How to bake cookies from leftover egg yolks

How often do you end up with leftover egg yolks when cooking and baking? Unfortunately, too often. And then you stand there, have a lot of yolks leftover, and wonder: "What to do with leftover egg yolk?" 

It would be a shame to have to throw them away! That's why I want to give you a great idea of what to do with leftover egg yolk and how to bake delicious Christmas cookies from egg yolks! 

Since I've used up 6 egg whites for the grannies egg white cookies (Kokosbusserl), I have 6 egg yolks leftover. Now I thought I'd write a little post about some fabulous walnut cookies that will use up those 6 extra yolks!

🥘 Ingredients

• Egg yolks
• Powdered sugar
• Vanilla sugar
• Rum
• Salt
• Ground walnuts (replaceable with ground almonds or hazelnuts)
• OPTIONAL: baking wafers (Just like with the grannies coconut kisses cookies, I left out the baking wafers. Simply a matter of taste.) 🙂

The nice thing about these cookies is that they don't require cream, butter, wheat, or milk as an ingredient, which is excellent for many people who have food allergies!

🍽 Equipment

• Handheld electric mixer
• Wooden spoon
• Mixing bowl
• Pastry bag
• 2 Baking paper sheets
• 2 Baking trays

🔪 Instructions

Before you start the preparation, preheat the oven to 302 °F / 150 °C (top/bottom heat). Combine the leftover egg yolks with powdered sugar, salt, and vanilla sugar and beat them using a hand mixer until foamy. 

In the next step, fold in the rum and the grated walnuts (almonds or hazelnuts) with a wooden spoon into the foamy mixture.

Now fill the mixture into a pastry (piping) bag and create tiny mounds onto the baking tray lined with baking paper. 

If you have opted for the variant with baking wafers, pipe the mass directly onto the wafers. Fancy decorating your cookies? Add a walnut (almond or hazelnut) on top as a decoration. Once a baking sheet is full, bake the cookies on the second rack from the bottom for about 20 minutes. In total, you get about 40 delicious walnut cookies out of the mass. 

Let the cookies 🍪 rest and cool after baking. After that, you can store them in an airtight container in a cool and dry place. Serve these delicious gluten-free egg yolk cookies together with the previously prepared coconut kisses cookies with coffee or tea. Enjoy them with good music and pleasant company! 

You might also like the following cookie recipes: Almond Slivers, Linzer Cookies, and Advocaat Bites.

More great recipes to use up leftover egg yolk: homemade advocaat egg liqueur and Linzer Cookies with Egg Liqueur Ganache.

🙋🏻 FAQ

🪄 To the conclusion

I have to say, this is one of my favorite egg yolk cookie recipe for zero waste baking. I hate tossing food away, and so I'll always look for options to create something delicious out of leftover ingredients. If you're looking for a recipe that repurposes six egg whites, head over to the coconut kisses cookies recipe!

If you make this recipe, let me know how you liked it by ★★★★★ star rating it and leaving a comment below. This would be awesome! You can also sign up for our Newsletter or follow me on Pinterest or Instagram and share your creation with me. Just tag me @combinegoodflavors and hashtag #combinegoodflavors, so I don't miss it.

📖 Recipe

⛑️ Food Safety

• Cook to a minimum temperature of 165 °F (74 °C)
• Do not use the same utensils on cooked food, that previously touched raw meat
• Wash hands after touching raw meat
• Don't leave food sitting out at room temperature for extended periods
• Never leave cooking food unattended
• Use oils with high smoking point to avoid harmful compounds
• Always have good ventilation when using a gas stove

For further information, check Safe Food Handling - FDA.