Basic Pastry Making-Egg

Eggs are magic. They can be used in so many ways in the bakeshop. Dense creamy egg custard? Check. Richer than rich creme brulee? Check. Light and airy meringue? Check. Chewy macaroons? Check.

Eggs have it all. They can bring richness, flavor, moistness, dryness, airiness, denseness--all depending on which part of the egg you use and how you treat them.

The two parts of the egg we use in the pastry kitchen are the yolks and the whites. Shells have their uses, but that's another lens. One day.

In a nutshell (egg shell):

Egg whites are made of protein and water.

Egg yolks are made of protein and fat.

Water, when mixed with flour=gluten. Gluten=tough stretchiness. Sometimes this is a good thing, as with bread. Sometimes this is a bad thing. Chewy cake, anyone?

Water from egg whites helps to activate gluten and provide some structure for baked goods. Using only yolks in a cake will give you a very tender, rich end product. Using only whites with no additional fat will render a drier, chewier product.

Using whole eggs in a cake gives you a nice middle-of-the-road-kind-of-rich-a-wee-bit-chewy texture.

Mixing whole eggs or yolks with dairy gives you a basic custard. Add some salt and pepper, and make scrambled eggs. Add some sugar and vanilla, and make a stirred custard on the stove top (creme Anglaise). Churn that in an ice cream maker and you get French Vanilla ice cream.

Use some starch in the mixture, and voila: pudding (or creme patisserie, if you want to be all French about it).

Take your custard, pour it in shallow cups, bake at 275 degrees F in a big pan of hot water, and you've got baked custard. Chill them, sprinkle some sugar on them and torch it: creme brulee. Caramelize some sugar, put that in your pans, and then pour in the custard and bake: flan, or creme caramel. Isn't this fun?!

Whip egg whites with some sugar until they form peaks, and you've got meringue. Add some lime zest and lime juice to it, and top a key lime pie!

Take those same sweetened egg whites, fold in some flour and baking powder, and there's your angel food cake again.

There's a lot of science behind what goes on when eggs get heated--protein coagulation and whatnot. Suffice to say, the more slowly you heat eggs, the creamier they will be. If you heat them too quickly, the proteins seize up and squeeze out all the water.

Source:Notes & pictures from Google