15 Creative Ways To Use Hard-Boiled Egg Yolks

There's a lot that you can do with leftover egg yolks. They're the secret ingredient for pastry cream, custard, and homemade mayonnaise. But what do you do when the fate of those yolks has already been sealed — after they've been hard-boiled into oblivion and there's seemingly no good use besides eating them plain? While it might be easier to use the uncooked yolks in the kitchen, there are, in fact, several ways to transform hard-boiled egg yolks into tasty treats, thick sauces, and more.

In order to assess the true versatility of this ingredient, we sought advice from a pair of recipe developers on how to maximize the power of this humble — yet often forgot about — ingredient: Jessica Formicola from Savory Experiments, and Debra Clark from Bowl Me Over. They provided several suggestions for how to create delicious recipes from leftover hard-boiled egg yolks that capitalize on the consistency and flavor of this ingredient. Here are some creative ways to use hard-boiled egg yolks.

You've likely baked a cookie recipe with egg yolks in the past, but chances are it wasn't made with already hard-boiled egg yolks. Although it might sound downright odd, shaved hard-boiled egg yolks are the secret to making a delicious batch of cookies. The center of the egg is made up of a ton of fat, which will add to the richness of your cookies and help keep them extra moist.

You'll want to break up the egg yolks with a fork before spooning them into your batter. You could even take it a step further and mash or puree the yolks in a food processor before using them in your recipe; this will drastically reduce the chances of finding a giant hunk of egg yolk when biting your cookie.

There are a variety of cookie types that can be improved by using this hack. In general, though, it's recommended you stick to recipes where you're looking for shortness (like a shortbread) rather than elasticity (like a chewy chocolate chip cookie). This is because in addition to locking in moisture, the egg yolks will prevent gluten from tightening too much, which keeps the consistency short. 

Avocado toast is a breakfast food that's developed quite the reputation in recent years. Some people classify it as a hip food, while others couldn't imagine dropping upwards of $10 for a slice of toast covered in mashed avocado. But despite all of these drawbacks, you have to give it to the simple dish. After all, it really is a versatile item and blank canvas for creativity. While there are tons of ingredients to enhance your avocado toast, recipe developer Jessica Formicola recommends grating a hard-boiled egg yolk right on top.

The fattiness will mesh with the already dense avocado and make for a dreamy bite. Another one of Formicola's recommendations for using hard-boiled egg yolks is as a topping on your salad. A quick grate — not unlike what you'd do with Parmesan cheese — can add a unique mouthfeel to your salad, along with an agreeable flavor that's amicable with the underneath ingredients. It could work just as well on a Caesar salad as in a Mediterranean bowl. 

Mousse is the type of recipe you might not have attempted to make at home on your own. But with the help of hard-boiled egg yolks — and the recommendations of recipe developer Debra Clark — you can whip up a batch of mousse in no time flat. Her suggestion is rather simple: just combine hard-boiled egg yolks with a bit of sugar, melted dark chocolate, and salt before folding in whipped cream. "The yolks add a velvety texture that's irresistible," Clark explained.

Additionally, some folks on social media have been known to use hard-boiled egg yolks for other rich chocolate treats, as well. Several TikTokers have already tried making Fudgesicle-esque desserts and puddings from whole hard-boiled eggs. Of course, if anything, skipping the whites will likely give you a creamier mouthfeel, which is highly desirable for these types of recipes.

Chicken salad and tuna salad are two of the densest, most protein-packed deli salads out there — but that doesn't mean they're the most flavorful. While you can pack in the mayonnaise — or swap out the mayo entirely for Greek yogurt – your chicken or tuna salad is really craving a bit of a fatty edge to round out its flavor. That's where a bowl of hard-boiled egg yolks can come into play.

Jessica Formicola recommends using the yolks to accompany chicken (or ham) salad, but that's not to say you can't use it for tuna salad, either. The size of your egg yolks is also up to you, so if you like things with a little more textural diversity, you may try leaving larger chunks in your salad. Conversely, if you aren't a fan of the powdery texture that accompanies this ingredient, you may prefer pureeing the yolks and stirring them into the dressing to impart just the right amount of fattiness without that eggy mouthfeel.

Adding yolks directly to your salad isn't the only way to use them. With a bit of magic, you can easily transform them into a crouton that can be used to adorn your salads, soups, and anywhere else that croutons are considered an acceptable garnish.

Debra Clark recommends mixing together hard-boiled egg yolks with a scant amount of flour, herbs, and cheese before shaping them into small blocks, and firming them up in the oven. The flavor of the eggs is relatively neutral, so you can play with different types of cheese to give this topping an edge.

Another tantalizing way to use hard-boiled egg yolks is to roll them in a crisp coating (like crumbled pork rinds), then popping them in a shallow fryer to cook until they're hot and crunchy. This would also be a great application for softer boiled egg yolks that aren't quite set enough, because the jammy yolk will break over your salad like a thunderous, yellow torrent.

Having an array of French sauces in your arsenal is important for cooking classic dishes. Gribiche is one of those sauces that may not be as popular as others, like béchamel. But once you master how to properly make it, it will surely become a staple in your kitchen. The base of gribiche is simple: egg yolks (cooked to your ideal degree of doneness), vinegar, mustard, and seasoning. From there, you'll need to master making the perfect emulsified sauce by slowly and incrementally adding oil and aggravating the mixture to ensure that everything is properly suspended.

Traditionally, chopped egg whites are added back into the mixture, as well, along with diced cornichons, capers, and fresh herbs. However, we can understand why a creamy, homogenous sauce may be better suited for whatever you're planning on adding the gribiche to. It's an excellent, rich sauce to add to asparagus or grilled salmon and can even be used as a replacement for mayo in a potato salad.

Compound butters are yet another recipe that every home cook should have in their toolkit. Mixing together butter with a flavorful addition allows you to control the ratio of butter to ingredients. It also helps make some add-ins, like minced garlic, a bit more spreadable. If you're looking to try a new compound butter, look no further than one infused with hard-boiled egg yolks.

The steps for making this compound butter are rather easy, according to Debra Clark. "Mix mashed hard-boiled egg yolks with softened butter, a pinch of salt, and your favorite herbs," Clark told Tasting Table. Not only will the yolks impart a stronger yellow tint on your butter, but it will also play into the richness of the other fats.

Additionally, Clark recommends you "spread it on toast or melt it over veggies for a rich, savory kick." You could even add a piece of it to the top of your steak after you pull it straight from the grill. Frankly, the uses for this butter are seemingly endless.

Making pastries at home isn't for the faint of heart. It takes a lot of patience to keep your pastry at the right temperature to prevent any melting, while also methodically shaping and forming it to prevent the butter from escaping. Another common error that many folks come across in dessert making is gluten formation, which can make pastries especially stodgy or chewy, rather than soft and brittle. Consequently, to help improve the texture of your pastries, you may want to try crumbling in some hard-boiled egg yolks.

While this will work for a number of different recipes, one place where it's particularly useful is in biscuit dough. It can be helpful for other short recipes like scones and dacquoise, as well. It's important to make sure that the yolks are evenly distributed throughout your dough so you can reap the maximum benefit of this hack. Another benefit of this application is that you won't even have to painstakingly bring your yolks up to temperature before you mix them in; hard-boiled yolks straight from the fridge will suffice.

We've come to appreciate the humble potato salad; after all, what's not to love about a big bowl of starchy spuds covered in a creamy dressing? Of course, this classic barbecue dish often lacks that little bit of pizazz that would make it a top-tier side. One way to get it back on the road to success is to integrate leftover hard-boiled egg yolks into it.

Hard-boiled egg yolks have the thick texture and richness required to make this salad all the more satisfying, highlighting whatever fresh herbs you bring to the party, like tarragon, dill, or chives. Now, Debra Clark doesn't recommend just haphazardly tossing your yolk pieces into the salad. Instead, Clark suggests combining them with your dressing ingredients — like mustard, mayo, pickles, and the like — to bring a "rich, creamy element that elevates the whole dish."

If we could only choose one pasta sauce to eat for the rest of our lives, it would undoubtedly be pesto. Marinara has its merits, of course, and arrabbiata is brimming with complex, spicy notes. But there's nothing that can replace the herbaceousness of a good pesto intermingled with umami notes from the cheese and the richness of a quality olive oil. Still, there are some ways to make the best pesto at home, such as integrating leftover hard-boiled egg yolks for extra richness.

Debra Clark starts by adding standard pesto ingredients to a blender, then pulsing it down with the yolks to make a slightly creamy (but not overwhelmingly unctuous) sauce. The eggs will add body to the sauce and help it stand up a little bit better to your favorite noodle shape. While this upgraded pesto is delicious with pasta, Clark mentioned it's also great on "sandwiches or as a dip."

Salad dressing, in general, tends to run a bit thin. Given this, once you have your basic oil, vinegar, and flavorful-add ins, you generally need some other element to transform it into a thick dressing that can stand up to a bowl of greens or roasted vegetables. Enter hard-boiled egg yolks. 

All you need to do is combine your standard salad dressing ingredients with yolks and puree everything until it's smooth. The eggs won't impart an especially noticeable flavor, but they'll help add a little extra body to a dressing that could likely use it.

Debra Clark even goes so far as to say that this dressing "rivals any Caesar" dressing out there. Furthermore, Clark adds honey and mustard to her dressing to help make it multi-dimensional and extra flavorful. This recipe is "perfect for drizzling over greens," she shared, while noting it also works "as a dip for crudités."

Pasta salad: Could there be anything as simple as thee? Not only does this dish come together easily (and is a great way to use up leftover pasta), but you can customize it with nearly every leftover ingredient in your pantry. This includes sliced deli meat, or the jar of olives that's been sitting on your refrigerator door for who-knows-how-long. Likewise, it's a great way to transform leftover egg yolks into something far tastier than just eating them as is.

Jessica Formicola suggested trying your hand at a deviled egg pasta salad with leftover hard-boiled egg yolks. You can chop them as coarsely or as finely as you'd like in this recipe. Additionally, consider embellishing your salad with any leftover whites that you have. These will add a unique color contrast to your bowl while providing a hefty dose of protein to help you feel both full and satisfied.

Scotch eggs are a bit of an acquired taste. Although the food has somewhat mysterious origins, its generally made of similar ingredients regardless of what country you find it in: a hard-boiled egg encased in pork sausage and covered in breadcrumbs. It can be deep fried or baked to crispy, golden brown perfection. Of course, while a whole, hard-boiled egg is on par for the classic preparation of this dish, Jessica Formicola informed us you can make a rendition using just the yolks.

For this twist on a standard Scotch egg, Formicola recommends covering the yolks in either ground pork or ground beef before adding the breadcrumbs and cooking them. Now, in the U.S., you'll likely see Scotch eggs served as an appetizer or bar food along with a cup of ketchup or ranch for dipping. But you can also whip out fermented sauces to help rein in the greasiness and bring some more tangy flavor.

It seems so simple: When life gives you leftover hard-boiled egg yolks, make mini sandwiches with hash browns. That's how the famous expression goes, right? Well, regardless, it's worth trying to make the most of this oft discarded food item by transforming hard-boiled egg yolks into something tasty with hash browns. Jessica Formicola suggested slicing the yolk into small slices, then sandwiching those pieces between two coin-sized hash browns to make a bite-sized sando.

Now, in theory, this could make for a great appetizer for the breakfast table or a savory bite between sweets. Then again, you could also marry the classic egg and hash brown combo by making an egg salad base with your leftover yolks instead, then spooning (or piping, if you're feeling fancy) the filling into the center of the crispy rounds.

Additionally, you could further elevate these mini sandwiches by mixing different compatible ingredients into the filling. Sriracha or another hot sauce would add a bit of fiery flavor, while a garlic aioli would make this a tasty and complex bite-sized treat.

The most true-to-form way to utilize leftover egg yolks would be to transform them into the classic egg salad. Presumably, this is what folks who can't get enough of the yolk-infused dressing want to hear.

Now, if you love eating egg salad and have an affinity for a plate of deviled eggs, as well, you can combine the best of both worlds with a deviled egg salad recipe. Essentially, you'll want to chop the whites in a bowl and cover them in a layer of your dressing, which is made with leftover yolks, relish, mayonnaise, Dijon mustard, and vinegar. This recipe also tastes best after it's had a couple of days to chill in the fridge.

Frankly, it's easy to appreciate how the creaminess of the yolks plays off the hunks of whites to make for an interestingly textured bite. Plus, this is the perfect option if you need to pull a couple of egg whites for another recipe, and consequently have more than enough yolks laying around.