Hlep! Egg Allergy

[AmyTopolski]

Hi,

My daughter, 3 on the 25th, also has an egg and lactose allergy. We use her Lactade milk when cooking, but have encountered a new problem. Eggs! I love to bake and she loves breads, muffins, cookies ect. I have tried powder egg replacer and have awful luck with pancakes and am afraid to try too many other things with it. We have used it in the past for other family members and have found that things get hard fast after baking. I have also tried an egg replacer made from faxmeal and water. I'm not sure what to think about that one. I just baked banana bread and it is gooey in the middle and it baked for 40 minutes. I guess I wonder what others do in this situation. Does anyone have any book suggestions? Any help would be a blessing!

[Guest nini]

EnerG and Orgran both make gluten-free egg replacers that seem to work ok in baking... you can also substitute applesauce in some baking... your best bet it to just experiment and don't be afraid to mess up. Any disasters in the kitchen can still be crumbled up for crumbs for breading or crusts for pies

[plantime]

When you bake something like a cake or banana bread, it will get done in the middle if you make it into cupcakes or use a regular-size muffin tin. I have never been able to get a full-size cake/bread to cook in the middle without burning on the outside.

[Guest alex j]

We have this problem too. I thought wheat baking without eggs was tricky until we went gluten free. Ha! What did I know...

I have huge problems getting cake to work. The thing that has worked most often (but with no guarantees) is wacky cake - the wartime cake with oil and vinegar. I use a recipe someone gave me adapted from a wheat recipe - it's basically just the regular wheat recipe with the flour upped from 1 1/2 c to 1 3/4 c.

I also find muffin recipes work better than cake recipes, I guess because they're less reliant on eggs. Things like pumpkin muffins, banana bread.

And as the previous poster said, cup cakes are much more likely to turn out than big cakes.

I haven't tried it, but I have heard it said that Rosemary Emro's book Bakin' Without Eggs converts well to gluten free (I guess using one of those flour mixes, like Bette Hagman's, that are designed to sub cup for cup for wheat flour).

For bread, I've had the most luck with Roben Ryberg's recipes from the Gluten-Free Kitchen. Most of her bread recipes are egg free. I've also used Carol Fenster's recipe for white bread from her most recent book (I can't recall the name, but the bread is based on sorghum, potato starch and I think tapioca). there are eggs in the recipe but I was able to sub them with applesauce - 3 T per egg. And no, it didn't taste of apples (I have to hide the applesauce when baking as my son hates it).

Applesauce is probably my favourite egg replacer. It works well as a binder, and to make things softer. If I need more leavening, I use 1 1/2T oil + 1 1/2 T water + 1 tsp baking powder whisked together for each egg. I do use Ener G egg replacer, but I'm not convinced it's enough better than those to warrant buying it. I haven't tried flax seed goo (haven't introduced flax yet, due to nut allergies - I know it's a seed but I just don't have the energy for another trial).

If you find any good egg free, gluten free, nut free cake recipes, please post them!

Alex

[AmyTopolski]

Alex,

Thank you soooo much for all of your help! I now know I will try cupcakes for her birthday instead of trying a cake. I'd hate to disappoint her if it had to be thrown away. Thanks for the names of those books. I will be looking into them!

Amy

[Ursa Major]

Here are the substitutes my daughter uses (my oldest granddaughter is intolerant to the combination of grain and egg, and my daughter is intolerant to corn, and cornstarch is an ingredient in baking powder).

Egg as a binding agent:

1/4 cup ground flaxseed

3/4 cup water

Bring water with flaxseed to a boil in small pot, reduce heat and simmer, stirring, for 3 min. Let cool.

1 Tbsp.=1 egg

That stores well in the fridge, and will be of a jelly-like consistency. It would work well in cupcakes.

Something I've tried (before I knew I couldn't tolerate soy, many years ago, for a daughter's boyfriend) was the substitute of whole fat soy flour. I believe (I hope I remember this right) it was, 1 teaspoon of whole fat soy flour and one tablespoon of water, made one egg. I used that to bake a cake, and it turned out fabulous, you would have never known the difference.

If the recipe calls for you to 'beat the egg until frothy', this is the recipe:

1 tsp. baking powder

1 1/2 Tbsp water

1 1/2 Tbsp oil

Mix together. Makes one egg.

Home-made baking powder (gluten-free and corn-free):

1 Tbsp cream of tartar

1/2 Tbsp baking soda

1/2 Tbsp arrowroot flour

I hope that helps.

[Cheri A]

Hi .. we also avoid egg. My favorite egg replacers are the same as Alex uses. I tend to use the oil/water/bp most often though. I still haven't found a cake yet though.

Hi Alex... you're over at KWFA too, right?

[Kassie]

pumpkin also works really well for a egg replacer. don't have an exact measurement but a large scoop of pumpkin is what i figure for on egg.