Speaking of the egg shortage, a dozen eggs at my local grocery store cost $8.99 as of this morning. While they haven’t started to ration them, I suspect it’s only a matter of time. And my chickens are not laying enough right now to keep up with my husband’s two-eggs-a-day breakfast habit. Mind you, that’s partly because I’m setting eggs aside to incubate. Regardless of the cause, I’ve been looking for recipes that feature cooking without eggs. Here are some suggestions and a few recipes.
Cooking Without Eggs – Breakfast
I’m sorry, folks, you might as well give up on standard breakfast dishes like scrambled, poached and fried eggs for the moment. Even if you have lots of money, the eggs just aren’t there (we’ll probably have black market operations out there before long). Now is a good time to experiment with smoothies, granola or oatmeal. Try scalloped potatoes with ham or sausage (you can do them in a crockpot to help with the morning rush). Or make a breakfast burrito using rice, beans, cheese and ham, sausage or bacon.
Cooking Without Eggs – Baking
Since I can’t eat wheat any more, I make a fair number of foods that are gluten free. Unfortunately, gluten free flours are just that, and it’s the gluten that provides structure for things like sandwich bread, muffins, quick breads and such. By the way, the same holds true for those of you on low-carb diets who use almond or coconut flour. Vegan bakers often use what’s called a “flax egg.” The result is pretty close to the real thing for pancakes, brownies, cookies, muffins and quick breads. Mix 1 tablespoon ground flax meal with two and half tablespoons water for each egg in the recipe. Stir well and let it sit for about five minutes before stirring into the recipe.
Cooking Without Eggs – Prepared Foods
It’s important to recognize that those who make the handy shelf-stable foods have the same issue with the egg shortage that we home cooks are dealing with. So you should expect higher prices, recipe revisions and shortages. Such items as cookies, English muffins, baked desserts, pasta, noodles, mayonnaise, salad dressings, prepared desserts, waffles, deli potato and macaroni salads all contain eggs. In many cases, the eggs are an integral part of the recipe. Most yeast breads and tortillas won’t be affected, although some rolls will be. Vegan options, however, may be more in demand. I don’t know how the restaurants that are only open for breakfast and lunch will manage things like omelets.
Recipes
Unlike dinner rolls, biscuits don’t require eggs. Cream biscuits can be mixed, shaped and frozen until you’re ready to bake them. The waffle recipe uses extra sugar to add the structure usually provided by eggs.
Cream Biscuits
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 ½ Tbs baking powder
- 1 Tbs sugar
- 1 ½ cups heavy cream
Mix all dry ingredients together with a whisk. Slowly add cream and stir gently until just moistened. Turn out onto a floured surface and fold a couple of times until you have a cohesive mass. Gently push down to an even ½ inch thickness. Cut out with a round cutter, trying to minimize scraps. You can pat the scraps together and cut another batch but don’t do it a third time. – it makes tough biscuits. Bake at 400°F for about 12-15 minutes. You can bake the scraps for breadcrumbs.
Waffles
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2/3 cup sugar
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 2 tsp baking powder
- ½ to 1 tsp salt
- 2 cups buttermilk
- 4 Tbs melted butter
- 1 tsp vanilla (optional)
Combine all dry ingredients and mix with a whisk. Stir the wet ingredients together in a separate bowl and then gently stir into the dry ingredients – do not overmix! Let batter rest at room temperature about 10 minutes. Bake in a well-greased waffle iron for three to five minutes (until steam stops coming out of the iron).
