Of course, if you’re cooking or baking for someone with allergies, the first thing to do is to read the ingredients on the labels of the various foods you may be using. Food manufacturers are required by law to use simple food allergen terms (such as “milk” or “egg”) on food labels and to list these ingredients if they are present in the food in any amount. Note that phrases such as “Peanut-Free” and “Egg-Free” are not regulated, and this product may still be manufactured in facilities that handle certain allergens. If you have allergies to common foods like milk or eggs, you need to remove all traces of these foods from your kitchen.
While food allergies can be a big problem when trying to make a new recipe or treat, there are a few ingredients you can substitute with something that won’t trigger allergens. While it may seem difficult to bake an egg-free cake or a wheat-free cookie, there are a few alternatives you can use. When a recipe calls for two or more eggs, it can sometimes be helpful to combine two different egg substitutes. You can purchase prepackaged egg substitute for cooking; however, some recipes may use flax or chia seeds, banana puree, or applesauce instead of eggs.
If you’re cooking and need an egg as a binder, try replacing the egg with 1/2 mashed banana or 1/4 cup applesauce. If your recipe uses eggs as a baking powder, try a mixture of 1.5 tablespoons of vegetable oil mixed with 1.5 tablespoons of water and one teaspoon of yeast per egg. Ener-G egg replacer is also referred to as baking powder, along with more baking powder than traditional recipes. If you’re making vegan products, the extra boost that once came from an egg can be provided by apple cider vinegar and a little baking powder.
There are commercial powders that will replace eggs when cooking from scratch, and others have successfully replaced each egg in a recipe with 1 packet of gelatin mixed with 2 tablespoons of warm water. If you are cooking and eggs are not the main ingredient, many other foods can be used instead of eggs. Many of the common ingredient substitutions can change the taste of food, with the exception of rice milk (which is low in fat and can affect the texture of some dishes).
Rice milk also tends to be naturally sweet, which can change the flavor of a recipe and increase browning. Rice milk is a bit thinner, so don’t use it for cooking without boiling and evaporating it first. Rice milk is milder and is said by many to be the closest thing to cow’s milk in taste and can be used as a suitable substitute for dairy milk in many recipes. Higher fat milks tend to be best for cooking, so if you’re loosely in the top 8, seed-based milks (such as flaxseed or hemp) will do better than rice milk, which has a watery texture, no matter which brand of it you buy.