No single swap replaces an egg, because an egg is doing three or four jobs at once. Pick the substitute for the job that matters in your recipe.
A large egg weighs about 50 g out of the shell: roughly 30 g of white and 20 g of yolk. In a bake it binds ingredients together, adds moisture, contributes richness and colour from the yolk's fat, and — when whipped — provides lift by trapping air. Every substitute replaces one or two of those jobs and ignores the rest, which is why 'use a flax egg' works beautifully in a muffin and fails completely in a sponge cake.
Ask what the egg is doing first. One or two eggs in a big batch of muffins or brownies are mostly binding and moistening: easy to replace. Six eggs in a chiffon cake are the structure: not replaceable with anything in this list.
Ratios are per large egg. Weights are more reliable than spoons for the wet substitutes.
| Substitute | Per large egg | Replaces | Best in |
|---|---|---|---|
| Flax egg | 1 tbsp (7 g) ground flax + 3 tbsp (45 g) water, rested 5 min | Binding, some moisture | Muffins, quick breads, oatmeal cookies, veggie burgers |
| Chia egg | 1 tbsp (12 g) chia seeds + 3 tbsp (45 g) water, rested 10 min | Binding, moisture | Dense muffins, brownies, energy bars |
| Unsweetened applesauce | 60 g (¼ cup) | Moisture, some binding | Cakes, muffins, brownies, quick breads |
| Mashed ripe banana | 60 g (¼ cup, about half a banana) | Moisture, binding, sweetness | Banana bread, pancakes, soft cookies |
| Aquafaba | 3 tbsp (45 g) for a whole egg; 2 tbsp for a white | Lift, binding — whips like egg white | Meringues, macarons, mousse, light cakes |
Both seeds release mucilage — a gel — when soaked, and that gel does an egg's holding-together job convincingly. Use ground flax (whole seeds won't gel) and give the mixture five minutes to thicken. Chia gels faster and firmer and its seeds stay visible, which is fine in a dark brownie and odd in a vanilla cupcake. Neither adds lift or richness, so pair them with an extra ¼ teaspoon of baking powder in anything that needs to rise.
Fruit purées bring water and a little pectin. They keep bakes moist and hold them together adequately, but they weigh batters down, so they suit recipes that are already dense or fruit-forward. Banana flavours everything it touches; applesauce is neutral if unsweetened. Both are sweet — drop the sugar by about a tablespoon per egg replaced — and both tend to make bakes brown faster, so check a few minutes early.
The liquid from a can of chickpeas contains enough dissolved protein and starch to foam and hold peaks almost exactly like egg white, which makes it the sole substitute in this list that provides lift. Whip it with a pinch of cream of tartar to stiff peaks for meringue, or use it unwhipped as a binder. It contributes no fat, so it cannot stand in for yolks in a custard or a rich cake.
Sponge, chiffon, angel food, génoise, soufflé, pavlova, custard, and anything with more than three eggs in a standard batch. In these the egg is the structure or the entire body of the dish. The honest answer is a different recipe — shortbread, soda bread, scones and no-knead bread never needed an egg in the first place.
For most muffins, quick breads and brownies: a flax egg (1 tbsp ground flax + 3 tbsp water) or 60 g of applesauce per egg. For anything that needs lift — meringue, light cakes — aquafaba (3 tbsp per egg) is the only substitute that whips. Match the swap to the job the egg was doing.
60 g, which is ¼ cup, of unsweetened applesauce per large egg. Reduce the recipe's sugar by about a tablespoon and expect a slightly denser, moister result. It works best when the recipe has no more than two eggs.
Not reliably. In sponge, chiffon and angel food cakes the whipped eggs are the structure and most of the volume. Aquafaba can get partway there in small, light cakes, but for classic sponge recipes the better move is a cake built without eggs from the start.
Yes for soft, chewy cookies — oatmeal, chocolate chip, peanut butter — where the egg is mostly binding. Expect slightly less spread and a softer set. It doesn't suit crisp or delicate cookies where the egg's richness and structure show.