Easy Ingredient Substitutions for Recipes By In the Pantry

Have you ever been baking your favorite recipe but realized you didn't have a key ingredient, like buttermilk or butter? You don't have to make a quick trip to the store. Instead, you can substitute it! Here are four, easy ingredient substitutions for recipes:

Buttermilk - Buttermilk is sometimes needed for pancakes, breads, salad dressings and desserts. No buttermilk in the refrigerator? Use whole milk and a little lemon juice or white wine vinegar in place of buttermilk. To make a buttermilk substitute, use a ratio of 1 cup whole milk and 1 tablespoon lemon juice or white wine vinegar for every cup of buttermilk in the recipe. Let sit for a few minutes and then use in the recipe as you would buttermilk.

Butter - Did you run out of butter? An easy substitute is coconut oil. It works just like butter. Coconut oil is vegan-friendly, and you can melt it or sauté with it, too.

Powdered sugar - If powdered sugar is missing from your pantry, you can make it at home. To create a simple powdered sugar substitute, put 1 cup granulated sugar and 1 tablespoon corn starch in a food processor and whir the two ingredients together.

Eggs - To make a recipe vegan-friendly, substitute eggs with flax or chia seeds. To make an egg substitute, in a small coffee grinder or spice grinder whir flax or chia seeds until you have flax or chia seed meal. Then, for each egg you're replacing in a recipe, combine 1 tablespoon ground flax seed meal or 1 tablespoon ground chia seed meal and 3-4 tablespoons of warm water. By thickening and leavening, this easily substitutes eggs.


For more cooking tips and tricks, check out host Aida Mollenkamp's book, "Keys to the Kitchen."