Out with the Eggs!

Last night, to the delight of my husband, I decided to make another batch of Cook's Illustrated's Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie.  However, this time I made a few adjustments to their recipe.  Our daughter has an egg allergy, so I wanted to make a version that she could eat.

I have read online about different egg substitutes that you can use when baking, and it looked like the best option for cookies was to substitute applesauce for the egg.  I added 3/8 cup of applesauce (I've learned that you should substitute 1/4 cup per egg.) in place of the one egg plus one egg yolk that the original recipe calls for.

I made two other adjustments to the recipe as well.  The original recipe yeilds 16 fairly large cookies - a bit too large for my young daughter to manage.  Instead of scooping out 3 Tablespoons of batter per cookie, I made these cookies with just 1.5 Tablespoon of batter per cookie. 

Since the result was going to be a smaller cookie, I also opted for mini chocolate chips instead of the larger chips that I used when making the original batch.

The cookies came out really well with these changes.  There are two things that I think I will change the next time I make this 'egg-free' version of the recipe.  The applesauce added extra sweetness to the cookies, so I think that I could reduce the amount of sugar that is added to the dough.  I'm also going to try reducing the number of chocolate chips in the dough by a bit.

In the end, I would say that this variation on the original recipe was a hit.  My daughter liked the cookie a lot, my husband thought they tasted great, and had I not known that there were no eggs in the batter, I don't think I ever would have suspected it.  The cookies still had the great crisp edges, chewy centers, and butterscotch undertones.

I brought the cookies into work today, and they received rave reviews.  No one seems to have noticed that they are egg-free.

For the very last tray that went into the oven, I mixed chopped walnuts into the dough.

I had a hard time deciding which I liked better; with or without the walnuts.  Fortunately for me, I don't have to decide...I can have one of each!  (Oh, the joys of being an adult.)

Thanks to Cook's Illustrated for giving me a good starting-off point for a recipe that will be the new Chocolate Chip Cookie standard in our house!