How Egg Replacers Can Help Those With Egg Allergies

Brett Day

There are many people in the world that suffer with food allergies, my children are two of them. They suffer with allergies from Peanuts, Eggs, Avocado and simple Garden Peas. Some of these can be deadly, or at the very least will put them in the hospital for a couple of days because their allergies are so severe.

Dealing with these allergies over the past 6 years has been an experience. My wife and I have learnt a lot in regards to how to look for foods that are friendly to them. Too often though this means they are not able to eat a lot of foods that kids like, especially when it comes to cakes and deserts, mainly because egg is so prevalent. This is where the wonderful product known as Egg Replacer comes into play.

WHAT IS EGG REPLACER?

Egg replacer is a mix of starches and binding agents.Egg replacer can be used in place of eggs to perform many of the jobs that they do in lots of different recipes. The ingredients in egg replacers include cornstarch, potato starch, soy powder and flax seed.

There are quite a few different brands of egg replacer on the market and we have used many of them. The best one to use in my opinion is a replacer called Ener-G. Ener-G is pretty cheap at around $6 for a 16oz box and is also very easy to use. It has an incredible shelf life, (unlike eggs) and it is also handy to have around just in case you do use eggs in your house and you run out. Ener-G is also great to use if you or a loved one suffer with high cholesterol.

HOW DO YOU USE EGG REPLACER?

Using a product like Ener-G really could not be simpler. If you are making something that calls for egg, you just use 1-1/2 teaspoons of the replacer combined with 2 Tablespoons of water (warm water works best to dissolve) for every egg that is called for. It is really that easy to use.

Egg replacers work great when making cookies, muffins, cake and pancakes. Really any recipe that calls for a low egg ratio, like 1 egg for a dozen cookies, egg replacer works wonders. However egg replacers are not good for egg intensive recipes like cheesecake.

We have had a lot of trouble when trying to make brownies from store brought mixes though. Egg replacers simply will not work with brownie mixes. To get around this we make simple brownies that have nothing but a store brought brownie mix and pureed black beans. I know, it does not sound very good, but they are incredibly good, and they taste just like regular brownies. The best part is that they are egg free and my kids can enjoy them.

BE CAREFUL

If you have someone in your family that is allergic to eggs, be careful when you go out to buy a product like egg replacer. It is very easy to get egg replacer confused with an egg substitute like Egg Beaters. Egg Beaters and other egg substitutes are still made with egg be sure you pick up the box that says egg replacer.

It is so nice to know that there are products on the market that cater to those that have food allergies. It is really hard to try and explain to children why they cannot have delicious treats like cookies when all the other kids can. Thanks to products like egg replacer, allergy sufferers can enjoy them too.