Do Cold Eggs Really Make a Difference in Baking?
If you’re an avid baker, you’ve probably heard that room temperature eggs make for better baked goods — but how much better? The curious folks at America’s Test Kitchen did some experimenting to find out if using cold eggs makes a noticeable difference in homemade cakes, or if pulling them straight out of the fridge is just fine.
After doing a blind tasting with two yellow cakes, one made with cold eggs, the other with room-temperature eggs, the panel concluded that the difference between the two cakes was negligible.
The cake made with room-temperature eggs had a slightly finer, more even crumb, but the cold-egg cake was entirely acceptable. Overall, tasters strained to detect differences between the two cakes, so it’s fine to use cold eggs in most basic cake recipes.
→ Read more: Do Cold Eggs Ruin Baked Goods? at America’s Test Kitchen
They do recommend using room-temperature eggs for cake batters that rely on whipping air into the beaten eggs, such as angel food and chiffon cakes, since cold egg whites don’t whip as well, resulting in a dense cake. Here is a quick way to get your eggs to room temperature when making those types of cakes:
What do you think? Have you ever noticed a difference when you let your eggs come to room temperature?