The Best Egg Substitutes

Eggs are undeniably delicious on their own. Yet in baked goods, we look to them less for flavor and more for their incredible ability to multitask. They emulsify and stabilize batters and doughs, aid in browning, leaven, help produce a tender crumb, and maintain optimal moisture levels. However, many people avoid or limit eggs. Enter commercial egg substitutes. Most of these products attempt to replace eggs in baking recipes. A few say that you can also eat them on their own, scrambled, including Just Egg, a product made by an innovative Silicon Valley plant-based food company.

In order to find the best egg substitute, we purchased several nationally available products and used them in place of eggs in some of our favorite recipes: Chewy Sugar Cookies, Birthday Sheet Cake, and Popovers. We also prepared scrambled “eggs” with the two products engineered for this purpose.

What Are Egg Substitutes Made From?

Most of the egg substitutes we tried are complex combinations of starches, leaveners, and gums. The starches work to bind and keep food moist even after cooling. The leaveners lighten and add fluffiness. The gums stabilize, emulsify, and add moisture. 

Two products also contain legume proteins, made from yellow split peas and mung beans, respectively. The other brands have very little, if any, protein. These two products are designed to have protein from a dietary perspective, and protein gives the eggs structure, allowing them to scramble up like regular eggs. They also include ingredients for color and flavor.

How Do Egg Substitutes Work?

Most of the egg substitutes are sold in a powdered format and must be mixed with water before use, each with its own recommended ratio of powder to water. One of the legume protein–based products we tried was a ready-to-use liquid we could dispense straight from the container.

Baking Cookies and Cake with Egg Substitutes

Were the cookies and cake made with egg substitutes identical to batches of cookies and cake made with eggs? No, but a few of them were good enough that our tasters were impressed. 

Some cookies were crispy on the edges with a chewy and tender center—our ideal sugar cookie. A few of the batches, however, were tougher and more dry than we’d like. Cookies don’t rise much in the oven, so they don’t need eggs for structure. Instead, eggs’ main role is to bind the ingredients and to supply enough moisture and fat to keep the cookie soft. 

As for the cakes, some came out of the oven flat and pale, while others were tall and browned. A few were disappointingly gummy and wet; others were nicely moist and spongy. Cakes get most of their structure from gluten, but they re... read more