Egg-free Choux?

My dear sister-in-law has children with severe allergies.  One of them is allergic to eggs, and she asked if I can teach her how to make egg-free cream puffs (i.e. choux creme).  I honestly didn't know if that's even possible.  Eggs are the ingredients necessary to create those lovely air pockets in choux puffs.  In baked goods, eggs can be substituted with a mixture of ground flaxseed and water.  But will it have the same effect in choux?  I decided to experiment.

First off, the basic choux pastry, before the addition of eggs (this is half the recipe)...

Preheat oven to 400F.  Combine 2 oz unsalted butter (half a stick), 4 oz (1/2 cup) of water or milk (or a combo of both), 1/2 tsp of sugar.  Bring to boil over high heat.

See how it's bubbly and boiling?  Make sure to let it boil and melt all the butter.

Remove from heat.  Dump in 1/2 cup of flour all at once.  Stir vigorously to mix.



It will come together into a ball.  Return to heat, and "cook" over moderately high heat until a "film" starts forming on the bottom of the pot, as shown below...

At this point, I put in the egg-substitute:  the flaxseed-water mixture.  About 1Tbsp of ground flaxseed + 3 Tbsp of water for every egg called for in the recipe.

The experimental egg-free choux dough, ready to be piped out.

Piped onto a baking sheet.  Doing this on parchment would be better.

To remedy the pointy tops, use a spoon or your fingers dipped in water.  Press gently to smooth it out.

There!  Nice and smooth.  Not doing this won't affect the flavor, but will cause them to bake into...well, pointy-headed cream puffs, instead of the smooth, rounded puffs.

Bake for 25~30 minutes, until golden brown.

So how did these turn out?

...HORRIBLE.  They were so bad I couldn't bring myself to take their pics.  Ten minutes into baking, they had turned into oily pancakes and I had to put them in the compost pile.  Flaxseeds just do not have the same binding properties of egg proteins to create that air pocket.

I don't know if using commercial egg-replacers will do the trick.  I've read up on other people's blogs to see if any of them have been successful.  There were some who said they turned out well, while others said they were horrible.  Still others said the egg substitutes will make a similar product, but definitely not the same.

Guess I'll keep trying...