13 November 2011

flaxseed as an egg replacer

Maybe this is well-known to vegans and those with egg allergies, but it's news to me. I recently read on a package of flaxseed meal that it can be used as an egg replacement in some recipes. Here in a Hindu society, eggless recipes are a must. Alongside the regular Duncan Hines and Betty Crocker cakes mixes on the grocery store shelves, you'll see eggless varieties.


I tried the flaxseed replacement with a loaf of bread. A risky move, given the delicate balance of bread ingredients. For each egg I mixed 1 tablespoon of flaxseed meal with 3 tablespoons of water. I let it sit for a couple minutes to thicken up, then I added it to my bread at the time when I would have added the eggs. It worked! I never would have known there wasn't egg in the dough. I didn't notice any change in the taste or texture of the bread at all.

I think this could work well for a variety of baked goods. I'm surprised that news of this flaxseed replacement hasn't hit the bakeries here yet. Flaxseed is difficult to find, but I do see it occasionally in grocery stores. If more people knew about it, maybe there would be more flaxseed on the shelves.

3 comments:

Becky said...

I've been thinking about trying flaxseed to replace eggs. You might just have convinced me to take the plunge. Do you think it would work in pumpkin pie?

Stephanie said...

I don't know how it would work in a pumpkin pie. I've never made one -- with or without eggs! If you give it a try, come back and let me know how it works out.

Becky said...

So I tried flaxseed in our favorite flatbread recipe. It was awesome! It added a really nice flavor. (It is a no yeast recipe that takes lots of eggs so you could taste the flax but I really liked it.) We tried the flax seed in a crustless pumpkin pie to replace all the eggs and it set up fine. We tried a tofu pumpkin pie at the same time though and we liked that loads better. Just a really rich, nice flavor in the tofu pie. (It was vegan too I'd think. Just tofu, pumpkin, spices, and sugar.) We cooked it like a custard too (no crust). Just reporting in ;)

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