November has brought our first frost plus a wintry mix of cold rain and
snow! After morning milking I thought, "What better than fresh hot pancakes for breakfast." But we are eggless. I hadn't had a single egg in several days. Usually I have a new batch of pullets coming on, so that I've never had a truly eggless winter. But we only had roosters hatch this year, which means my youngest ladies are going into their second molt, which means eggs will be few and far between. Fortunately I'd been diligent to preserve some! I decided to try some of my
dehydrated raw eggs.
 |
| Home dehydrated powdered raw eggs |
I measured out a rounded tablespoon for each egg.
Then added warm water and stirred. I found that two tablespoons of water to one tablespoon dried egg gave me the best consistency.
 |
| 2 tbsp warm water to 1 rounded tbsp dried egg powder = 1 whole egg |
Not exactly like fresh raw eggs, but good enough. This made about a quarter cup, the equivalent of two good size eggs. I let it sit while I assembled my other ingredients and got to work. The result?
Light, fluffy, and out-of-this-world delicious!
I didn't mention the eggs to Dan until he was well into his second helping. He was impressed! And so was I. Recipe below.
Dehydrated Egg Pancakes
- 2 rounded tbsp dehydrated raw eggs
- 4 tbsp warm water for reconstituting the eggs
- 1 cup white whole wheat flour
- 1 cup unbleached white flour
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 cup whey
- 1 3/4 cup milk
- 1/4 cup melted butter
Mix dried egg and warm water, stir well and set aside while assembling other ingredients. Mix remaining dry ingredients in a separate bowl, then add whey, milk, butter, and eggs. Cook on a hot griddle until golden brown on both sides. Serve immediately! Makes about a dozen pancakes.
Recipe Notes:
- Of course you can substitute any type of flour, liquid, or fat you wish. I use what's on hand and we really like the flavor using the above combination.
- I don't use baking powder, so the soda and whey serve as my homemade substitute. The baking soda (a base) and whey (an acid) combine to create carbon dioxide bubbles, which cause baked goods to rise.
The question is, would I dry eggs again next summer for winter use? The answer is possibly.
In the plus column I have no complaints about the dried eggs themselves. Besides passing the pancake test with flying colors, they were much easier to use in a pinch than my usual frozen eggs, which require planning ahead to defrost. Dried take up less storage space too. Because of our warm climate and their potential to go rancid, I refrigerated them (freezing would work too), so there were no caking issues from the humidity.
On the other hand, the dehydrating process was slow due to the liquid content of the beaten eggs. Not that my electric dehydrator pulls a lot of watts, but it's in constant use during the summer so drying lots of eggs means something else would have to wait. (My
solar oven got too hot when I experimented drying blueberries so I wouldn't use it. It would cook the eggs!).
So for those who asked, there you have it. No denying I was thankful to have those eggs!
