Animal Writings

Quick show of hands. How many non-vegetarians know that there are vegan "egg replacer" products (not "Egg Beaters") that you can use in place of eggs in recipes? I'm guessing one or two percent. Here's your humane solution to eggs, at least for baking and cooking.

Now before I go on, note that there are many ways besides egg replacer products to get around eggs when you're baking cookies, making pancakes, and so forth. Pick up any vegan cookbook or browse online recipes to see what I mean. For example, we make pancakes using mashed banana instead of eggs all the time, and they always come out delicious. (Hint: for a memorable brunch, try them topped with peach preserves mixed with a little brandy—wow!)

For baking and recipes that call for eggs, I used to use Ener-G Egg Replacer, which I believe is the most popular replacement product, and is not bad. But I like Bob's Red Mill Egg Replacer, which I recently discovered, better. Inexplicably (at least as far as I can tell), the Bob's Red Mill web site does not have a list of products and descriptions, otherwise I would have linked there.

Bob's Red Mill Egg Replacer is not everywhere, but it may be a lot of places. The web site has a store finder page to help you locate where Bob's Red Mill products are sold near you. I punched in Macon, Georgia; Norman, Oklahoma; Provo, Utah; and Olympia, Washington, and got matches for all four cities. Note that not every store that carries Bob's Red Mill products will have the egg replacer. You can also buy it online, from the Bob's Red Mill website or other locations.

I heard somewhere that for best results with these egg replacers, you should whip it up vigorously, into a froth. So that's what I've been doing. It works great. It does not taste like anything is missing in your finished product. In fact, sometimes you'd swear it has egg. I made these jalapeno corn muffins the other night. I used Bob's Red Mill instead of Ener-G, I only used one jalapeno instead of two, and I cut back a little on the salt and cayenne. They were to die for. Except that...they're not to die for. That's the beauty of it.