This Egg Hack Will Come in Handy the Next Time You Bake
It's happened to me too many times to count; I'm ready to bake some delicious treat in the oven, and when I finally pull out all of the ingredients to get going, I realize that the recipe calls for an egg at room temperature. In this scenario, I typically curse the recipe as I try to decide what would be worse—waiting to bake the delicious creation, or baking it with a cold egg and hoping for the best. But now, thanks to some clever bakers on the Internet, I have a third option that I never even thought to consider.
To easily get an egg at room temperature, all it takes is a bowl and some warm water! Fill up a bowl with warm water, but not too hot, and set the eggs you need to come to room temperature in the bowl. Make sure they are fully submerged. After a few minutes, your eggs will reach room temperature.
Read on, and for more baking ideas try one of these 30 Healthy Baked Goods to Make at Home.
Why do eggs need to be at room temperature?
Even though the process of bringing eggs to room temperature may seem easy, it probably feels daunting. However, using cold eggs versus room temperature eggs does make a significant difference in the baking process, so it's worth the few extra minutes of time.
According to the Food Network, using room temperature eggs (as well as butter) helps with creaming ingredients together smoothly. Using cold eggs can actually make room temperature butter stiffen, causing the batter to look "curdled" with small flecks of stiff butter throughout the mixture. Eggs that aren't at room temperature not only make a lumpy batter, but also create an inconsistent baked good, and could even result in longer bake times. Using room-temperature eggs helps with creating that smooth texture and rise while baking.
Plus, colder eggs make it harder to break up the yolk and the egg white versus a room-temperature egg. So if you're looking to separate an egg, or if you're whisking an egg for an egg wash, room temperature eggs make it easier to separate and create a consistent whisked egg versus having pockets of egg whites throughout.
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What types of baked goods call for room-temperature eggs?
Now that you know why you should let your egg come to room temperature, you might be wondering what types of baked goods work best with it. Essentially, any baked good that calls for a batter that needs to rise in the oven should use a room temperature egg. Cakes and cookies are some classics, as well as other types of bread, muffins, and sweet bars.
