The Egg-Free Chocolate Chip Cookie Experiment
The Egg-free Cookie Experiment
Originally uploaded by jdbakermnM&M's eldest son, m, has an egg allergy. I'm always up for a baking challenge, so I decided to try baking some good egg-free chocolate chip cookies.
I searched around to find a variety of different egg replacements. I settled on five, of which I tested four.
A. 1 egg = 1/4 C whole milk, + 1 t vegetable oil, + 1 t baking powder
B. 1 egg = 1/4 C no-sugar added apple sauce
C. 1 egg = 1/4C scalded whole milk (according to Harold McGee's "On Food and Cooking", this alters milk serum protiens that would otherwise interact with flour proteins to produce a slack dough)
D. 1 egg = 1/4C water + 1/2t Xanthan gum
E. 1 egg = 1T vinegar + 1t baking soda
I tried A, B, C and D, and then fed them Swami, Puffin, and M&M. The results were:
A. Most visually pleasing. Cookies spread further than normal, but had a normal "melted" appearance. Taste was pretty good. Overall, the cookie was softer/moister than normal, almost as if it wanted to be cooked a bit more. Still this was the preferred cookie. (Incidently, both M&M thought that "A" was the apple sauce). This was Swami and M's favorite
B. Visually, the cookie did not spread, or melt very well. It had peaks visible from the shape of the dropped cookie dough. The appearence hinted that the cookie would be dry, but it was nicely moist. I thought the cookie tasted vaguely like it had fruit in it. Almost like a fig newton or something.
C. Like B, this cookie also did not spread or melt very well. it also had visible peaks. Cookie was also moist. This was my favorite taste wise, although I definitely was turned off by the visual appearance.
D. Similar to B and C in appearance. Mouth feel was very spongelike. Taste was bland. I actually spit mine out into the garbage.
So I'm curious whether it was the oil or the baking powder in A that made that particular cookie more visually pleasing. I'm tempted to say the baking powder. One of my more common failure scenarios in cookies is forgetting to add baking soda, which frequently results in a dry cookie with visual peaks. For this experiment, I was extremely careful to include all ingredients, so that wasn't the problem.