What Eggs Do In Baking?

There are six affects that can be counted on in almost any recipe. It also helps with tweaking one to your liking with egg substitutes. Knowing what eggs do in baking helps to become an expert recipe manipulator.

1.How Eggs Affect Structure :

Similar to gluten, eggs provide structure to what you're baking. As their proteins coagulate, eggs provide an alternative glue that helps supply shape and form. While most things don't rely on eggs for their structure, eggs become super important when making cakes and baked goods that use light flours, like pastry or cake flour. Not balancing it with proper tenderizers, like fat and sugar however, can make the texture of baked goods though and chewy. The proper ratio of flour to fat to sugar to eggs when baking a cake is 1:1:1:1 by weight. Another function of eggs is as a thickener. In dishes like bread pudding, custard, and pumpkin pie the eggs determine firmness as wee as whether or not the dish holds its shape. The more eggs, the more solid less jiggly it will be.

2. How Eggs Affect Emulsification :

The creaming method is a way of blending together the ingredients for many cookies and cake recipes. For it to work correctly, it is important to actually follow the instructions and add your eggs on at a time. That step is there to help create an emulsion of fat and water, two things that normally can't combine. The eggs naturally hold together the batter by keeping the fats and liquids combined, and helps create a smooth batter that creates volume and texture.

3. How Eggs Affect Leavening :

As you beat an egg, it naturally incorporates air into the egg. after the air gets trapped, the heat of cooking causes it to expand. This provides leavening, which yields a lighter, fluffier texture. Most people only think of whipped egg whites as a way of using eggs for leavening. This is because the whites are easier to whip in general, which is why you separate eggs for baking recipes. However, the yolks and whites are both capable of creating leavening. Just remember, if you do whip your eggs separately of your batter, make sure to fold the eggs or egg whites in so as not to crush the air you just work so hard to whip up.

4. How Eggs Affect Shortening Action :

This one may be a bit more technical than what you are after, but the fat in the eggs aids shortening. In cooking terms, shortening is adding fat to make something tender and flaky. While it isn't necessary to use eggs for shortening it can be extremely useful when making baked goods that are light on solid fats, like butter, this is why you'll sometimes see recipe that call for lots of egg yolks, but not egg whites.

5. How Eggs Affect Moisture :

Eggs are mostly made of water around 70%-75% and different parts of the eggs give you more moisture than others. For example, an egg yolks contribute only about 50%. Most recipe will just call for a whole egg, but if you feel it's a bit dry, try adding in an extra egg white next time. The moisture amount from eggs also affect the texture of your pastry. eggs yolks make richer and softer baked goods, while egg whites give you a lighter and airier products. Most recipe call for a traditional large egg size to still get a rich final product, but reduce or increase moisture.

6. How Eggs Affect Color :

In general, eggs help provide that beautiful golden brown color that we attribute to delicate and delicious baked goods. They brown very easily, which helps give you that desired color even if it isn't in the oven very long. However, browning occure primarily as a result of sugar caramelization and chemical changes caused by heat. Eggs only help increase browning , they don't caused it. They also provide a yellowish tinge to the batter, which is often associated with quality and richness. Eggs can also lend color without being part of the mixture, like in an egg wash. When used this way, the egg (or part of it) is whisked together with another liquid like milk or water. It is then brushed on top of the dough (like pie or bread) before baking. As the dough bakes, the egg browns and gives the crust a beautiful hue that in inviting and enticing.

PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT !

As you can see, eggs are a marvelous baking ingredient that impacts your final product in multiple ways. Baking is a type of chemistry and choosing egg substitutes and alternatives to what a recipe calls for can alter your baked goods in multiple ways.