Last Updated on 23rd April 2022 by
Each part of the egg has its unique uses- even the shell can be used for fertiliser. The white and yolk of the egg are often used together to make cakes, omelettes, fritters and other dishes, but they may also be separated for certain dishes.
If you are making something that calls for egg whites, then you are left with a yolk you might not know what to do with. What if you are making a big recipe calling for half a dozen egg whites? Then you have six yolks to find some use for, and you might be scratching your head for how you can use them.
Look, no one wants to toss a bunch food out, and you could always cook up the yolks as scrambled eggs. They will look a little off, but they’re certainly edible. You don’t have to go that route, though, and we have some recipes with just egg yolks that you may want to try out.
Simple Recipes with Egg Yolks
So, you want to start simple with your egg yolk recipe, and that’s certainly understandable. There are plenty of great ways to take that egg yolk and make something tasty out of it without involving a bunch of ingredients or complex baking methods.
Shortbread Cookies and Curd
Let’s start with one of the simplest kinds of baked goods- cookies. These shortbread cookies are one of our simple recipes with egg yolks that are considered easy enough for beginners. You just need to make your cookies first and then add a curd topping on it to make a delicious cookie that you and your whole family will enjoy.
Shortbread Cookies and Curd
Ingredients
Cookies
- 125 g butter softened
- 1/4 cup cornflour
- 1 cup flour sifted
- 1/2 cup icing sugar
Curd
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 egg
- 75 g butter
- 1/3 cup caster sugar
- 21/2 tsp cornflour
Instructions
Cookies
- Mix the icing sugar and butter for a few minutes, using a hand mixer if you like.
- Once they are thoroughly mixed, you can add the flour and cornflour and mix all of that together.
- You can then roll out your dough into ovals or squares and place them onto a baking sheet, with a few inches between each one to give them space to expand.
- Bake at 170°F for 12-15 minutes.
Curd
- Mix all ingredients together.
- Cook it over a medium heat for 7 or 8 minutes.
- Cover your cookies with it for a soft, creamy icing
Nutrition
Salted Egg Yolks
If you are looking for recipes with just egg yolks, then this is a good one for you.
- Take your egg yolks (as many as you want) and cover a container with fine table salt.
- Place small dents in the salt that are big enough for the egg yolks to rest in and drop the yolks one by one onto the dents.
- Then, cover the eggs completely with salt and place the container in the fridge. Leave it there for at least eight hours, and you can test them after that.
- The yolks should be soft and have a gummy texture to them. That means they are ready for you to bake them.
- Take them out of the salt-filled container and wash them thoroughly. They won’t come apart because they would have hardened in the fridge.
- Then, place them onto a greased baking sheet and cook for three hours at 140°F. At that point, the egg yolks should be done cooking.
- If they are finished, then you will be able to take them off the pan and grate them.
You can use this as a garnish on salads, soups, bread, pasta, meats, and other dishes where you would normally use cheese. It’s a healthy alternative and one of the simplest recipes with salted egg yolks. It may take a while, but it’s a fairly simple baking job that anyone will be able to pull off.
Custard
You can make custard at home instead of buying it premade or buying a mix for it. This is a a great recipe with egg yolks, since it doesn’t require any whites to make. Here’s what you need:
Custard
Ingredients
- 100 g caster sugar
- 4 egg yolks
- 200 ml double cream
- 3 tbsp cornflour
- 700 ml whole milk
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
- You need to first boil the cream and milk in a large saucepan on the stove.
- While that is cooking, you can be whisking together your egg yolks, cornflour, vanilla, sugar.
- Once your milk is boiling, you can pour that into the sugar and egg mixture.
- From there, clean out the saucepan and put the entire mixture back into it on the stove.
- Using a wooden spoon to stir, heat the mixture on a low heat.
- Be sure to stir thoroughly and heat evenly and keep stirring until the mixture has thickened. Don’t mix too long or lumps will begin to form.
Nutrition
You can then eat your custard hot right then or wait for it to cool. It can be kept in the fridge until it is ready to eat. This is one of the better recipes with 4 egg yolks you will find and one of the simpler ones that is hard to mess up.
Keto Recipes with Egg Yolks
The keto diet is all the rage right now and probably still will be for a few years. It’s one of those diets that doesn’t prevent you from eating everything you enjoy and lets you have some desserts and other foods that would be cheat meals with the typical diet, so people love it for that.
This is essentially a diet that is low in carbs but high in fat. It helps you to burn off fat on your body and trains your body to use up fat for energy rather than carbohydrates. To do that, your body has to enter a ketogenic state, which means hacking your body’s metabolic functions.
The keto diet seeks to do that by using specific kinds of foods and forcing the body into a new metabolic reaction that it usually doesn’t do.
In order to make the diet work, you will have to avoid certain kinds of foods and change the way you prepare foods so that they have fewer carbs and more fat. If that sounds like a tradeoff that you would love, then you are probably starting to understand why this diet is so popular. People love that they don’t have to give up fatty foods to keep to their diet.
With that in mind, here are some keto recipes with egg yolks that you may want to try.
Keto Muffins
What’s great about these muffins is they make for a filling snack that won’t compromise your keto diet. You can enjoy them without any guilt and use them to help fill out your breakfast or keep you going in between meals. So, you can also use healthy recipes with egg yolks like these to meet your dieting goals.
This recipe is excellent as you can add in a bunch of different ingredients to change things up each time you make it. It’s up to you to decide whether you want to add in bacon, chives, ham, or any number of other ingredients to spice things up and give yourself a different experience.
Keto Muffins
Ingredients
- 8 egg yolks
- 1/2 tsp garlic salt
- 1 cup spinach or mixed greens
- 4 cherry tomatoes
- 1/4 cup chopped red onion
- 1 1/4 cup shredded cheese
- 1/3 cup bacon bits
Instructions
- Start by preheating your oven to 400° F.
- Then, take your separated egg yolks and put them in a mixing bowl. Wash and chop your veggies and add them to the egg yolk. Chop them fine for this recipe to ensure everything mixes well.
- Add the bacon, garlic salt, and all of the cheese except for three teaspoons. Mix all of that together.
- Grease a muffin pan or place liners into each of the holes. Pour your mixture into the holes so that you fill them but don’t overflow them.
- Cook the muffins for about 12 minutes.
- Once they are done, the edges should be slightly brown. You can dust the muffins with the rest of your cheese as soon as the muffins come out of the oven to ensure the cheese melts.
- Once the muffins have finished baking, they should be taken out of the muffin pan and set on a cooling rack until they are completely cool. Then, you can store them on your counter in a sealed container or in the refrigerator.
Nutrition
No Bake Mint Pie
One of the best methods for cooking with egg yolks recipes in the summertime is to use no bake recipes. It’s not really cooking, then, but you get the idea. If you don’t have to put the dish in the oven, it helps keep the kitchen and the house cooler.
In some ways, this kind of dish is easier to make than something you would bake as well, because you can see right away if it is done once you finish putting it together. You don’t have to wait until it comes out of the oven and hope for the best the entire time it is baking. You get to see the finished product right then, and there is definitely some advantage to that.
No Bake Mint Pie
Ingredients
The Crust
- 1 1/4 cups almond flour
- 5 tbsp sweetener
- 5 tbsp cocoa powder
- 3 1/2 tbsp butter
The Filling
- 2 1/2 cups divided cream
- 1/2 cup mint leaves chopped
- 3 tbsp water
- 2 tsp gelatin
- 4 egg yolks
- 1/2 tsp peppermint extract
- 1/2 cup powdered sweetener
Instructions
The Crust
- Mix together the flour, cocoa powder and sweetener.
- Add in the butter and stir it all together.
- Take a 9-inch pie pan and press the crust into the edges of the pan.
- Set that in the fridge to keep cool until your filling is ready.
The Filling
- You will need to take 1 and ½ cups of cream and the mint leaves and put them in a pot on medium heat.
- Once they come to a simmer, you can take them off the heat, cover the pot and let the mixture seep for 30 minutes.
- Afterwards, strain your mixture to get out the leaves and set it aside.
- Next, mix your water and gelatin and let them stand until they form a soft gel.
- Then, add in your cream and mint mixture.
- Place that on medium heat until the gelatin dissolves completely and the mixture is hot.
- The next step is to whisk the eggs and sweetener together.
- Add about a cup of your hot mixture to this, then add this egg mixture to the hot cream mixture. You should mix them together on medium heat until the mixture starts to thicken.
- Place your mixture into the fridge to let it get cool and to set into a pudding-like thickness.
- You should whisk it every so often to keep lumps from forming, and the cooling process should take about 30 minutes.
- While you are waiting for your mixture to cool, you can beat the rest of the cream until stiff peaks form, then combine it with the cream mixture.
- Spread this into the crust and let cool for about three hours.
Nutrition
We hope these recipes made with egg yolks help inspire you to make something with your leftover yolks and not simply turn them into scrambled eggs.
I'm Pauline, a mother of four grown children, my passion for cooking stemmed from the joy i get cooking for my family. I love to try new dishes, especially when dining out but creating and sharing my own recipes is my favourite thing to do!
