Making a large batch of quick bread and lacking the eggs required? Do you have an egg allergy? This little concoction is a great frugal replacement for eggs in all your baking needs. Replacing with this flax seed paste will not only stretch your eggs, but it will also boost the fiber content of your final product. I was making a large batch of raspberry bread for two different meetings and didn’t want to use my small amount of eggs remaining in the fridge. Using this little recipe, I used half the required eggs and replaced the other half with this substitute! Worked wonders!
Flaxseed Binder
Flax seeds, due to their mucilaginous property, provide the essential “binding” effect of eggs in baking. This recipe will keep well for 2 weeks in the refrigerator. Amount is equivalent to 5-6 eggs.
3/4 cup cold water
1/4 cup ground flax seed (a small coffee grinder works well for all seed grinding!)
Combine ingredients together in a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Boil for 3 minutes while continuing to stir. Cool and refrigerate in tightly covered container. You can use the concoction immediately if desired. Use per egg: 1/8 cup (2 Tbsp) flaxseed binder. It is a sticky substance, so exact measurement is not necessary. Best to mix in with the first liquid ingredient in the recipe before adding the next ingredient.
Recipe provided in Breakfasts by Sue Gregg, a highly recommended resource.
Lindsay, when you store the bulk flax seed in the freezer, what container do you use? Is it ok to just keep it in the bag it comes in from Azure, or is something better?
I’m wondering if chia seeds would work the same way?
Most likely.
This is awesome!! I’m not vegan, but I like having eggs for other things…like eating them, and it’s a sneaky way to add more nutrition to the bar. I’m going to keep some ground flax all the time in my pantry now
THANK YOU for sharing what 1/8 cup is. I’ve seen it a lot lately, and I’m like huh? 2 tbsp seems more easy to understand.
Excellent! I’m going away for a week and wanted to use up all the eggs and make a healthy snack for the car (whole wheat chocolate banana muffins), but I hardboiled the eggs and forgot to save two for the muffins. Thanks!
Hey thanks so much for this sub. I am allergic to eggs and never have been able to find a sub. to it!
Love the idea, since I have about 5lbs of flax seed in the freezer. However, I want the bread recipe!!
As for the question of flax becoming carcinogenic, I also believe it is just the oil we need to be concerned about. It goes rancid very easily when exposed to heat, and free radicals are created (which can be carcinogenic). As for using the whole seed, I don’t believe there is any concern with heating it. That’s a good reminder, though, that we need to keep flax oil stored in the fridge at all times, and use it only as a cold oil and not for cooking!
I also do this, when I don’t have enough eggs for baking. It works great!
I had heard about this egg substitute idea before, but never tried it. Glad it worked well for you, I’m looking forward to trying it.
thanks SO much for the tip! I LOVE to bake and find I often am running out of eggs and therefore to the next door neighbors or a quick trip to the store w/ two kids in tow, which can be challenging! I look forward to using this in my recipe making!
I used to use this all the time until I learned that while flax is good as a RAW product, it converts into a carcinogenic substance when it’s heated.
I still use it now and then when I’m in a pinch, but try to avoid baking with flax whenever possible.
I would be curious to hear where you heard that information and what is the dangers of it. I have been using flax seed for years in much of my baking, as recommended by Sue Gregg, NT, and others.
After doing a search, Katie, flax seed OIL, is not good heated up, and should never be heated up. Maybe that’s what you are thinking of?
If not, I’m curious too of the seeds being bad.
Now you’ve got me curious. Does anyone have an explanation for why the seeds may be heated safely but not the oil. I’m thinking the oil is inside the seeds when I heat the seeds. Is it the other material in the seeds which keeps the oil “safe” as long as they’re together? I’m no chemist, but I would certainly appreciate any practical hardcore knowledge a healthy-minded food-chemist could offer. Thanks.
If the flax oil should not be heated, and if the oil comes from the seeds, why is it safe to heat the seeds, but not safe to heat the oil?
I was reading the website flmom recommended above and this is what it says: Flax seed meal is easily added to cookie mixes, bread doughs, and almost any baked good mixture. Flax seed meal is stable at temperatures used to bake batters and doughs, such as muffins or breads, according to several studies. HTH.
I always throw some ground flax seed into my bread dough and find that whole wheat bread stands up to slicing better when I do this.
Ground teff is also mucilagenic, so it might work also.
I use flaxseed meal almost exclusively instead of eggs when baking. It’s so much cheaper than organic eggs and works wonderfully. I do 1 T. flaxseed meal + 3 T. water for each egg. That’s per the info here – http://www.flaxcouncil.ca/english/index.jsp?p=meal&mp=nutrition
I’m vegan and we use that substitute all the time – you can also boil and strain the seeds and get a very slimy and clear substitute – very much like egg whites.
I love using ground flax seeds as an egg substitute. My family is mostly vegan vegetarian so we do this frequently. In addition, flax seed is a great source for Omega 3′s.
Neat idea! I’ve never heard of this before. Thanks for sharing. I was looking for a cheap coffee grinder on Amazon for this purpose and got a kick out of the fact that most of the reviewers for many different grinders used them exclusively for flax seeds! I still need to do this.
That is a great idea! And I would think a bit more on the healthy side, maybe? I don’t know but a great option at any rate!
Thank you for sharing.
Lindsay,
Thanks for the tip!
I actually tried this the other day when I was baking and ran out of eggs. I found the egg to flax seed ratio on the back of my ground flax seed container. It worked well. I did notice a little texture difference, but that could have been because I was making chocolate chip cookies and I was using whole wheat flour and I also added some squash. I also used applesauce in the place of butter. My family did not seem to mind. The cookies dissapeared.
I was going to ask also, are there a couple of Sue Gregg’s cookbooks you would recommend over the others? Can’t quite afford to get all of them, but I was thinking maybe a couple would be a good Christmas present to tell my husband.
Yes, I only have two of them currently myself. My all time favorite is the Breakfasts cookbook and I also use the Main Dish cookbook off and on. They are the best in my opinion.
WOW! Thank you, I had never heard this and I use ground flax seed all the time. I’ll definitely be doing this because eggs can be pricey for me when I get them at Whole Foods and I love flax for all the health benefits. Thanks!
Another great egg alternative is applesauce. 2 T of unsweetened applesauce equals 1 egg.
I have never heard of that idea. I usually use applesauce to substitute for oil or butter. I usually use it half and half with olive oil or coconut oil if I am running low. I actually did that this week while making these pastries that I referred to in the post. Good to know though!
I’ve seen applesauce in recipes but don’t know the equivalents to make the replacement myself. How much applesauce do you substitute per amount of oil/butter?
Thanks!
I use equal proportions.