The Great Eggless Sugar Cookie Bake-off!

Growing up one of my favorite things to make (and decorate) was sugar cookies.  We always made the same recipe, and the cookies are soooo addicting.  I love them even without frosting.  Now my kids love to make them (and eat them) too.

I wasn't too surprised when Ellie said she wanted to decorate the sugar cookies at her birthday party. I thought it would be a super fun activity for her art party too.  There was only one glitch.  One of our guests have an egg allergy.  I really didn't want him to miss out on one of the party's activities, so I set to trying to adapt my mom's sugar cookie recipe to make it eggless.  Now, you'll notice that the recipe still contains a tiny bit of milk, so it's not good for people who can't have dairy.  My guess though is that the milk could probably be substituted for as well.  The scientist in me didn't want to change more than one thing at a time though, so attempting dairy-free cookies would have to happen on another day. 

I know it's not a typical post on this little old blog of mine, but I hope that this post might be helpful to someone...especially at the holiday times!

First, here's the ORIGINAL recipe;

1 cube butter

3/4 cup sugar

1 egg

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1 tbs. milk

1.5 cups flour

1/8 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

Cream butter and sugar and then mix in dry ingredients.  Let dough chill a few hours before rolling (about 1/4 inch thick) and cutting out cookies. Bake at 350F for 8-10min.

Now I wanted to substitute for the egg, so I tried out two different batches, each using a different egg substitute.  In one recipe, I substituted Gelatin for the egg. In another, I substituted water, oil, and baking powder.

Here's the Gelatin Recipe:
1 cube butter
3/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon gelatin (Disolve in 1 tablespoon cold water.  Add two tablespoons of boiling water and beat until frothy.  THEN add to your creamed butter/sugar mix.  Don't let it sit too long as the gelatin will solidify and you'll get chunks of gelatin in your cookies)

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1 tbs. milk

1.5 cups flour

1/8 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

And here's the Oil, Water, Baking Powder Recipe:

1 cube butter

3/4 cup sugar

2 tablespoons water

1 teaspoon oil

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1 tbs. milk

1.5 cups flour

1/8 teaspoon salt

2 and 1/4 teaspoons baking powder

After mixing the ingredients I let the dough chill for a few hours before I cut out my cookies.  I baked the cookies from both recipes at 350F for 8-10 minutes. I definitely erred on the side of less done, because I like my sugar cookies chewy.

And who's the winner?

Well, it turns out its not clear cut.  The Gelatin ones clearly win for keeping their shape better.  However, the Oil, Water, Baking Power substitution wins for taste and texture.  Other than the fact that the the Oil, Water, Baking Powder substitution cookies spread out a lot more when baking (they became thinner than I liked) the taste and texture were almost identical to my mom's original recipe.

And perhaps the best part to both recipes?  The dough is eggless!!! So the kids and I could sample as much as we liked.  Yum yum!  If I had to make them again, I'd probably go with the second recipe.  I just wish I could get them to hold their shape better!

You can see the gelatin ones in the back in the picture below, and the Oil, Water, Baking Powder ones in the front.  I think the real key is to not over bake them.  I love them chewy!

Happy Eggless baking!