute it: Replace each egg in a recipe with 1/4 cup of apple sauce. You will also need to add additional 1/2 tsp baking powder any time you are using a fruit puree in place of an egg because fruit purees can tend to make baked goods more dense.

Works best in:

Muffins, cookies, quick breads, pancakes.

Pureed Pumpkin, Butternut squash, or sweet potato

How to Substitute it: Replace 1/4 cup canned pumpkin, sweet potato, or butternut squash for each egg a recipe calls for.

Works best in: Quick breads, muffins, pancakes, french toast, waffles.

Silken Tofu

How to substitute it: Replace each egg in a recipe for 1/4 cup of silken tofu. Be sure to blend the silken tofu well in a food processor or high powered blender before adding it to the recipe.

Works best in: Pies, Cheesecakes, baked oats/proats, smoothies (if you are one of those people that adds raw egg to your smoothie like Rocky)

Notice how for most of the swaps it works well in almost everything?? Which swap you choose will  depend on the flavor and desired consistency that you would like. These measurements are what I have found to have worked best in vegan baking. A lot of these swaps can also be used in place of oil, etc., so many times I will often use 2-3 of these items in one single recipe.

I included quite a few different options so that next time you are doing some baking and run out of something, you have a few different ingredients to fall back on. The swaps cut down the calorie count in recipes, and also drastically cut down the fat and cholesterol in a recipe. A lot of the swaps also allow the recipes to be reduced in sugar because of the sweet fruit/purees used in place of eggs. That is a win-win in my book!

Do you ever use substitutes in baking?

Did you know you could use all of these things in place of eggs??

What do you do if you run out of an ingredient that you need for a recipe you want to make?? Throw in the towel, use something else, or run to the store??

Let me know in the comments!