75+ Dessert recipes to use up extra eggs (2024)

FAQs

What can I make that uses lots of eggs? ›

Even though refrigerated eggs stay fresh for several weeks beyond their sell-by or expiration date, they don't last forever. So use the surplus eggs for something practical, like whipping up a drool-worthy frittata for your next breakfast or baking a cake for your upcoming neighborhood potluck. Never fear!

Eggs also contain a variety of proteins that create the structure of a cake, and when beaten, they can act as a leavening agent by adding air to the cake batter. However, if you add too many eggs to your cake batter, then your end result could be spongy, rubbery, or dense.

According to the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), you can freeze eggs for up to one year. When you're ready to use frozen eggs, thaw them overnight in the refrigerator or under running cold water. Use egg yolks or whole eggs as soon as they're thawed.

What to do with a bunch of eggs about to expire? Freeze them, use them in recipes, hard boil them for quick snacks or lunches, pickle them. Just use them up before they go bad.

Still, even after that date passes, they're still “perfectly safe to use,” the Department of Agriculture says. It's true that eggs are prone to contamination with salmonella, a type of bacteria responsible for thousands of cases of food poisoning a year. But salmonella doesn't develop over time.

If your eggs are expiring soon, a delicious way to make use of them is to hard-boil them and stuff them in a jar with brine to make pickled eggs. Also, be sure to keep your eggs fresher longer by storing them in the fridge.

Eggs play an important role in everything from cakes and cookies to meringues and pastry cream — they create structure and stability within a batter, they help thicken and emulsify sauces and custards, they add moisture to cakes and other baked goods, and can even act as glue or glaze.

What does adding an extra egg to cheesecake do? ›

Eggs: Three whole eggs hold the cheesecake together. I also add an extra yolk, which enhances the cake's velvety texture. (Whites tend to lighten the cake, which is actually fine — if you don't feel like separating that fourth egg and don't mind some extra airiness in the texture, just add in the whole egg.)

Add an Extra Egg

Most cake mixes call for two to three eggs. Just one more egg will add extra moisture, fat, and a little protein, which means the cake will be softer and less likely to overbake and dry out in the oven.

Eggs create structure and stability in a batter, they add moisture and impact the texture of the final baked good. Their ability to assist with bringing ingredients together makes for a smooth, velvety brownie batter. The role of the egg white, egg yolk and whole egg can overlap and vary in different recipes.

Thanks to its unique properties, an egg can help bind ingredients, give volume to batter, emulsify liquids, thicken a sauce, provide flavor, clarify a liquid and even add a nice color or glaze to certain dishes.

If you throw your eggs out once the date on the carton has passed, you may be wasting perfectly good eggs. With proper storage, eggs can last for at least 3–5 weeks in the fridge and about 1 year in the freezer. The longer an egg is stored, the more its quality declines, making it less springy and more runny.