Baking and Cooking Substitutions

I know we all love to bake and cook at home, but sometimes we run out of needed ingredients at the worst time. Here’s a handy list of Baking and Cooking Substitutions you can use in a pinch.

These are especially handy to have now during this time of “Social Distancing” which actually just means STAYING HOME.

Remember your finished dish won’t taste exactly as it maybe should have but would you rather stop and run to the store? Or keep on working? I am always solidly in that second category.

And sometimes those baking substitutions make your recipes BETTER. Sometimes they’re just so-so but you’re eating, right?

And not wasting time, gas, and money running to the store for every little thing.

Common Baking Substitutions

• If you’re out of Bread Flour you can absolutely use All-Purpose Flour, it’s flour with a higher gluten content so your bread may not be as perfect as you’d like but it works just fine-every bread recipe on my site has been tested with All-Purpose Flour
• Out of Yeast? Check this HUGE collection of Yeast Free Bread recipes
• EGGS! You can replace 1 whole egg for baking needs with
  •2 whites
  •OR two yolks
  •1/4 cup of egg replacement
  •1/4 cup mashed banana
  •1/4 cup applesauce
• NEED cake flour? You can use one cup of All Purpose Flour, minus two Tablespoons
• Buttermilk for baking can be made a few different ways
  •for EACH CUP of Buttermilk•
  1) add one Tablespoon of vinegar or lemon juice to a measuring cup and top off with milk
  2) add 1 3/4 teaspoon of cream of tartar to a measuring cup, whisk in the milk
  3) use one cup of yogurt straight across
  4) half a cup of milk, half a cup of sour cream, stir together and use
• Corn Syrup for one cup mix 1 cup of sugar with 1/4 cup of water, this will not work to make caramels
• Sugar for each CUP of sugar you can use one packed cup of brown sugar OR two cups of powdered sugar
• Butter-you can’t do a LOT of replacing with butter, coconut oil and margarine don’t make a good replacement you CAN use 3/4 cup of olive oil for each cup of butter in baking or use shortening
• Cream of Tartar use 1 teaspoon of lemon juice for every 1/2 teaspoon of Cream of Tartar

Common Cooking Substitutions

• Milk: to make a good milk substitute combine 1/2 cup of evaporated milk with 1/2 cup of water
• Milk for soups again evaporated milk to the rescue!
• Chopped Onions use 1 teaspoon onion powder OR dried onion flakes per 1/3 of a cup of chopped onions this will give you the flavor but not the bulk of onions
• Tomato Sauce for every two cups use 3/4 cup of tomato paste and 1 cup water, whisk smooth
• Light Cream mix 1 tablespoon of butter with enough milk to make one cup-do not use for whipping cream
• Dry Bread Crumbs replace 1:1 with cracker crumbs or cornflake crumbs
• Cornstarch for thickening replace with flour, you need to use 2 Tablespoons of flour to replace 1 Tablespoon of cornstarch
• Wine in soups or stews? Use broth or apple juice instead
• No Chicken, Beef or Vegetable Broth? Replace with an Instant Pot Vegetable Broth which uses most vegetables (things you throw away) and a few herbs to make the perfect CHEAP AND FREE broth
• OILS you can pretty swap out most oils for each other but remember oils will return to their solid-state if stored at that temperature
• BEANS! You can use dried beans for canned beans but you need to soak them first. Here’s a little graphic to get you started! And check out this Collection of Bean Recipes to get you cooking with dried beans!