Eggs in Your Food Storage

Long Term Storage

For your long-term storage, you can store powdered eggs. These are a little pricey so many people shy away from them, but they work well in all of your baking. You need to remember that one can holds the equivalent of 80+ eggs so it is like buying 7 dozen at once. They have a shelf-life of at least 10 years, unopened.

To substitute in any recipe calling for eggs: 1 egg = 2 Tbsp dried egg powder + ¼ cup water. If you are mixing a recipe with dry ingredients, you can just add the egg powder with the dry ingredients and add the water with the wet ingredients without having to actually mix the egg up.

Shorter Term Storage

For shorter-term storage, you have two options. The FDA has determined that eggs are good for 10 weeks in the refrigerator. This means you can store almost all the eggs you need for a 3-month supply in your fridge. So you can change your buying habits and just make sure you have plenty of eggs at all times. The other option is to freeze eggs. Frozen eggs work just like fresh eggs once they are thawed out. You can even fry them up for breakfast!

To freeze eggs, crack them out of their shell and store in an airtight container. I use ½ cup-size freezer containers. One egg fits in each container very easily. They stack well in my freezer and it is easy to determine how many eggs I have. I can grab one or more depending on my recipe. I let them sit in a sink of hot water to thaw and then use just like a fresh egg.

Don't let the idea of storing eggs keep you from putting certain recipes into your meal plan. If French toast is something you eat on a regular basis, you can easily store what you need to make it again and again.

Many things can be substituted for eggs in most recipes. Remember that an egg is equal to about ¼ cup of liquid in a recipe. It is high in protein which helps with leavening and also contains a certain amount of fat that will help give you the texture you are used to in baking. Because some of the substitutes are missing fat, the texture may not quite be the same. You'll just have to experiment and determine which ones work best for what you are baking.

Egg Substitutions

Here are some suggestions of things I have tried and had success with. Each substitution is equal to 1 egg. It is difficult to have success when you try to substitute for more than 2 eggs at a time.

¼ cup mashed bean puree

1 tsp baking soda + 1 Tbsp vinegar  (You may need to add 2-3 more Tbsp water to make up for the liquid that is missing from the egg. If your recipe already calls for baking soda, you do not need to add any more. Just add the vinegar.)

¼ cup mashed fruit such as bananas, pumpkin, applesauce, sweet potato, etc.

1 Tbsp ground flax seed + 3 Tbsp water

These substitutions have all worked well in cakes or soft, cake-like cookies. It is much more difficult to achieve a chewy, chocolate-chip cookie type texture when you are substituting for the eggs.

Coconut Bread
Sweet and delicious!
¼ cup butter or margarine	1 cup reconstituted powdered milk
1 cup sugar	1 tsp vanilla
2 cups all-purpose flour	1 Tbsp white vinegar
¼ tsp salt	¾ cup flaked coconut
1 tsp baking powder	Cinnamon and sugar
¼ tsp baking soda
Cream butter and sugar. Add remaining ingredients except the coconut and cinnamon and sugar. Mix until combined. Fold in the coconut. Pour into a greased loaf pan. Sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar. Bake at 350° F for 50–55 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 10–15 minutes and then remove from pan to a wire rack to cool.

Banana Cookies
My daughter usually requests traditional chocolate chip cookies. The day I developed this recipe and had them ready for an after school snack, she declared them "the best cookie I had ever made!"
½ cup butter	1 tsp baking powder
½ cup sugar	1 tsp baking soda
½ cup brown sugar, packed	½ tsp salt
1 ¼ cups mashed banana	½ tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla	1 cup chocolate chips
2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
Cream together the butter and sugars. Add bananas and vanilla. Add remaining ingredients. You can use half wheat flour and half white flour. Mix or stir together. Drop by spoonfuls onto greased baking sheet. Bake at 350° F 8–10 minutes. Allow cookies to cool for a couple of minutes on a baking sheet before removing to a wire rack. Makes about 3 dozen cookies. You can freeze the cookies once they are baked.

Crazy Cake
This is the recipe that inspired me to experiment with egg-free recipes. My mom has had this recipe for years and it is the best "from scratch" chocolate cake! You can easily make your own cake mix with this recipe and just store it in a ziplock bag. Use a sharpie pen to write the wet ingredients on the bag for quick mixing another time. We love this cake served with a generous spoonful of chocolate pudding topped with a dollop of whipped topping in place of frosting.
3 cups all-purpose flour	2 tsp vanilla
1 ½ cups sugar	2 Tbsp white vinegar
1 tsp salt	⅔ cup oil
2 tsp baking soda	2 cups cold water
3–4 Tbsp cocoa
Mix all ingredients together. Bake in a 9x13-inch pan at 350° F for 30–35 minutes.

Source: All Things Provident by Tamara Price

Dehydrating Peaches or Pears

I'm behind in getting these pictures posted. Hopefully, you can still find some pears. The best peaches are done for the year in our area, but you may be able to still find some nectarines and you can dry them the same way.

Wash the fruit. Slice and remove the core. Slice into thin pieces, trying to keep them as uniform in thickness as possible.

Spread out on your dehydrator tray.

Here is a close-up that allows you to see about how thick to cut them.

Dry for 4-6 hours until leathery to the touch.

Slice peaches in a similar fashion. My favorite peach variety to dehydrate is the O'Henry. They are so sweet!

Here they are all dried.

Remove the dry slices from the tray and store in a ziplock bag for a year or more. It is hard to keep dried fruit that long at our house. The kids love it! It is a quick and convenient way to send fruit in their lunches. It also works great in the diaper bag for younger kids. When my sweet tooth acts up and I go to the pantry searching for a treat, I often grab some dried fruit. It gives me the sweetness I am craving, but none of the empty carbs.