
Jamie's Tips for Cooking Substitutions
Missing an ingredient?
A couple of horrifying, all-too-familiar scenarios:
1. You’re elbow deep into a new recipe when you realize you are out of one of the ingredients. It’s 2:00 am, there’s a blizzard going on outside, and you’re in your pj’s. No way are you going to run out to a store or bang on a neighbor’s door to get the missing ingredient. What to do?
2. You are going to surprise Birthday Boy with that wonderful, delicious dessert for your Shabbat meal, when you see that your new recipe calls for a dairy ingredient. The recipe is half done and there’s no turning back. What can you do to turn a dairy recipe pareve?
Improvise.
Chefs like to call it a substitution, but either way resourcefulness is the key. Fortunately, we have put together a handy dandy list of common ingredients showing what you can substitute in a pinch. We hope we have thought of everything, but if you have any questions, just leave a comment and ask!
Here is our list of common baking substitutions:
Baking powder – 1 tsp
Sub: 1/3 tsp baking soda + 1/2 tsp cream of tartar
Bay leaf – 1 whole leaf
Sub: 1/4 tsp cracked bay leaf
Butter – 1 cup
Sub: either 1 cup non-dairy butter, 1 cup coconut oil; or 7/8 cup of oil + 1/2 tsp salt
Buttermilk – 1 cup
Sub: either 1 cup plain yogurt; or 1 cup of non-dairy milk + 1 TBS lemon juice
Chocolate Liqueur - 3 tablespoons
Sub: 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract (Try it in my Chocolate Liqueur Pie)
Coconut milk – 1 cup
Sub: either 1 cup of milk or 1 cup non-dairy milk (cashew or oat milk are best)
Cornstarch (for thickening) – 1 TBS
Sub: either 2 TBS all-purpose flour; or 4-6 tsp quick-cooking tapioca; or 1 tablespoon arrowroot, potato starch, or oat flour
Cream of tartar – 1/2 tsp
Sub: 1 1/2 tsp lemon juice or vinegar
Cream, whipping – 1 cup
Sub: 2 TBS lemon juice, 2 TBS sugar, and 1 cup evaporated milk or 1 cup canned coconut milk
Egg Coating - 2 eggs
Sub: 1/2 cup Italian salad dressing when breading chicken
Flour – 1 cup all-purpose flour
Sub: 1 cup corn flour or 5/8 cup potato starch flour. If you are making bread, be aware that the substitution flours require more leavening than wheat flour, and will result in a heavy bread that’s also reduced in volume. For bread recipes, add 2 tsp baking powder per cup of specialty flour
Flour, whole wheat – 1 cup
Sub: 1 cup white wheat flour
Lemon – 1 tsp juice
Sub: 1/2 tsp vinegar
Lemon peel (dried) – 1 tsp
Sub: 1/2 tsp lemon extract
Onion – 1 small
Sub: 1 tsp onion powder
Parsley (fresh chopped) – 3 tsp
Sub: 1 tsp dried parsley
Pumpkin pie spice – 1 tsp
Sub: 1/2 tsp cinnamon, 1/4 tsp ginger, 1/8 tsp allspice and 1/8 tsp nutmeg
Shortening (for baking) -- 1 cup
Sub: 1 + 1/8 cups butter or margarine, then decrease the salt called for in the recipe by 1/2 tsp
Sugar (confectioners) – 1 cup
Sub: 3/4 cup granulated sugar
Sugar (brown) – 1 firmly packed cup
Sub: 1 cup granulated sugar plus 1/4 cup molasses
Sweetened condensed milk - 1 cup
Sub: Make your own Go Dairy Free - click here! (Sweetened condensed milk is just evaporated milk with sugar added)
Tomato juice – 1 cup
Sub: 1/2 cup tomato sauce plus 1/2 cup water
Tomato sauce -- 15-ounce can
Sub: 6-ounce can of tomato paste + 1 cup of water
Wine – 1 cup,
Sub: 13 tsp of water, 3 tsp lemon juice and 1 TBS sugar
Worcestershire sauce – 1 tsp
Sub: 1 tsp bottled steak sauce
Sometimes baking can be tricky when using substitutions for a more in depth guide to using dairy free substitutions in baked goods click here.