do i need eggs in cookies

Unless some dietary consideration has forced eggs from your diet, youve probably never stopped to reflect on how dang important they are to cookies. Most recipes call for one, and we add it without a second thought. By the time weve got a warm cookie in our grubby little paws, whos still thinking about eggs? Our focus is right where it belongs: on that buttery richness, those crispy, caramelized edges, and that wonderfully tender crumb.

Omitting eggs won’t change the flavor so much as it totally change the texture. Eggs provide moisture and act as a binder. If you don’t add eggs, you are basically creating shortbread cookies, which are dry and crumbly.

Cookies With Just Egg Whites

Moving on to the egg-white-only trials, I immediately ran into problems. Instead of smoothly incorporating into the dough, the watery whites would slip and slide against the butter, forming small curds. By the time sheer horsepower brought everything back together, the air cells carefully cultivated by creaming had been roughly beaten out.

Compared to a classic whole-egg recipe, one made from whites alone formed a heavier dough that gave up less moisture as steam, which would normally escape after helping those air cells expand and rise. The result? Moist, dense, and chewy cookies that spread thin, albeit to varying degrees.

(An aside: If the cross-sections look oddly dry, its because the actual cookies were so soft, they collapsed beneath my knife. To examine their true crumb structure, I had to bake the samples several extra minutes.)

The cookies made with a single white spread closer to normal, but with a comparatively tight crumb. The two-white version puffed a fraction more (extra liquid = extra steam, thus a better chance of rising despite poor aeration), producing thick cookies that were outrageously chewy and tender—the uncontested favorite among my tasters in the white/yolk showdown.

The differences werent strictly textural. Without the custard flavor of an egg yolk, the white-only cookies tasted more intensely vanilla, an asset I destroyed by attempting to enhance the chewiness provided by whites with the richness of a yolk. That adjustment made the cookie tender to the point of crumbliness, with a confusing flavor that was more bland than a whole-egg cookie and not as powerfully vanilla as the all-white versions.

It was a taste of what was to come, as each subsequent experiment with egg proved itself a new adventure in disappointment.

Cookies With Just Egg Yolks

Id had such high hopes, too, as the lecithin-rich yolks worked as an emulsifier, helping the butter and sugar whip up especially light and fluffy, without any hint of curdling. Yet using a single yolk was strangely similar to using a single white. The cookie spread poorly, with a dry and gritty texture that was only marginally more delicate thanks to proper aeration.

Like the two-white version, my two-yolk dough spread and puffed much like a normal cookie…on the outside, anyway. Inside, it had the texture of an over-baked muffin that was left to stale on the counter overnight. The sort youd warm up and suffer through, pretending to be satisfied by the overall butteriness but painfully aware of every wasted calorie. On the plus side, the yolk-enriched cookies tasted exactly like a vanilla wafer, a potential perk in recipes that are baked until crunchy or crisp.

Desperate to harness that flavor in the context of a soft and tender cookie, I decided to try a version made with six yolks (three and a half ounces). It emulsified the dough rather nicely, and I figured the sheer volume of fat would force them into something moist. The aroma of yellow cake that filled my kitchen seemed promising, but the result was an alarmingly spongy cookie with a disturbingly savory edge. (Other adjectival pairs considered for that sentence: strangely/bizarrely, distinctly/confusingly, oddly/disconcertingly.)

Clearly, yolks have no business being left to their own devices.

How to make CHEAP and EASY Egg Substitute / Best Egg Replacer Recipe

FAQ

What happens if you don’t put eggs in cookies?

Is it safe to eat cookie dough without eggs?

How important are eggs in cookies?

Do cookies need eggs?

Eggs Are Critical for Cookie-Baking! Almost any cookie recipe you come across will require eggs or a suitable vegan substitute. Clearly, it’s a staple ingredient in cookies, and most cookies can’t survive without it. But what do these must-have ingredients do for a delectable batch of cookies? 1. Responsible for Texture

What is the best way to cook eggs?

The best way to prepare eggs are shorter and lower-heat cooking methods, as they cause less cholesterol oxidation and help retain most of the egg’s nutrients. For this reason, poached and boiled (either hard or soft) eggs may be the healthiest to eat. Also, these cooking methods, don’t add any unnecessary calories, like oil.

Do you add eggs to cookies?

We add eggs to cookie recipes without thinking, and probably don’t realize the part they play. Eggs are used in cookies to add important moisture and act as a binding agent. When eggs aren’t added, the cookies become dense, crumbly, and don’t spread out. While eggs may not add much in terms of flavor to a cookie, they’re still a vital ingredient.

Do you use eggs in cookie dough?

More often than not, you will be working with whole eggs for cookies, although there may be a select few recipes that call for only egg whites or only egg yolks. In cookie dough, eggs are going to be a major source of moisture, as there aren’t many “wet” ingredients involved in these recipes.