February 18, 2008
Baking Substitutions
Halfway through that chocolate chip cookie recipe and realize you’re out of brown sugar? If, like many New Yorkers, you’re not on borrowing terms with your neighbors, here are some handy substitutions you can make for common baking ingredients:
- 1 cup buttermilk = 2/3 cup yogurt + 1/3 cup milk
- 1 cup confectioner’s sugar = 1 cup granulated sugar + one teaspoon cornstarch
- 1 cup light brown sugar = 1 cup granulated sugar + 1 tablespoon molasses
- 1 cup dark brown sugar = 1 cup granulated sugar + 2 tablespoons molasses
- 1 cup cake flour = 7/8 cup all-purpose flour + 2 tablespoons cornstarch
- 1 teaspoon baking powder = 1/4 teaspoon baking soda + ½ teaspoon cream of tartar
- 1 oz unsweetened chocolate = 1 ½ ozs bittersweet or semisweet chocolate less 1 tablespoon of sugar from the recipe
- 1 stick unsalted butter = 1 stick salted butter less ½ teaspoon salt from the recipe
- 1 cup whole milk = 5/8 cup skim milk + 3/8 cup half and half
What substitutes for baking ingredients do you use?
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In Germany during World War I, when flour was scarce, bakers often added sawdust to bread.
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In Germany during World War I, when flour was scarce, bakers often added sawdust to bread.
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i replace vegetable oil with unsweetened applesauce.
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Two mistakes I made as a teenager that I don't recommend -- granulated sugar is not a substitute for powdered sugar, and peppermint is not a substitute for vanilla. There was a 4th of July cake with blue icing that had the texture, flavor, and color of toothpaste that I still have not lived down. Oh well, my dad ate it. :)
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i use the vegan baking substitutes from The Post Punk Kitchen:
for eggs, use a banana, soy yogurt or smashed up flax seeds
for milk, soy milk
for butter, soy margarine
details here: http://theppk.com/veganbaking.html
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awesome post, thank you!
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I replace baking with take-out.
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If you run out of Soylent Green, just substitute humans in a 1 to 1 ratio.
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for the health conscious, I like to replace oil, margarine, or butter with simple fat free milk.
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you can sub unsweetened chocolate with cocoa powder and oil.
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lovely as these are to know- i'd like to know what cookbook or site that these subs came from.
plus i'd like to think that it would responsible writing/journalism to cite sources.
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Takeout guy = Cooking
NyQuil = Ambien
Benadryl = Wine
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I question a couple of those substitutions--as msk suggests, granulated sugar has a coarser texture than confectioner's sugar and won't necessarily work as a substitute. Similarly cake flour is finer than all-purpose flour, but that's not such a big deal because all-purpose flour is in between cake and bread flour and is meant to be useful for either purpose (hence "all-purpose").
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How can all-purpose flour + cornstarch be a substitute for cake flour when there is no raising agent, such as baking powder? Cornstarch is merely a thickener - great, if you want a slab for a cake...
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I regularly substitute sawdust for flour. Flour costs more but has less flavor. Why not let use something with age in your goods? I feel that sawdust's deep flavor coming from the life of the wood has mountains over regular flour in any sort of cooking. Breads, pastries, all taste better when using sawdust in place of flour. It can even be used in a 1:1 ratio.
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I read somewhere that if you were out of oil you could use either vegitable oil spread or even mayonaise. I was baking and was out of oil and only had real butter no margarine so I tried the mayonaise and it actually worked. I was concerned that it may leave a funky taste to the recipe (cupcakes) but it didn't and my husband never knew the difference.
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There are all sorts of weird and wonderful substitutes you can use, loved the comment about sawdust. Never thought about using that, different trees probably taste slightly different! Anyway there is a great list of subs here: baking substitutions