The smell, taste, and feel of a freshly baked cookie are extraordinarily powerful; It is linked to fond memories and mouth watering for many people around the world. What the average person may not know is that the things that make a cookie palatable are due to chemical reactions, many of which are facilitated by the inclusion of eggs as an ingredient in the baking process. However, every year more and more people avoid eggs in their diet for various reasons. The vegan lifestyle is becoming more affordable and common. Fears (the rationality of which is still strongly debated) of an increase in cholesterol due to egg consumption also contribute. Additionally, egg allergy is the second most common allergy in children after dairy products (FARE). How can you create a familiar and delicious cookie without using eggs? This article seeks to discern the chemical properties of eggs, their specific functions in the cooking process, identify some substitutions that serve similar purposes, and discover how they chemically fit the role. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay In an average cookie, eggs may seem like a small percentage of the ingredients in terms of volume, but their chemical properties affect how all the other ingredients work together to create the final product. So, what is an egg? The average chicken egg used regularly in American home baking is composed of a hard outer shell that can come in a variety of shades, white and yolk. After breaking the calcium carbonate (CaCO3) shell, the baker first comes into contact with the white, or egg white, which is about 90% water and the rest of seven major proteins (Evanhoe 2006) . The most important of these is ovalbumin, which provides nutrition and promotes the immunity of the unborn chick. Conalbumin is necessary to bind iron. About 2% of the protein in egg white is ovomucin, responsible for its familiar thickness and sticky texture. The pH of egg white in a freshly laid egg is approximately 7.6, rising to 9.2 after days of storage. Egg white adheres more strongly to the inside of the eggshell at a lower pH. The yolk may be yellow or even almost red in color due to the carotenoid pigments lutein and zeaxanthin. The yolk contains approximately 33% lipids and 17% proteins. It contains a significant amount of fatty acids (including oleic acid, palmitic acid and linoleic acid) and some cholesterol. It also contains fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E and K and the compound lecithin, which contains many different phospholipids. Lecithin is known to be an emulsifier, stabilizer and surfactant. It is extracted from eggs for many uses, including pharmaceutical purposes and some cosmetics (Pyler 2010). These same properties also make eggs valuable in baking. When you whisk eggs into flour, butter, and other cookie ingredients, it may seem like the purpose is just to combine the elements together into a smoother mixture, but in reality the chemistry of cookies is very different. already taking place. Eggs help bring together the watery and fatty phases to achieve a creamier and smoother texture (Indrani 2008). The lecithin in the yolk coats the air bubbles that form during beating, preventing them from collapsing when heated. These fat-coated CO2 air bubbles increase the softness of the final product and contribute to leavening, structure and shape. Lecithin and other long chains of amino acids in egg act as binders to hold the ingredients together. AOnce baked goods reach an internal temperature of about 176 degrees F, the leavened batter adopts its permanent shape as the egg proteins coagulate, the starch granules absorb water and form a gel, and the gluten denatures and loses its elasticity. The final consistency is set during cooking by the coagulation of egg proteins and flour (Connelly2010). One of the most important chemical reactions in baking is the Maillard reaction, commonly known as simply "browning," but responsible for the right golden brown color of baking and the production of hundreds of toasty, flavorful flavor compounds. The right temperature is necessary for the sugars and proteins on the surface of baked goods to combine and rearrange themselves into the right compounds. The reactive carbonyl group of the sugar interacts with the nucleophilic amino group of the amino acid. This process accelerates in an alkaline environment because the amino groups do not neutralize. At a higher pH, the amino group is a better target for reducing sugars. Egg wash applied to yeast breads or other baked goods increases the surface pH to further encourage the Maillard reaction. The content of fat, sugar, egg white and other proteins leads to an almost unparalleled potential in the kitchen to enhance the potential of the other ingredients around them by thickening, binding, leavening, providing structure, bringing moisture and encouraging the Maillard reaction ( Gillespie 2019 ). Additionally, eggs thicken and smooth custards and puddings and create a foam stable at high temperatures that allows for delicate choux and meringues (Tamanna et al 2015). Given the unique structure and contents of an egg, it's easy to imagine how difficult it would be to replicate in cooking. So, what can you do if you're avoiding eggs due to ethical, dietary, or allergen-related concerns? The good news is that not all hope is lost. Several items have been identified that work similarly to eggs in baked goods, and there are some products known as egg substitutes available on the market. However, the bad news is that there is no object on earth that can do exactly what an egg can do while being vegan or free of allergens in eggs. But, if you can identify the main physical and chemical property that an egg should impart to your recipe, there are some specific alternatives that can easily and often indistinguishably take its place. The emulsifying properties of eggs are the easiest to emulate (McVean 2018). These are recipes in which the egg serves to stabilize a mixture between two immiscible liquids, such as the process of making mayonnaise, or creaming fat and sugar together when making a pound cake. The main factor affecting emulsifiers is concentration, with diluted ingredients emulsifying poorly. The most ideal replacement for emulsion eggs is flax seeds. The outermost layer of flaxseed, the epidermis, contains a mucilaginous material that makes up about 8% of the flaxseed's weight. This mucilage, or gel, once extracted, can easily be used as an egg substitute suitable for many vegan cooking applications. As? Linseed gel is a hydrocolloid, composed of polysaccharides. While eggs themselves contain almost no carbohydrates, the long chains of simple sugars found in flaxseed gel can form extended networks similar to those of denatured egg proteins (Noren). While other plants such as chia seeds, aloe vera, okra, and even some basil seeds also contain polysaccharide gels, in some cases they can be prohibitively expensive, and in other cases they impart unwanted flavors to thefinal product. Of course, flax gel can't do everything an egg can. It will not successfully replace eggs in extremely airy desserts such as angel food cake, choux pastry or popovers. In cakes, flax gel would probably not be a good substitute because mucilage can coat the gluten and gliadin in the flour, effectively blocking the formation of gluten bonds, so it won't build structure like an egg would (Hagedorn 2019). However, for products such as muffins, breads and biscuits, a “flax egg” will work well. There are a few methods for creating a “flax egg.” The easiest way is to grind whole flax seeds in a blender or spice grinder, then 1 tablespoon of ground flax flour in 3 tablespoons of water. Letting this mixture sit for 10 minutes will release the mucilage. Warmer water speeds up this process. All of this can be added to recipes in place of an egg, in recipes where color and texture won't be an issue. Miyoko Schinner, famous vegan baker and CEO of Miyoko's Creamery, is considered a pioneer of an alternative and more complex method, which should be used in cases where the above color and texture would not be suitable (Hagedorn 2019). Instead of grinding flaxseeds, you can boil 5 tablespoons of flaxseeds in 3 cups of water for about 20-25 minutes. This method not only gets all the mucilage out of the hull, but boiling some of the water allows the mixture to condense a bit. Then, using a fine mesh strainer, strain the mucilage from the water and let it cool. Because of its viscosity it can be difficult to measure, but three tablespoons is enough conversion rate to replace one egg. Clotting is a little more difficult to replicate perfectly. This property allows eggs to bind foods together, thicken applications such as custards, omelets, and puddings, or provide positive benefits to the crumb and texture of baked goods (Pyler and Gorton 2010). In things like cornbread, quick bread, or vegan burgers, for example, a common recommendation is to add extra starch like arrowroot powder, potato starch, or tapioca starch and a little neutral oil for added fat. Another common recommendation is adding fruit purees such as mashed bananas, applesauce, mashed potatoes, pumpkin or pumpkin puree. Here it depends a lot on the desired flavor of the final product. Applesauce provides little in the way of flavor and texture to baked goods, while a little banana can overwhelm a recipe. The choice of egg substitution will vary greatly depending on the recipe and the baker's personal preferences. Until recently, the most difficult property of an egg to reproduce for vegan or egg-free cooking was foaming. You can't make meringue out of a banana. The foaming ability of an ingredient is influenced by the beating method, temperature, pH and water content. Some foods like soy milk or whey protein can foam, but these foams are not stable at high temperatures. The savior ingredient for vegan bakers everywhere was brought to the public's attention in 2015 and nicknamed aquafaba, literally translated from Latin to "bean water," because it's the waste liquid found in canned chickpeas ( Danovich 2017). It is completely vegan and manages to create a temperature-resistant foam. This is made possible because during the cooking process, when chickpeas are canned, the beans' water-soluble proteins and sugars are released into the surrounding water, accounting for the loss of about 5% of the dry weight of the chickpeas. The exact one/29553544.