Egg Substitute Experiment #1a - Muffins

Well I've set a goal for myself. I want to become a vegan by the end of Feb of next year. I must give myself time to finish off all my non vegan but vegetarian friendly food because no one in my house is willing to finish them for me nor do I like wasting. It's definitely going to be hard giving up cottage cheese. Yogurt and cottage cheese is the only dairy item I consume but yogurt can be easily substituted but cottage cheese, that's another story.
I'm starting small first though, I've decided to become a lacto-vegetarian and take eggs out of my life before I make the vegetarian to vegan transaction. It's not as if I consume eggs a lot anyways. I only use egg in baking and I've recently started baking. Using egg substitute in baking is going to be hard...that's why I'm experimenting while I can before I fully become a lacto-vegetarian and after I finish my morning star veggie bites.

I've spent all of yesterday and today baking with different type of egg substitute but the experiments from yesterday was not so great since I was using a very terrible recipe. Today I've just googled a basic muffin recipe.


Here is the recipe: Dinnercoop Basic Muffins Recipe

Dry Ingredients
1 cups All Purpose Flour
2 tbsp Sugar
1/2 tbsp Baking Powder
1/4 tsp Salt

Wet Ingredients
1 cup Soy Milk
1/3 cup Vegetable Oil (calculation error, it's suppose to be 2 2/3 tbsp)

Egg substitutes
3/4 tsp Flaxseed + 2 1/4 tsp Water
5/16 tsp Egg Substitute + 1 1/2 tsp Water (Enger-G substitute recipe will be provided below)
1 tbsp Silken Tofu
1 tbsp Beaten Egg

**note
I reduced the recipe to half but instead of using the 1/4lb butter, I used 1/3 cup oil but I've made an error in my calculation and I was suppose to be using 2 2/3 tbsp


Here was how I carried out the experiment

• Combine the dry ingredients, flour, sugar baking powder and salt into a bowl.

• Combine the wet ingredients, vegetable oil and soy milk in another bowl.
• I divided the dry ingredients into fourths and placed it into 4 different bowls (To be accurate I weighted the dried mixture and divided the weight into fourths)
• I divided the wet ingredients into fourths as well and placed it into another 4 bowls. (You can only imagine how clutter my whole table was)
• I labeled the papers and placed it in front of the bowls so I know which bowl contained which egg substitute mixture. The flaxseed egg sub bowls were called A and I baked it in the pink cupcake liners, the Enger-G egg sub were called B and baked in the yellow cupcake liners, the silken tofu were called C and baked in the blue cupcake liners and the Egg (control) was called D and baked in the white cupcake liners.
  
• For the flaxseed egg substitute. I microwaved the flaxseed and the water in a small bowl for 20 sec high. I took it out and stirred it and placed it in the microwave and microwaved it high for another 20 sec. Took it out again to check the consistency of the mixture. It should be mucous and gloopy like but it wasn't so I nuked it for another 15 sec. I poured the flaxseed egg sub into the wet ingredient bowl A and combined it with the wet ingredients. (Usually you would simmer it in a saucepan but the amount was too minuscule to be heated in the saucepan. **note If you already made a batch of flaxseed egg substitute mixture, you can use 1 tbsp)
  
• For the Enger-G egg sub. I poured the 1 1/2 tsp of water in the wet ingredient bowl B and combined it. The Enger-G egg powder was combined into the dry ingredient bowl B.
• For the Silken tofu, I mashed it up and tried to make it as smooth as possible in a separate bowl and combined it into the wet ingredient bowl C. (The amount of tofu is too small to be blended in the blender/processor. If you have prepared pureed tofu, you can use 1 tbsp)
  
• For the egg I beat an egg and placed 1 tbsp into the wet ingredient bowl D and combined it.
  
• Basically I just combined the dry ingredient A with wet ingredient A and B with B, C with C and D with D. Just fold everything together don't beat it or over work the batter!!

Here are my results (**NOTE CLICK ON PICTURE TO SEE DETAIL)


Batter Appearance/Consistency:
Flaxseed - The batter was lumpy, thick and gloopy. It has the consistency of mucous. The oil was incorporated well into the batter. The color of the batter was white with black sesame seeds. (Looks like a batter for black sesame seed muffins. hahah)
Ener-G - The batter was very thick and lumpy. The oil separated from the batter and coated the batter. It did not stick to the spoon when I was scooping it into the liners. The batter was also white.
Silken Tofu - The batter was thick and lumpy. It resemble that of Ener-G batter but there weren't as much oil coating the batter. The batter was white.
Egg - The batter was yellow!! The consistency of the batter was very smooth and liquidy. Unlike all the other batters.


Appearance of the Baked Muffins
Flaxseed - The muffin was leavened well like a normal muffin. It's still very white in color and has the flaxseed scattered within it. The surface of the muffins was lumpy and has cracks all over it.
Enger-G - Looks like the flaxseed sub. muffin and the silken tofu egg sub muffin. It was white with lumps and cracks all over the surface of the muffin.
Silken Tofu - The surface is white with cracks and lumps.
Egg - Doesn't really look yellow despite the yellow egg yolk. The surface was much different than the other three muffins. It was actually quite smooth looking dome with a few small cracks in the middle of the muffin.

Texture and Other Attributes
Flaxseed - The cake was dense, moisty and fluffy but it does have the flaxseed in them making it a bit crunchy. The flaxseed provided a nutty taste. All though it is moisty it's not as moisty as the tofu or the Enger-G muffins. I think it most resembles the texture of the muffin with the real egg.
Ener-G - It's very moist and tender. It's more moisty than the flaxseed muffins but not as moisty as the tofu. It wasn't as fluffy as the egg or the flaxseed.
Silken Tofu - It was the moistest muffin out of all the other muffins. It was very soft but not fluffy. It's more of a soft mush than fluffy. You can say it's a bit chewy but not like rubber chewy. The texture was a bit more compacted together.
Egg - It was dense, fluffy and bouncy.


They all seemed dense and smells like those Chinese steamed spongecake. Like the one mommie makes for me when I was young.

It's probably because of all the oil but in my mommie's spongecake, she doesn't put any oil. I think I might redo this experiment with less oil so I can see if there is any difference. If you try this experiment as well, please do inform me of your results.


Energ-G substitute
I got this recipe from Fatfree Vegan

1 cup Potato Flour ( I didn't have potato flour so I used corn starch)
3/4 cup Tapioca Flour
2 tsp baking powder

• Just combine all the ingredients together. (Make sure you combine them together very well)
• Place it into a bag/plastic container or jar. Store in a cool dry place.

Here is what you do, for

1 Egg = 1 1/2 tsp of Egg Substitute Mixture + 2 tbsp water
1 Egg yolk = 1 1/2 tsp of Egg Substitute Mixture + 1 tbsp water