While I’ve known about the aquafaba (chickpea brining liquid) hack for a while, I’ve always thought of it more for folks with food allergies. Why would I, a happy egg eater, ever need to use it to replace eggs? Well, here we are. Egg prices don’t seem to be coming down anytime soon, and if you’re as reliant on the ovum as I am, you may be looking for ways to cut costs. While I’ll still be splurging on the real thing for perfect, jar-scrambled eggs, I’ll be using aquafaba for these other egg-related recipes.
Chickpea liquid gets its magical binding properties from the starches that leach out of the bean and into the brine. When cooked, the water evaporates and you’re left with the starches, salt, and traces of other ingredients bound together in a sticky sort of web. I boiled some straight-up chickpea liquid in a pan to see.
Is it an egg? Decidedly not. While a thin sheet of cooked, slightly browned starch doesn’t look so impressive, it actually shows us what this simple liquid is capable of. Do note, however, that salt varies considerably in cans of chickpea liquid. When using it in baking, taste the aquafaba, and if it’s very salty, reduce the salt in the recipe by a quarter-teaspoon per two “eggs” in the recipe.
Binding is a big part of why eggs go in cookie dough and cake batters, and luckily aquafaba can function in this way. What aquafaba doesn’t do naturally that eggs do, is puff. Even if you don’t whip an egg, it has some body to it after it cooks. Chickpea liquid doesn’t naturally have the same consistency, but this challenge is not impossible to overcome. Aquafaba whips up pretty easily and manages to hold that aeration. (More on that in a moment)
For batters where you don’t need to see much puff in your baked goods, like brownies, you can pour aquafaba straight into the batter. For one whole large egg, use three tablespoons of aquafaba. For one egg white, use two tablespoons of aquafaba.
For batters and doughs where you’d like to see a little lift, whip the amount of aquafaba you’re using in a small bowl. Just whip it until its soft and foamy; stiff peaks aren’t necessary for this use. Then mix it into the dough as usual during the egg step. This bit of aeration will give your cookies a mounded shape and the average cake batter a smidge of lift. While it might be an annoying extra five to 10 minutes of your time, it’s worth it.
Typical meringue consists of only two major ingredients: egg whites and sugar. And frankly, it’s only meringue because the egg whites do all the heavy lifting. And yet, aquafaba can make it happen. Again, I’ve never been heavily reliant on this bean syrup, but it’s never let me down when I whip it up.
Egg or otherwise, no meringue lasts very long unless you stabilize it in some manner. Always whip aquafaba with a small amount of cream of tartar to give you more time to work with the whipped meringue. For every cup of aquafaba, use a half-teaspoon of cream of tartar to help stabilize the structure. Whip the two together until the mixture becomes foamy on top, about three to five minutes, then add the sugar and whip it until the mixture has stiff peaks. Use this meringue to make meringue cookies, pavlovas, or fold it into other batters for maximum lift.
Egg wash is one of the most understated baking techniques. Adding an egg wash can help seal together pies and pastries so they don’t explode, and it can add color and shine to the exterior of breads and countless other treats. While sour cream makes a good exterior egg wash, it doesn’t do much for binding. Aquafaba is here to help though. Simply brush the liquid onto the pastry or bread how you would normally do with eggs and get on with the recipe. You won’t taste any off flavors, but you might get a tickle of salt.
