Baking with your eggs

[trifecta]

Hi Everyone!

So, I kept 2 black broiler hens and 4 cornish that were destined for my freezer (and technically still are!).... well lo and behold, a few of them are now laying and I've gotten about a dozen eggs this week!

My question is, do you find if you use your fresh eggs for baking that you need to adjust the recipie at all? I've eaten a few of them for breakfast and they have a gorgeous, orange yolk.... and I think they're about medium size. I put them in a carton next to store bought eggs and they look about the same to me (not noticably smaller). I don't have an egg scale.

I'm just curious if anyone really worries about the egg size with baking.

 

[Judy]

For most recipes that call for one or two eggs, it's not likely to be significant, certainly not for cookies and such. Recipes usually assume large eggs, so if you usually bake with medium, you're skimping a bit anyway. I don't think I'd add an extra egg to make up the difference unless the recipe called for 6 eggs or more, if then.

 

[trifecta]

Thanks! I just made some gingerbread cookies and just used the number of eggs and it seemed to come out ok!

 

[donrae]

I just eyeball it. If I've got really small pullet eggs I might throw another one in, depending on what I'm baking. With quick breads, cakes, brownies I often "round up" so to speak on the eggs and add more. What's fun is when you have bantam eggs.......how many equals one regular egg?

 

[trifecta]

I actually found a chart online that went through egg conversion sizes after I started looking. I have no idea how big a bantam egg is (small?) but basically it sounds like unless I"m baking in a large quantity that I dont need to worry between swapping medium for large eggs. Someone pointed out that since no 2 eggs are exactly alike, there's always some degree of variability anyway (DUH!!!! why didn't I think of that sooner!!!)

 

[donrae]

Right, just for one batch of something don't fret it.

 

[Oregon Blues]

The difference is that you might notice that your baked goods are better when made with home raised eggs.

A little extra egg never hurts a baked good. I use my jumbo duck eggs 1 for one substitution for large chicken eggs in recipes and it has never caused any problems. I even use them for custards where you might assume that proportion was critical, but the custard came out just fine (and super rich)

 

[wyoDreamer]

If you are really worried about it, or trying to cook with bantam sized eggs, just use a liquid measuring cup.
A large egg is a 1/4 cup.

When you use egg substitute (yuck), you use 1/4 cup for each egg.
When making a 2 egg omlet the Weight Watchers way - you use one egg and 1/4 cup of egg whites (lower fat content, but still real egg taste).