New to vegan baking? This guide will help you navigate the world of egg substitutes, and comes complete with a handy cheat sheet! Follow these tips and you’ll be baking without eggs like a pro in no time.
Spoiler alert: the graphic right beneath this text has all the answers. Well, sort of.
Did I just ruin the whole post with that little graphic? No. There’s more to it. This is worth reading, I promise. That’s just your cheat sheet. Like in physics class when you ditched all semester but thought you’d be okay because the test was open book…but you weren’t. It’s kind of like that. (Fine. That was me, not you.)
Anyhow, vegan baking can be pretty intimidating, and it took me a long time to start experimenting with it. While I’d heard that certain things like bananas worked as egg substitutes, I didn’t really buy it. Seriously, I thought people who said that might be deluding themselves — eating cakes that fall apart into a pile of sad dry crumbs and claiming that it was just as good as any non-vegan version.
I know better now. In fact I’ve veganized a number of old favorite baked-goods recipes that turned out better than the originals.
There are lots of options available as far as egg substitutes are concerned, and the key is knowing which choice to make in what circumstance. It’s a learning experience. After a while you develop a feel for things, but there are certainly some guidelines that can be of help.
Disclaimer: Not all of these suggestions will work all of the time. Vegan baking from a non-vegan recipe is for the adventurous, not the perfectionist.
90% of the time I’m able to get a recipe to work using these guidelines, but sometimes I’m not. That chocolate jelly roll style cake that called for 5 eggs and no flour? Yeah, despite three attempts, the vegan version never happened. I knew that would be a challenge though.
If you’re up for some fun and experimentation, go to it, and start simple. Muffins are a great beginner’s intro to vegan baking.
Bananas
This one is easy. Substitute one mashed up, overripe ripe banana for one egg. This egg replacement works best in dense baked goods, such as quick breads and muffins. Obviously, it will add some banana flavor, which may not be too detectable if you’re just subbing for one egg, but you’ll certainly taste it if you use any more than one banana.
The other thing to keep in mind is that bananas add a bit of sweetness, so don’t use them in recipes that aren’t meant to be sweet. And in recipes that are sweet, cut back on the sugar just a tad.
Recipes to Try:
Vegan Zucchini Bread
Vegan Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins
Banana Gingerbread Muffins
Silken Tofu
Silken tofu can be a bit tricky, but when it works out I absolutely love the results. Silken tofu often results in a denser and moister baked good, so it works in many of the same recipes as bananas, but without adding any flavor.
It also adds a bit of protein, which is a nice bonus. Substitute 1/4 cup of silken tofu per egg. Silken tofu is available at most supermarkets these days and pretty much all health food stores.
Recipe to Try:
Rosemary Lemon Vegan Pound Cake
Vegan Yogurt
This one has it’s good and not so good aspects. The pros: unflavored vegan yogurt won’t alter the taste of your baked goods, it’s simple, and relatively easy to find these days. The cons: its binding abilities aren’t that much better than plain old non-dairy milk.
With that said, use vegan yogurt as an egg substitute where the dry ingredients have some natural binding capabilities (like oat flour and wheat flour).
You’ll need 1/4 cup of yogurt per egg.
Recipe to Try:
Cinnamon Swirl Vegan Coffee Cake
Flax or Chia Seeds
Flax eggs are my go-to egg substitute. They work in a wide variety of recipes, and ground flax seeds are easy to keep on hand.
Cakes, cookies, quick breads, muffins, pancakes…I’ve gotten them all to work with flax eggs, and I can recall very few flax egg failures. Even though I don’t use chia eggs quite as often, they’re pretty much interchangeable with flax eggs.
For each egg you need to replace, just mix 1 tablespoon of ground flax or chia seeds with 3 tablespoons of water. Let it sit for 10 minutes, and like magic, you’ll have a slimy and surprisingly egg-like mixture that you can throw right in to you mixing bowl.
You should be able to pick up chia and flax seeds at most supermarkets, and just about all health food stores.
Recipes to Try:
Vegan Peanut Butter Blossoms
Vegan Carrot Cake
Vegan Coconut Lemon Doughnuts
Vegetable or Fruit Puree
Pumpkin puree is the egg substitute I use most often from this category, but I’ve also had success with sweet potatoes and applesauce. Generally speaking, you don’t want your baked goods to taste like, say, broccoli, which is why I haven’t branched out too much here.
In recipes where a little sweet potato or pumpkin flavor is welcome, these ingredients work great. Pumpkin is easy, since it’s available in cans. If I’m using a sweet potato I’ll usually bake or microwave, and then mash it. 1/4 cup of puree works in place of 1 egg.
Recipes to Try:
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies
Vegan Pumpkin Muffins with Cashew Cream Cheese Frosting
Vegan Apple Crumble Doughnuts
Cornstarch
Cornstarch works as an egg replacer in dry baked goods in a pinch. Occasionally I am out of everything else on this list, and when that happens, I can generally manage to dig up some cornstarch from the back of the pantry. But it really shines as an egg replacer in creamy and custardy baked goods like puddings and pies!
Cornstarch, being a thickener, yields a viscous, eggy substance when mixed with water in the right proportion. Use 2 tablespoons of cornstarch plus 3 tablespoons of liquid for every egg you need to replace.
Recipes to Try:
Vegan Pumpkin Pie
Mango Lime Vegan Cheesecake
Chickpea Brine
Also known as aquafaba! Chickpea brine can be whipped up like egg whites to make meringue. It’s amazing! And it’s also fussy, which is why I’ve yet to post a vegan meringue recipe on this site. Sometimes it works great, other times, not so great. But aquafaba also works as an egg substitute in regular old baked goods too, and much more reliably. Just replace each egg with 1/4 cup of aquafaba.
Recipe to try:
Classic Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies
Nothing!
Seriously. I do this quite often and it works! The how-to is easy: follow a recipe and skip the eggs. More likely, skip the egg.
That’s the catch. It really only works in recipes that call for very few (i.e., one or two) eggs and use some other type of leavening agent and/or binder.
If anything, add a few tablespoons extra of whatever type of liquid the recipe calls for. Once you’ve been experimenting with vegan baking for a while, you’ll get a feel for when you can get away with this. If you make something with a flax egg and find yourself asking if that was really necessary, it probably wasn’t.
Recipe to try:
Vegan Cinnamon Rolls
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So useful! Thanks :)
As you know I’m not a vegan but this will definitely be my go-to post every time someone asks me how to veganise something! So useful, and it’s great to know that all the options are tried and tested!
I am not a vegan but I find this post so useful and I always refer people to this post when someone asks me about ways to convert a classic recipe to a plantbased one either for ethical or health reasons. :)
Thank you so much and I’m so glad you find it helpful!!
Hi Alissa
Your blog and this article got featured in our Vegan article. Keep up the good work. Check it out here
http://www.healthyly.in/go-green/becoming-vegan-check-out-this-ultimate-vegan-lifestyle-guide-food-facts/
A very useful precis for those not accustomed to vegan baking. I love the way you’ve explained each one as well as the crib sheet:) I often use common or garden baking powder too, especially in waffles and puddings which are going to be eaten immediately
Thanks Christine! I’m glad you find it helpful!
Which of the options, in your opinion, is the *best* one for using a cake mix to make a cake? I remember you could always tell which cupcakes were my son’s at the twice-a-year Cupcake Sales. I baked them with Egg Replacer (because of his egg allergy) and they always seemed to kind of “fall” — which seems even more strange, after I recently read that it’s particularly good at the the leavening part of egg substitution. Since becoming plant-based myself, I usually use flax eggs for my pancakes & waffles, but haven’t done a lot of experimentation with baking.
I usually have the best luck with flax eggs or chickpea brine in cakes. There are a few other things you could try or consider too. Adding an extra tablespoon or two of flour might do the trick – that little bit of extra gluten should help bind your batter and trap air the way eggs do. Also make sure you’re not overbeating the batter or overheating the oven (check with an oven thermometer), which can cause the baking powder or soda to fizzle out. I hope that helps!
Just what I was looking for! Thank you!!
Hi! Can you tell me what is being replaced so to speak, or why 1/4 cup of milk would be used so often in Vegan baking, assuming it’s dairy free? I was just wondering!
1/4 cup of milk would normally be used to replace an egg.