Thursday, September 9, 2010

An Experiment – Can Hemp Seeds be used to Make Egg Replacer?

I came across some hemp seeds while I was in the health food store recently, and I immediately thought – hmmm… I wonder what I can make with these. (Am I the only one who browses in the health food store like most people browse at the mall?) The hemp seeds were sitting right next to the flax seeds I usually buy, and my brain started cooking up experiments I could try.

The first experiment I decided to try was to attempt to make a hemp seed egg replacement, similar to flax seed eggs.

My method was exactly the same as I what I use to make an egg replacement with flax seeds. First I ground the seeds into a fine powder using my seed grinder. Then I combined one tablespoon of hemp seed powder with three tablespoons water. I whisked it together and let it sit. I was hoping for that magical gloppy effect that happens when I do this with flax seeds.

It didn’t happen.

So I added more hemp seed powder, and still no gloppiness. Hmmm… but something interesting did happen.

I did succeed in making hemp milk! And it makes sense. In fact, that is exactly how hemp milk (and other milks made from nuts) is made. I added more water to the mixture, and let it sit longer. The longer I let it sit, the stronger the milk mixture became. Then I strained it with a fine strainer and put in the fridge – to be used in a baking recipe soon!

I had the equivalent of unsweetened hemp milk.

My conclusion is that hemp seeds cannot be used to make an egg replacer, but combining hemp seed powder with water does make hemp milk. That said, I don’t expect to be making my own hemp milk very often, as it’s very easy to purchase it ready-made, but I did want to share the results – just in case I’m not the only crazy person out there who was wondering if this would work!

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thank you for this post and your whole blog...I bookmarked it. ^_^

Anonymous said...

Thank you, you have inspired me with your creativity to try it myself and the flaxseed for egg replacer too:)

aubrey said...

You're not the only crazy person... I was wondering too if I could use hemp seeds as an egg replacer in the same fashion as flax or chia seeds. Thanks for giving us a recipe for hemp milk, cuz we have a ton of hemp seeds to use up! :)

Unknown said...

so funny. i was thinking i was crazy for wondering this too! thanks for posting, i now hope to be making hemp milk in the near future!

Unknown said...

Thanks for saving me the time. You are appreciated.

Unknown said...

Im so glad i found your post i love hemp and wanted to use it as a egg replacer. Now i know cheers

Unknown said...

Thanks for saving me the time trying too!!! was going to try this, I'm out of chia and flax so may have to result to starch and oats for my recipe.

Cynthia said...

Thank you for giving it a try and sharing the results. I was wondering about this and found this post via a Google search. Thanks for saving the mess of trying it myself.

Unknown said...

It does work - you just have to use very hot/ boiling water :)
And ratio of 2:1 rather than 3:1

Missy said...

I was wondering the exact same thing. I'm making a lentil loaf and it calls for a flax egg. I thought I had chia so I did all the research ... only to discover it was hemp seeds in the drawer. LOL
OH well, I'm not vegan so I'll just toss in an egg. Just glad to have found others of my "tribe" wondering the same things.