Solve Your Ingredient Shortage With These Common Baking Substitutes
A couple of weeks ago, I really wanted a chocolate cake. Problem? I had no eggs, butter or milk in my house. I haven’t been shopping for a long time – I blame the fact that during the pandemic I developed a habit of saving food, which meant that I was missing almost everything I needed for baking. Fortunately, baking is not a zero-sum game; There are a number of substitutes for each of the most common baking ingredients, including flour, milk, butter, eggs, baking soda, and baking powder. If you’re desperate for chocolate treats or other baked goods but don’t have all the ingredients, don’t despair: there are many substitutes available for most staple baked goods, although the ideal choice will vary depending on what you’re trying to bake. Let’s consider.
Unusual flour
As we wrote earlier, you can make self-rising flour by mixing 1 ½ teaspoon baking powder and ¼ teaspoon salt with one cup all-purpose flour. You can also make baking flour and bread flour with all-purpose flour.
For cake flour , measure out one cup all-purpose flour and remove two tablespoons of flour. Then add two tablespoons of cornstarch and sift well.
For bread flour , you need to measure out one cup of all-purpose flour and then remove 1½ teaspoons of flour. Add 1 ½ teaspoon vital wheat gluten ; Then you whisk them together to use in recipes that require bread flour.
Milk
Instead of milk, your pantry may be hiding several long-term storage options . One of the possible options is to use long-term storage milk in the form of condensed or powdered milk. If you find a dusty can of condensed milk, dilute it with water in a 1: 1 ratio. Powdered milk requires mixing an equivalent amount of fresh milk. your prescription requires. You can also use canned coconut milk as a 1: 1 cow’s milk replacement.
Other possibilities include using water to stretch the milk if you are short of it. Use a 1: 1 ratio of milk to water and add a tablespoon of butter or oil to improve the fat content. Another option is to use non-dairy substitutes like almond or oat milk , which you can make yourself with a few simple ingredients and then substitute in a 1: 1 ratio.
Butter
There are a number of butter substitutes you can use when baking, depending on what you are baking. These substitutes, which can usually replace butter in a 1: 1 ratio by volume, include applesauce, avocado, banana puree, Greek yogurt, and nut butters such as peanut or almond butter. You can also use pumpkin puree, although if you go this route you only need to replace 3/4 of the amount of oil you would use.
Given that these substitutes have different flavors, you will want to choose one that works with what you are trying to bake. And you may have to experiment a little with the amount of liquid you use to keep the baked goods from getting too dry.
Eggs
In baking, the most common egg substitute is one tablespoon of vinegar and one teaspoon of baking soda , and this strategy has been used successfully in many recipes. Kitchn also breaks down some of the other common replacements by evaluating their effectiveness. One of their top recommendations is to use two teaspoons of baking powder, one teaspoon of oil, and two tablespoons of water. Their other main suggestion is to replace one egg with glasses of soda water, which they report has produced excellent results. Who would have thought?
Baking soda
If you don’t have baking soda, you can use three times more baking powder than the recipe says. So if your recipe requires one teaspoon of baking soda, use three teaspoons of baking powder. Baking powder also contains some salt, so it is recommended that you halve the amount of salt required by the recipe.
The downside to replacing baking soda with baking powder is that you run the risk of getting too bitter-tasting baked goods, so it’s important not to use too much.
Baking powder
Replacing baking powder is a little more difficult. If you have baking soda but don’t have baking powder, you’ll need to use baking soda and an acid like tartar. For every teaspoon of baking powder in your recipe, substitute ½ teaspoon of tartar for a teaspoon of baking soda. If you don’t have tartar, you can also substitute one teaspoon of baking powder with a teaspoon of baking soda plus ½ teaspoon of vinegar or lemon juice. For liquid acids like vinegar or lemon juice, mix with wet ingredients.
How I dealt with my own chocolate cravings without eggs, butter and milk
For my particular problem above, the answer was Depression Cake , a dairy-free chocolate cake recipe that became popular during the Great Depression, when milk and eggs were scarce. (Shades of the great ingredient shortage in March / April 2020, anyone?)
Usually the depression cake is covered in icing sugar, but I really wanted a chocolate icing that usually requires butter and a little milk. Instead, I replaced the butter in a 1: 1 ratio with ghee, cream with almond milk and a pinch of instant coffee, which intensified the flavor of the chocolate powder. When I do the frosting again, I can try replacing the peanut butter with regular butter.
Result? Rich, moist chocolate cake topped with rich chocolate icing. No butter, eggs or milk required. This article was originally published in April 2020 and was updated on May 10, 2021 to add additional baking soda and baking powder substitutes, as well as update contextual links to the pandemic.