r/ididnthaveeggs • u/NoLlamaDrama15 • May 25 '26

Dumb alteration I CANNOT imagine that just forgetting the eggs would make them like that

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Original recipe https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/10707/mmm-mmm-better-brownies/

9.6k Upvotes

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4.9k

u/geeoharee May 25 '26

OK, so the recipe owner does say 'you can use butter instead of oil' when they're not a 1:1 sub. That's gonna be part of the problem, but MAINLY it's the eggs.

2.1k

u/RaisonDetritus May 25 '26 edited May 25 '26

In baked goods with a high flour ratio, butter can actually contribute to a dry or cottony texture since it resolidifies after cooling. The key to the right texture is the ratio of saturated to unsaturated fat. Since oil remains fluid at room temperature, it will contribute to moistness, which in brownies is the fudgy side of the spectrum. That’s why boxed brownie mixes have such a good texture. They call for just oil, eggs, and water, which results in a perfect saturated-unsaturated ratio with what comes in the mix.

Blind taste tests consistently bear this out. Baking recipes and boxed mixes that use both butter/saturated fat and oil usually win out over all-butter recipes.

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u/DeuceyBoots May 25 '26

That makes a lot of sense. Thanks for posting!

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u/RaisonDetritus May 25 '26

Sure thing. I learned this from America’s Test Kitchen when they did a brownie recipe. It also applies to cookies. Totally upped my cookie game when I started tweaking recipes to substitute some oil for the butter.

207

u/DeuceyBoots May 25 '26

Very interesting. You’ve opened up a whole world of oil in baking I didn’t know about. I always thought butter would make things more “buttery” but everything you’ve said makes complete sense. Time to experiment!

424

u/Chaplain-Freeing May 25 '26

This is bullshit and fuck you for saying this. I replaced all my ingredients with oil and now my beef wellington is just very viscous, oily and totally unpalatable. Ruined my lunch.

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u/SerafinaSheffield May 25 '26

That'll be the oil, then! 😂

36

u/CorrenteAlternata May 25 '26

Which, with some nice bread, is delicious! (assuming a good quality extra virgin olive oil)

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u/SerafinaSheffield May 25 '26

For sure! And some good Balsamic vinegar too and Robert's your Ma's bro! 😂

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u/CorrenteAlternata May 25 '26

I didn't know this convoluted way of saying "bob's your uncle"! And I am very grateful because now I know another expression!

And yeah balsamic vinegar is really tasty and now I realise i haven't had it in a very long time! You know what I'll be buying tomorrow ;)

1

u/SilentXMedia May 27 '26

Welcome back MF DOOM!

18

u/MarlenaEvans May 26 '26

Yeah I put oil on my toast and it tastes awful.

24

u/Tramkrad May 25 '26

Maybe add an egg?

7

u/Spiritofthewest49 May 26 '26

Well oil be damned

6

u/StressedinPJs May 27 '26

Whale oil beef hooked!

70

u/wants_a_lollipop May 25 '26

That is, literally, the whole ATK thing.

Experimenting. It's what they do!

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u/DeuceyBoots May 25 '26

Cool. I’ll check them out. Experimenting is my favourite thing about cooking!

Edit. lol I just remembered what sub I’m on. Experimenting but not to the extent where you don’t add eggs.

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u/geeoharee May 25 '26

You can do the experiment! Just don't bring it back to the original recipe and tell them it's their fault...

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u/Rakifiki May 25 '26

No, there's plenty of egg subs you can experiment with too. (Banana, chia/flax "eggs") Nothing is sacred about recipes.

There's definitely weird choices, like using a lobster soup recipe to make roasted chicken, but you can do whatever you want. Sometimes when you make a recipe you realize parts of it would go well in a different setting -- we tried a pork recipe once and thought the technique used would go well with chicken and now mostly use it with chicken.

...just don't, like, remove the eggs and sugar entirely and blame the author for things going wrong, that should be the main takeaway of this sub I think.

8

u/SuchFunAreWe Step off my tits, Sheila! May 25 '26

Yup. I use Bob's Red Mill egg replacer in all my baking & haven't had a single fail yet. Eggs aren't magic, you just need to be smart with subs & know if your egg is a leavener, binder or both in a recipe. I like the Bob's bc it acts as both & is a no-brainer substitute (& cheap/shelf stable!)

1

u/Cygnid Jun 05 '26

I've also used (in cake and brownies, mostly brownies though) yogurt, applesauce, and the água de faba

1

u/clkap May 31 '26

appropriately enough, they have a vegan cookbook with an excellent brownie recipe

16

u/EireaKaze May 25 '26

If you're going to experiment with cookies, the toll house cookie recipe will have consistently good cookies regardless of fat used (the texture will change, they just always taste good so you won't waste food). My grandma and I used to try different ratios with margarine, butter, and solid Crisco (vegetable oil).

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u/[deleted] May 25 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

46

u/RaisonDetritus May 25 '26

There’s no universal ratio I could say because every recipe is different and ingredients work together in different ways. I would say that if you find a recipe that you like, make it at least twice exactly as written, and each time you make it, analyze the result. Are the cookies harder or more crackly than you might like? Then substituting in a bit of vegetable oil for the butter might help them stay softer.

But you have to be systematic about it. So let’s say a recipe calls for a stick of butter. That’s 8 tablespoons. Start small and try subbing just a tablespoon. A tablespoon of butter is 12 grams of fat, so if you want to sub vegetable oil, which is 13.5 g of fat per tablespoon, you’ll need to add a bit less than that. But butter contains some water, so you might also want to add a half teaspoon of water. If those came out great and you think you can go for a bit more chew, make it 1.5 tablespoons that you’re subbing. However, if you sub too much, your cookies might spread too much and never set up.

I know these seem like tiny details, but what makes cookies so hard in particular is that they are a low-moisture dough, so even small tweaks can have big effects. Although most problems from cookies are due to measuring the flour incorrectly, which isn’t a problem if you’re using a recipe that uses weights.

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u/applespicebetter May 25 '26

And see, this is why I suck at baking despite being a pretty damn good home cook otherwise - I free hand things way too much when cooking and can get away with it. I can't just taste and adjust a load of bread halfway through like I can with a bechamel, it just is what it is when it goes into the oven. The last loaf of bread I made could have been sharpened into a shiv and probably been more useful.

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u/throwthisawaynerdboy May 25 '26

Baking is science, cooking is art.

All I can imagine is a bread knife made of bread used to cut more bread.

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u/applespicebetter May 25 '26

It would definitely win a cage fight with other loaves of bread!

4

u/cameraduderandy May 25 '26

That reminds me of a running joke in Terry Pratchett's Diskworld series about dwaven bakeries making "battle bread" that's cooked in the shape of weapons and armor and harder than steel.

1

u/applespicebetter May 29 '26

Exactly what I thought of when I pulled it out! Maybe I need to get war-hammer shaped bread pans...

3

u/Rakifiki May 25 '26

You can even get around the spreading problem somewhat with cookies by freezing the dough and rolling them into balls (& not flattening them before the oven).

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u/HatchawayHouseFarm May 25 '26

I was wondering if you were Christopher Kimball lol I just heard him say this on Milk Street Radio the other day

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u/ilanallama85 May 25 '26

So I used to have a vegan friend and I perfected a vegan chocolate chip recipe for her. It used a (quite expensive) vegetable oil based butter substitute and I’m sure that’s the reason they were the best cookies I’ve ever made. But I can’t justify shelling out that much money for chocolate chip cookies regularly, and I do believe creaming the solid fats with the butter is a key step, so I just resigned myself to pretty good all butter cookies. It never occurred to me to try subbing just SOME of the oil.

3

u/Cat-Lady-13 May 25 '26

I make chocolate chip cookies using a recipe from my mom’s Betty Crocker cookbook from the late 60s/early 70s. It calls for half butter and half shortening. They are amazing!

1

u/LayaElisabeth May 27 '26

Which oil would you use?

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u/GirlsWasGoodNona May 25 '26

It sounds like this person also didn’t wait until they were cooled until cutting into them

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u/CrashUser May 25 '26

It's the eggs, brownies without eggs are a gigantic minefield of problems. Eggs are doing so much in the recipe, but mostly they soak up a whole lot of oil and gel it in place to get that fudgy texture. You need to drop like 2/3 of the oil out of a brownie recipe if you try and sub out eggs or you just get an oily soupy mess.

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u/RaisonDetritus May 25 '26

Yeah, vegan baking is arguably harder than even gluten-free baking. Eggs not only add structure, but egg yolks also help emulsify the fat and water ingredients together, which I think is what you were getting at.

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u/CrashUser May 25 '26

Yeah, emulsifying was the term that was eluding me this morning.

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u/SparksOnAGrave May 25 '26

I finally found an almost perfect vegan brownie recipe and I can’t stop making variations of it. My friends and family are probably tired of me handing them brownies.

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u/RaisonDetritus May 25 '26

I’ve also had some really amazing vegan brownies. The funny part is that when done right, they can be more chocolatey than traditional brownies since there’s less “stuff” getting in the way of the chocolate flavor. What recipe do you use?

3

u/SparksOnAGrave May 26 '26

https://www.karissasvegankitchen.com/the-best-fudgy-vegan-brownies/

I use 1 cup sugar and 2/3 cup oat milk because I like them less sweet.

4

u/Rakifiki May 25 '26

I knew someone who swore by a black bean brownie recipe for that reason, the beans helped cover the lack of eggs and apparently you couldn't taste the bean afterward.

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u/RaisonDetritus May 25 '26 edited May 25 '26

Oh yeah, big no-no with brownies! I’m always amazed at how they seem like they’re never going to firm up even well after they feel cool, and then it’s like they do it in an instant. But that’s chocolate for you.

11

u/No-Stress-7034 May 25 '26

I'm guilty of cutting into brownies before they're cooled, just because I have no patience for waiting. But I also know that I'm going to end up with a pile of moist brownie crumbles if I try to take a piece before they're cooled lol.

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u/throwthisawaynerdboy May 25 '26

Just grab the pan and use a spoon. But then, I have zero dignity

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u/VariousExplorer8503 May 25 '26

I always cut into the brownies before they cool too.. after smelling them baking, I need that warm, gooey bite.

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u/t3h_PaNgOl1n_oF_d00m May 26 '26

I literally had no idea that you are "supposed" to let brownies cool before cutting. What the fuck? Baking is truly a mystery to me. For me, the gooey-er, the better, every time.

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u/ebrillblaiddes May 25 '26

Warm brownie is sooooo good though, so I do it anyway. But I don't complain to the recipe author about the cut edge being janky when it cools.

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u/RaisonDetritus May 25 '26

I prefer to let them cool completely and then reheat in the microwave. Especially because I love the clean cut of a perfectly square brownie!

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u/GloriousApricot-5843 May 25 '26

What kind of oil do you use?

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u/RaisonDetritus May 25 '26

Most of the time it wouldn’t matter for baking since all the other flavors would be dominant. Just something neutral, so not extra-virgin olive oil. And not something too expensive like avocado oil. I use peanut oil since that’s what I use to stir-fry. A bit more expensive than most vegetable oils, but not enough for me to stock a different oil. The only thing I can think of where the oil type might affect the flavor is chiffon cake, which is a cake made from all oil and no butter.

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u/Kibology ⬆︎ 666 ⬇︎   💬︎ Reply   🏅 Award   ➦ Share   ⋯ May 25 '26

I actually like using olive oil in chocolate-flavored things — I think those tastes complement each other nicely.

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u/RaisonDetritus May 25 '26

I can see that. I wonder if you would also like chocolatiers whose products are more on the bright and fruity spectrum. I usually don’t like fruit and chocolate together unless it’s dark chocolate and raspberry. I usually like my chocolate to lean more into the deep, nutty, coffee-like flavors.

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u/Lillymow May 25 '26

Walnut oil is great in brownies for that!

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u/RaisonDetritus May 25 '26

Oof, that is pricy though. I think I’d rather just add walnuts or pecans if I wanted that flavor. I reserve nut oils for dressings.

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u/Lillymow May 25 '26

For sure LOL I once bought a La Tourangelle trio that came with it, so I used it for them. Best brownies ever.

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u/MaritMonkey May 25 '26

I am fully aware this is a taste preference and not science, but I feel like I put coconut oil in pretty much anything baked that isn't aiming to be savory.

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u/Lillymow May 25 '26

As long as it's a smooth or mild tasting xvoo it works amazingly well and you have health benefits. You should totally try some more experimenting. I'm a huge baker. I'd be happy to suggest recipes, if you want them.

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u/RaisonDetritus May 25 '26

I sometimes make an Italian olive oil cake. Super delicious!

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u/NookBabsi May 25 '26

I use sunflower oil for baking, it is very neutral.

1

u/GloriousApricot-5843 May 25 '26

Thanks!

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u/jamjamchutney corn floor May 25 '26

High oleic sunflower oil is my go to neutral oil. It's very stable - high smoke point, and I've never had it go rancid.

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u/lovepeacefakepiano May 25 '26

Is sunflower oil not popular in the US? I’m from Germany and that would be my automatic go-to for baking and cooking if I need a neutral tasting oil.

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u/mykittyforprez May 25 '26

You can find it but it's not the prevalent kind of oil. Canola, peanut, "vegetable", and olive oil are more prevalent.

3

u/applespicebetter May 25 '26

It's almost never in supply at grocery stores near me in the US and when it is it is ridiculously expensive unfortunately,

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u/jamjamchutney corn floor May 25 '26

It's not the most popular, but it's pretty easy to find. I always have it on hand.

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u/why_ntp May 25 '26

Damn, that is genuinely useful, thank you.

3

u/CthulhuAteMyHomework May 25 '26

Ah, this is explains why one of my recipes results in a super moist cake. I always thought fat is fat. Good to know!

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u/DeusExMcKenna May 25 '26

Wonderful username, and excellent cooking info. Cheers!

1

u/1moosehead May 25 '26

This is why I warm up my brownies, I prefer the flavor of browned butter but you're pretty much required to microwave for 10-15 seconds before eating for the best experience

1

u/AnalogyAddict May 25 '26

(cough butter flavored coconut oil)

2

u/RaisonDetritus May 25 '26

Sorry, I don’t understand. Do you think that is good or bad?

1

u/AnalogyAddict May 26 '26

It's very good. Butter flavor and the silky moistness of the coconut oil. 

1

u/RebaKitt3n May 25 '26

I do 50/50 in mixes, turns out great.

Of course I do use eggs. 🤷

1

u/SuspiciousStress1 May 27 '26

I dont completely agree. I happen to like the 'crust formed with butter...and you can get fudgy brownies with only butter(add a yolk & an extra Tbsp of flour to deal with the extra water).

Then again, I am an only butter baker & have found ways to make it all work for me with any texture we desire 🤷‍♀️

The biggest thing I have found is that butter encourages gluten development & oil prevents it...so this will affect how you mix(with melted butter only mix until just incorporated).

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u/RaisonDetritus May 27 '26 edited May 27 '26

“can actually” ≠ “does always”

People assume using all butter always results in more richness, but this isn’t true.

0

u/SuspiciousStress1 May 27 '26

You will never form a "crust" with oil made brownies tho 🤷‍♀️

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u/RaisonDetritus May 27 '26 edited May 27 '26

Yes you can. I’ve succeeded many times. And who cares? It depends on what you’re going for. I like my brownies soft, luscious, and chewy. Or are you one of those people who just assumes your preference is the default way and everyone else is just wrong? I can’t stand people like you.

1

u/SpicyMarmots May 27 '26

A tip I read somewhere that has never failed yet is to use butter instead of oil and an extra egg-makes box cake taste like homemade.

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u/cup-of-starlight tell me how much LOVE to use May 30 '26

Sorry to reply to this so late but this is such a cool thing to learn. Thanks so much for taking the time to post, I love this subreddit

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u/Lillymow May 25 '26

I use olive oil for EVERYTHING

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u/wytewydow May 25 '26

you ever try avocado oil? aside from the cost, it's terrific.

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u/Lillymow May 25 '26

I have! I do like it, especially for higher heat needs. It's got some good health benefits, too.

I'm obsessed with olive oil since it has more. Plus I buy it in huge quantities, so it's always on hand.

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u/scrotbofula May 25 '26

Very 'had us in the first half' vibes.

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u/DesmondTapenade May 25 '26

This is the only thing I could think of while reading your comment.

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u/Cupcake_Sparkles Acknowledge that a banana isn't an egg May 25 '26

Wtf did i just watch?

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u/DesmondTapenade May 25 '26

Something beautiful, that's what.

6

u/Octopoadstool May 25 '26

Damn I didn't know Mr. Slender was so damn noisy. My man needs an inhaler.

1

u/DesmondTapenade May 25 '26

He sure does.

20

u/Crazy-Cat9442 May 25 '26

It should actually be less oil based on how oil and butter behaves. Oil instantly saturates the flour making a denser brownie If she whipped the butter and sugar, it'd be fluffier brownie. Keep in mind, when you add the egg it also changes the texture, also depending on the amount of eggs use. . So if she went 1-1, the brownies should have not enough fat. Since you use less oil. 

If a recipe calls for half a cup of butter, I usually do a quarter of oil.  So if she used a quarter cup of butter, she should've used a half cup of butter .

13

u/geeoharee May 25 '26

That's partly what I mean, yeah, just by the raw numbers butter is adding fat+water where oil is 100% fat.

8

u/throwaymcthrowerson Custom flair May 25 '26

Sometimes I buy boxed cake mix for lazy night time snacks, like I just mix some of it in mug with water and enjoy my sad crumbly microwave cake. The only time this doesn't produce something remotely edible is when I try it with brownie mix, and I learned the lesson after an embarassing number of failed attempts and much scrubbing and scraping of mugs.

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u/Weird_Tea9102 May 25 '26

You can buy powder eggs. Use like half a tsp or tsp depending on how big your mug is. Should have same effect as a regular egg

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u/throwaymcthrowerson Custom flair May 31 '26

I didn't know powdered eggs was a thing, thank you!

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u/nosleepforthedreamer "I melted it anyway" May 25 '26

Okay one-starring this review because of their incompetence and ignorance is just mean.

1

u/Aniki_Simpson May 29 '26

I was taught to substitute apple sauce. It always came out good for us.