How To Replace An Egg With Flax Seed

This may seem like an unusual replacement but I’ve learned it really does work! If you need to remove eggs from a baking recipe, you can replace it with this flax seed mixture. This is a handy strategy for those eating vegan or plant based, or those with an egg allergy. This flax egg replacement is also handy for those times when maybe you just don’t have any eggs around.

How To Replace Eggs With Flax Seed

It only takes two ingredients to replace an egg with flax seed. Those ingredients are water and ground flax seed.

Flax seeds are very tiny seeds that are a good plant-based source of Omega-3 fatty acids as well as being a good source of fiber. However to make an egg replacement you don’t want to use flax seeds in their whole, original state. You want to have have them in their ground (or milled) state. You can either buy them like this (I usually buy mine at Aldi), or you can grind the whole seeds in a high powered processor (such as a Vita-Mix).

Next, add the 2½ tablespoons of water and stir things around just a little bit. Then you need to let it set for a few minutes.

When you first add the water, the ground flax seed will kind of be floating around. But as it sets a little longer, it becomes a more combined and “goopy” substance that more closely feels like adding a soupy and goopy egg to a recipe.

I’ve seen instructions to put this mixture in the refrigerator, which I believe is to speed up the setting time, however I don’t really feel that’s necessary. It already comes together quite fast. I just mix the two ingredients together and after two or three minutes of setting on the kitchen counter it’s ready to use. I try to remember to make this mixture as the first thing I do in a baking recipe and then it can set as I mix other ingredients together. By the time I need to add in the “egg”, my flax seed mixture has been setting long enough and is ready to use.

Flax Seed Egg Replacement Measurements

If you’d like to give this method a try as you adapt some of your own favorite recipes, here are some handy measurements. And truly, it really doesn’t require that exact of measuring of the water. Almost all instructions for this method that you will find will have you using 1 tablespoon of flax seed for 1 egg, BUT they often differ a little bit on the water. Some will say 2 tablespoons of water, others say 3 tablespoons. I’ve settled on 2½. So when calculating for replacing 2 or 3 eggs, I think rounding up or down a little bit on the water is not a problem. Here are the calculations I use:

And here’s a helpful picture chart of these measurements too:

This is my favorite way to replace an egg in my homemade baking recipes if I want to make a plant-based adjustment to a recipe. It’s easy to do and works very well. If you’d like to make some healthier adjustments to your own recipes, give it a try and I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised to find how well this DIY substitution will work.