Ground flaxseed has long been used as a digestive aid thanks to its incredible fiber content; in fact, 2 tablespoons of ground flax contains approximately 6 grams of fiber, fulfilling up to 25% of the average person’s daily needs. However, with vegan recipes on the rise, folks are increasingly buying ground flaxseed for another purpose: to make flax eggs.
If you don’t know what a flax egg is, you’re in for a treat. Made with two simple ingredients — ground flaxseed and water — flax eggs are a staple in plant-based recipes due to their ability to bind other ingredients. Even if you aren’t vegan, you might turn to flax eggs as the price of real eggs continues to rise. Flax eggs are most commonly used in plant-based baking recipes, including muffins, cakes, and cookies. They also work beautifully in burger recipes, where they bind ingredients like lentils and diced vegetables. Flax eggs are even useful in holding together vegetarian “meatballs,” such as these plant-based eggplant balls.
Regardless of whether you are baking a scrumptious batch of vegan chocolate chip cookies or you are firing up the grill for burgers, it is worthwhile to learn how to make the best flax eggs. Over my years working in a bed and breakfast and from a home kitchen, I have seen firsthand the effects a good flax egg has in a recipe versus a bad flax egg. In this article, I’ll explain simple yet crucial tips to help you make flax eggs that will result in dishes with ideal texture, flavor, and appearance.
Nail your liquid to flaxseed ratio
Use too little water, and your flax egg will remain clumpy. Use too much, and you’ll limit its gelatinous potential. I abide by a 1:3 ratio, where one flax egg is equal to 1 tablespoon of ground flaxseed combined with 3 tablespoons of liquid. Many recipes simply call for a flax egg without giving directions on how to make one. While such instructions are typically available if you do a bit of digging, help your future self by writing this flaxseed-to-water ratio somewhere you can easily reference it in your kitchen.
Most people use water for their liquid, but you can also use plant-based milk for additional creaminess and flavor. This works best with a watery variety of milk; for instance, I usually use homemade almond milk. The difference is minimal and subtle, however, so feel free to do what is most convenient. Another important tip to keep in mind when making flax eggs is to use a room temperature, warm, or hot liquid. This cuts down on the amount of time you will have to wait for the mixture to congeal. In other words, 30 seconds of pouring water into the kettle could save you 10 minutes of watching a bowl.
Use ground flaxseed, not whole
Whole flaxseed is commonly sold side-by-side with ground flaxseed. It’s a great ingredient to have on hand for recipes like crackers, bread, and flaxseed chikki. However, your body can’t break whole flaxseeds down to reap their full spectrum of nutritional offerings, including magnesium and omega-3 fatty acids. More importantly, at least when it comes to making flax eggs, whole flaxseeds will simply not congeal like ground flaxseeds. Flax eggs get their glue-like texture thanks to a gum found in the seeds’ outer coating; in their raw form, though, the gum cannot play an active role in gelling, binding, and emulsifying the other ingredients in your recipe. Once ground and soaked, flaxseeds can work wonders; in fact, research shows that flaxseed gum, which makes up 8% of flaxseeds’ total dry mass, can be even more effective than ingredients like gelatin, gum arabic, and xanthan gum in emulsifying liquids.
If you have the time, I suggest milling your own flaxseed with a spice grinder or coffee grinder. A food processor or blender would also suffice, but you would need to use large enough quantities to adequately cover the blade. Grinding your own flaxseed will help limit the potential of incorporating a rancid flavor into your dish. This outcome is more common when using ground flaxseed from the grocery store, especially if the bag has been open for some time because the quality of ground flaxseed deteriorates quickly as it ages.
Choose the right type of flaxseed
Flaxseeds come in two varieties: golden flaxseed and brown flaxseed. Each one possesses a subtly nutty flavor, but it is more evident in brown flaxseed. If you are using flax eggs in recipes with strong flavors, such as gingersnaps or whole wheat pancakes, you could get away with using brown flaxseed. You might even want to enhance the nuttiness of a recipe with brown flaxseed; for instance, in banana bread or almond biscotti. Otherwise, when you are working with more delicate or specific flavor profiles, opt for golden flaxseed. This variety runs the additional benefit of helping to preserve the aesthetic integrity of light-colored baked goods like yellow cupcakes or lemon cookies, in which flecks of brown flaxseed would be more noticeable. In most cases, I prefer using Bob’s Red Mill golden flaxseed meal.
If nutrition tends to play a role in the ingredients you choose to cook or bake with, note that there are minor differences between golden and brown flaxseed. While the two varieties appear roughly identical when you examine their nutrition labels, look more closely, and you’ll find that golden flaxseed offers more of the omega-3 fatty acid alpha-linoleic acid (ALA) than its brown counterpart, as well as a greater ratio of polyunsaturated fatty acids to monounsaturated fatty acids. But brown flaxseed is not without merit: It’s a superstar when it comes to antioxidants. Take your pick based on your nutritional priorities, and feel free to mix it up from time to time.
Whisk well
When water and flaxseed make contact, a mucilage envelope is created. This envelope is responsible for the flax egg’s gloopy texture. Using a spoon makes it more difficult to expose each granule of flaxseed to water and could, therefore, result in a clumpy flax egg sitting underneath a layer of unabsorbed water. Such a mixture is neither here nor there, and it won’t impart the same binding quality to your recipe as a well-made flax egg. If it were not so important to whisk ground flaxseed with water until uniformly incorporated, recipes would not bother with having you prepare them in the first place; they would simply ask you to add water and flaxseed separately. Instead, you need to take the time to whisk flax eggs well — I recommend doing so for 20-30 seconds.
While you could get a serviceable flax egg by gently stirring flaxseed meal into water, you’ll get a more homogenous and functional result if you use a whisk. At the very least, please reach for a fork. I personally like to use the Digead stainless steel egg whisk; not only can it efficiently blend together ingredients with minimal muscle power, but it is also quite affordable. I have even made flax eggs by combining the ingredients in a 4-ounce jelly jar and shaking vigorously, which saves me from having to wash an extra utensil.
Use in the appropriate recipes
Flax eggs are meant to mimic the binding properties of real eggs, not their taste or even their standalone texture. If you want to make recipes like omelets, frittatas, quiches, or anything distinctly “eggy,” check out our ranking of six egg replacement brands. You also shouldn’t use flax eggs when replacing eggs in meringues, mayonnaise, or mousse; those recipes fall under the domain of aquafaba. In most cases, you should also stray away from using flax eggs in gluten-free recipes, especially those that call for alternatives like coconut flour and almond flour. Real eggs help prevent such recipes from becoming crumbly messes in lieu of gluten, whose proteins lend structure to baked goods. Oat flour is one of the only exceptions to this rule.
So, what constitutes a suitable recipe for using flax eggs? For starters, look for recipes based in wheat flour — I find that the nutty flavor of flaxseed blends in extremely well with the rich flavors of whole wheat flour. I use flax eggs regularly in pancakes, muffins, loaf breads, and cakes that fall on the heavier end of the spectrum, and I also maintain that flax eggs are one of the best binders for vegan burgers. I use almond butter to help bind and add flavor to many of my cookies, and flaxseed pairs wonderfully here as well. If you are just getting started with flax eggs, I recommend finding recipes that call for them before experimenting with replacements on your own.
Give your flax eggs time to rest
There are many reasons why you might be tempted to rush through a recipe; maybe you have a kid begging for your attention, or maybe the clock is ticking before the giant dinner party you decided to host. That’s why you should plan ahead and make your flax eggs immediately after preheating the oven. You won’t be tempted to stir them into your recipe before the flaxseed has had the chance to fully activate and produce a gel-like substance with the water.
Some recipes only ask you to wait for five to 10 minutes for your flax eggs to set, but realistically, I find that they need about 15 minutes to congeal. If you use warm or hot water, you might be able to shorten this timeline, but it is always better to be safe than sorry. After all, I have never experienced issues with flax eggs that have been sitting on the counter for an hour, but I have had less than satisfactory results with flax eggs that I have only given a minute or two to set. Always do a visual check before calling your flax eggs ready. Give the bowl a gentle stir, and if everything is uniform (meaning you don’t see any separation of flaxseed and water), then consider it a green light to proceed.
Use fresh flaxseed
Since most recipes, including those for flax eggs, call for such small amounts of flaxseed, one bag could theoretically last you a year or more. Even so, if you don’t take the proper precautions, old flaxseed could impart a rancid taste to your recipes. Why? The same omega-3 fatty acids that make flaxseed such a superfood degrade when exposed to environmental factors like light, air, and heat. Using fresh flaxseed will help reduce the potential for this sad eventuality. If you are really particular and will be using ground flaxseed regularly, mill your own seeds by using a tool like the SHARDOR adjustable electric spice grinder. Nevertheless, if you don’t have the time or bandwidth to mill whole flaxseeds, you can certainly use a store-bought bag (that’s what I do).
No matter what, be sure to check the best-by date on a bag of flaxseed before purchasing it, and make sure it doesn’t sit for too long in your pantry. Better yet, to extend the shelf life of flaxseed — store-bought or homemade, whole or ground — pour it into an airtight container and place it either in the refrigerator or in the freezer. Before using the flaxseed again, look for discoloration and smell/taste it for any off-putting signs of rancidity; this could manifest as sourness or a chemical-like smell. Note that because its protective hull has been pulverized, ground flaxseed will not last quite as long as whole flaxseed.
Make multiple flax eggs at once
Simply put, you don’t need to make one egg at a time. Save yourself the time and dishes by mixing together multiple flax eggs in the same bowl, doubling or tripling the 1:3 ratio as applicable. If you are adapting a recipe originally designed to include real eggs rather than flax eggs, proceed with caution when you exceed two or three eggs. As I explained earlier, flax eggs do not have the same leavening or structural properties as their aviary counterparts, so you’ll likely have to adjust other ingredients to account for those functional omissions. Additionally, flaxseed is well-known for its laxative effects, so too many flax eggs in a small recipe could have you running to the bathroom.
If you are baking multiple recipes over the course of one or two days, you could make a single batch of flax eggs in a measuring cup. Just be sure that you remember the total number of flax eggs it contains and pour off the correct fractional amounts in each recipe. I recommend doing this only if you are baking in bulk; otherwise, it’s easier just to make a fresh flax egg with each recipe. I have found that it is possible to store a bulk batch of flax eggs for a day or so, as long as they are in a well-sealed container.
