So you’ve made a recipe that called for egg whites and now you’ve got leftover egg yolks?

Whatever you do, don’t throw them out. You’ve got options!

Here’s what I mean…..

Did you know you can freeze egg yolks?

To prevent the texture of the yolks from getting gummy, you’ll need to first whisk them and add either salt or sugar (depending whether you’ll use them later in something savoury or sweet). Add 1/8 teaspoon salt or 1-1/2 teaspoons sugar per 1/4 cup of egg yolks (that’s about 4 yolks). Pour them in a container, cover and label it (so you know later if you’ve added salt or sugar and how many yolks you’ve got). Freeze for up to 4 months. One tablespoon of thawed yolk can be substituted for one fresh yolk.

If you’ve got an ice cube tray that will hold about 1 tablespoon of liquid in each section, you can pour the whisked eggs into the sections in the tray. Once the yolks are frozen, pop them out of the tray into a freezer bag. Label the bag (date and contents) and thaw just the quantity of yolks you need at a time.

You can also…..
– Put the yolks in a small container, cover them with a little water so the yolks don’t dry out, then cover the container and refrigerate it for two to three days until you have a use for the yolks. When you know what you want to do with the yolks, carefully drain off the water before using them.

– Whisk a yolk with a little milk to thin it slightly and brush the mixture over an unbaked pie crust or bread or bun dough before popping it into the oven. This wash will give your baking a lovely sheen.

– Add a couple yolks to your omelette or scrambled eggs mixture, or to fried rice or Pasta Carbonara.

– Make crème brulee, hollandaise sauce, pasta, ice cream, zabaglione, mayonnaise, egg drop soup, chocolate mousse, lemon curd or an assortment of other recipes that call for yolks. Jen at Food & Family blog has a great list of links to recipes that use from 1 to 12 egg yolks. Thank you, Jen!

– Add yolks to your beauty regime. Check out these facial treatments that include egg yolks courtesy of Alberta Egg Farmers.

What other ideas can you add?