If you are looking for an easy vegan egg substitute, this basic cornstarch and water egg replacement works in almost any vegan dessert!
Today is short and sweet, because cornstarch + water egg substitute is one of the most basic and easy vegan egg replacers around, but I always seem to forget about it! In light of making batch upon batch of cookies over the holiday season, I realized that a few recipes I was testing out weren’t coming out quite right, and I wasn’t sure why. I adjusted the oil, added more flour, tweaked the baking time and still, things just kept coming out really…meh. I realized that it might be something simple that was making all my cookie dough really lackluster, especially since the main issue seemed to be that they kept coming our really dry and the cookies weren’t spreading in the oven. After doing a bit of searching around and realizing that, duh, it might be too little water in the dough, I tried out the cornstarch + water egg substitute and wouldn’t you know it, it worked! One of the main issues I run into when converting a non-vegan recipe to vegan, is losing the water content that is found in butter, especially since coconut oil is usually subbed in. The cornstarch + water egg method solves all of that and my cookies spread and were perfectly moist, plus I stopped my streak of throwing out batches of failed cookies (womp womp).
The general ratio for this cornstarch + water vegan egg substitute is 1 tablespoon of cornstarch (potato starch works too), whisked together with 3 tablespoons of warm water. I’ve seen some resources call for a 1:2 ratio as well, but I’ve tried and had more success with the 1:3 ratio. I would say that this substitute is best for cookies, cakes or breads that wouldn’t do well with a flax egg because they are too tender or would look weird with all of those ground up bits of flax in them. I used this method perfectly on the chocolate gingerbread cookies and spice cookies with success, but I would bet it would work in most recipes that call for 1-2 eggs. That being said, I wouldn’t recommend this method for any recipes that call for more than 2 eggs, simply because I don’t know that there would be enough holding power and honestly, I haven’t tried it yet! I’ll report back if I do, but this one is best reserved for those cookie recipes that call for an egg or two for binding and moisture content. My general method is to whisk together the cornstarch and water before I start gathering my ingredients and by the time I’m ready to add it in, it has fully set up. Also a note, make sure to use a spatula to scrape everything out of the bowl after you’ve mixed the ingredients together, a lot of times the cornstarch will start to settle in the bottom of the bowl and I’ve missed a good chunk of it a few times, which doesn’t yield great results.
I hope this helps any egg substitutes conundrums you might have had, I know it’s been a game changer for me and I’m ready to try it out on a lot more recipes, so I’ll report back with results!
Want more vegan baking basics knowledge? Take a look at the archives for all of the past posts!
Tessa | Salted Plains says
I had no idea about this method! Thank you for sharing – I am SO excited to try this! <3
Heart of a Baker says
So easy and simple! xo
Cindy Smith says
Thanks for all your helpful tips—I’l have to try this one out. I am learning to bake vegan because my 22 month old granddaughter has wheat, dairy, egg and peanut allergies. There is a product called VeganEgg by Follow Your Heart that I have used as an egg substitute and I absolutely love it! I’ve been able to find it at our local Meijer grocery store.
Heart of a Baker says
I do love Vegan Egg too! It’s great that you can find it at a local store, right? Don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any questions!
Melissa says
Is it 1 Tbsp cornstarch with 3Tbsp water per egg? So do you double it for 2 eggs? I am a new vegan and have much to learn. Thank you for your help
Heart of a Baker says
Yes, that is correct!
Cindy Gabriel says
I used this egg recipe for cupcakes in a gluten-free cake mix (I made cupcakes) and they were fabulous!
Heart of a Baker says
I’m so happy to hear it worked out!
Ecfinn says
I’ve noticed for “wetter” baking recipes, like pumpkin pie, I just need to add 2 tablespoons corn starch per egg, no dissolving in water needed. I made both pumpkin pie and pumpkin crunch cake using this method over the holidays.
Literally indiscernable to egg versions. Clueless omnis in the fam gobbled it up like jackals [cue evil laughter].
Ecfinn says
A question about preference: do you prefer this method for certain baked goods? For instance, have you noticed that some replacers work better for cookies vs. cakes, etc? Thanks!
Heart of a Baker says
I prefer this method in more tender recipes, like cakes, cupcakes, etc. Enjoy!
Callie says
I am not a vegan but I find this post so useful and I always refer people to this post when someone asks me about ways to convert a classic recipe to a plantbased one either for ethical or health reasons. 🙂
Heart of a Baker says
I’m so happy to hear that, thank you!
Laura says
I’ve already used applesauce as a substitute in baking several times in the past. My recipes came out just fine!
Kyihsin says
Thanks for this tip! I’m not a vegan, but eggs are getting hard to find during the COVID crisis, while cornstarch is still plentiful. So it’s good to have a way to bake while saving my eggs for things where they can’t be substituted.
Heart of a Baker says
So glad this helped you!
rrsfc says
Hi, thank you for all your tips. Do you think this cornstarch egg would work substituting 3 egg yolks in a donut recipe? If not which would be the best substitution?
Susan Dubose says
I sometimes would use vanilla pudding as substitute to corn starch and it works just fine to as pudding is basically cornstarch.
Brooklyn says
Hello,
do you know a replacement for replacing 4 eggs, or is it impossible? 🙁
Thank you very much
Heart of a Baker says
Hi there! For something that has a lot of eggs I would recommend using silken tofu as a replacement. Usually 1/4 cup tofu = 2 eggs. Hope this helps!
Lori says
This is so helpful. Thank you much much!
Making my daughter’s birthday cake and with this egg scare going on I didn’t want to take a chance.
Emily Stimpson says
An easy vegan egg substitute