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The Best Eggs for Baking

Created November 22, 2024
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Eggs give baked goods taste, texture and volume. Here's how to choose and use them correctly every time.
Bakers use eggs for a variety of different reasons, including to help give structure to baked goods, to thicken and bind ingredients together, to give a soft, smooth and creamy texture, and to give a glowing color.

Types & Sizes of Eggs 

Eggs are graded to determine interior quality of the egg and the appearance and condition of the shell. While eggs can be graded AA, A or B, most eggs available for purchase are grade A. Eggs come in a range of sizes, including Small, Medium, Large, Extra-Large and Jumbo. The most-common size of eggs are large, so that’s what we always use for testing all of our recipes, unless otherwise noted. When making scrambled eggs or fried eggs, you could use any size eggs, but for practically any other dish to be successful, you’ll want to be sure you’re using large eggs.


Tips for Using Eggs in Baking

Buying Eggs

When you buy your eggs, make sure the shells are clean and not cracked or broken. Check for the "sell by" date stamped onto the carton to ensure you buy the freshest eggs. Naturally, the farther away the "sell by" date, the fresher the eggs.

Egg Storage

Refrigerate eggs as soon as possible after purchase. Keep them refrigerated until use, ideally at 40º F or below, and only take them out when you're ready to use them. Raw eggs shouldn’t be out of the refrigerator any longer than 2 hours.

Store eggs in their carton in the coldest part of the refrigerator—not the door where the temperature can fluctuate as it is opened and closed.

Cooking with Eggs

Always wash your hands before handling eggs (or doing any baking or cooking, for that matter), and utilize only cleaned and sanitized cooking equipment and utensils.

Raw eggs mixed with other ingredients should be cooked immediately or refrigerated and cooked within 24 hours.

Always cook eggs until both the white and yolk are firm.

Casseroles and other dishes containing raw eggs should be cooked to a minimum safe temperature of 160º F to kill any harmful bacteria that could cause food safety issues. Use an instant-read food thermometer to be sure.

Serve cooked eggs or dishes containing eggs immediately after cooking or place in shallow containers to cool quickly. Cover and refrigerate up to 3 to 4 days, to enjoy at a later time.

On a rare occasion, we will require room temperature eggs in order for the recipe to have better volume. In those cases, the recipe will instruct you to remove the eggs from the refrigerator only 30 minutes before using to help with volume while still keeping them food safe.

Resist the urge to taste uncooked batters or doughs with raw eggs, since they may contain harmful bacteria before they are properly cooked, 

Separating Eggs

When separating an egg, take care to crack the shell gently but firmly enough to break it apart evenly in two halves, tipping it open as you do so in order to retain the egg inside one of the halves. Then carefully pass the egg from one half to the other, back and forth. As you do so, the whites will spill out into the container beneath your hands, leaving the yolk behind, contained in one of the shell halves in your hand. There are also egg separators that make this process easier.

How to Beat Egg Whites

Make sure to use a clean container and clean equipment to beat your egg whites, as oil, grease or egg yolk can impede proper beating. Always start at a low speed, building up slowly as foaming begins. Depending on the recipe, egg whites need to be beaten to either the soft peak or stiff peak stage. Here’s how to achieve either result:

Soft Peaks: Beat the egg whites until peaks curl when the beaters are lifted from the bowl.

Stiff Peaks: Beat the egg whites until peaks stand up straight when the beaters are lifted from the bowl.

How to Mix Eggs into a Hot Batter

To add eggs or egg yolks into a hot batter, such as a cooked pudding without instantly cooking the eggs, creating a bumpy mixture (with bits of cooked egg), rather than a smooth mixture:

  1. Beat the egg (or egg yolk) in a separate bowl.
  2. Gradually stir in at least half of the hot mixture into the egg, which will slowly allow the egg to get used to the higher temperature, without cooking the egg.
  3. Then stir that mixture back into to the remaining batter.

The taste, texture and appearance most people associate with their favorite baked goods can often be attributed to eggs, so thanks, eggs!