If you’re anything like me, you’ll decide you want something for dinner or dessert, but you’re missing one of those common ingredients almost every recipe calls for. That leaves you with a few options.
- Skip the food item until you buy the ingredient. (Sucks, because you wanted that treat tonight!)
- Run out to the store to buy the ingredient. (Sucks, because then you have to go out, drive, spend money, and it feels like a waste just for some buttermilk or whatever.)
- Use a substitute ingredient you have. (Sucks, because it probably won’t taste as good.)
Or, you can do what I’ve been doing more and more: just make the missing ingredient! A lot of common ingredients that you need, but might not keep on hand, can be made this way out of other ingredients you have.
A bunch of these are things I’ve already written about here on Flour and Sunflowers, so I’ll link to posts when I have them. Others I haven’t, so I’ll just describe them here. Check it out! Maybe I’ll save dessert tonight.
Oh, and if you have a request for something you often have to swap or don’t keep on hand, let me know! I might just have the perfect recipe for you.
Cinnamon Baking Chips
This is one I made just recently. The baking aisle is full of things you buy and use for one recipe, then have half a bag sitting around for ages, and this is no exception. Delightful nuggets of cinnamon go great in all kinds of baking recipes, but it’s really easy to forget whether or not you have any. So, make your own! It only takes half an hour, and the ingredients list is super short.
Berry Coulis
Sometimes a dessert calls for a fruit sauce and you don’t have one, but you do have fresh or frozen fruit you can use. In that case, something you can make is a coulis! A coulis is just a fruit sauce, but it’s pureed and strained so there’s no seeds and not much pulp to it. That leaves you with a thick, strongly-flavored fruit sauce with none of the seeds or fruit bits to get in the way. My recipe is for a raspberry coulis, but it works mostly the same with any other fruit you want to use.
Berry Compote
If you don’t want to go through all of the hoops of a coulis and don’t mind some fruit chunks, a compote is perfect. I make berry compote all the time! It’s perfect for pancakes, waffles, or french toast, it goes great on toast in place of jam, and it’s wonderful as a topping for ice cream or other desserts. It’s also really easy to make, since you just cook down some fruit with a bit of lemon juice and sugar.
Lemon Curd
Lemon curd, if you’re like me, is a slightly mysterious substance that comes from jars. I had never thought to make it before, but it’s actually surprisingly easy, as long as you treat it right. It’s definitely a recipe with a little risk, since you can accidentally scramble the eggs if you aren’t careful, but once you get the hang of it, you’ll have a bright and tangy curd that puts any store-bought curd to shame.
Salted Caramel Sauce
While we’re on the subject of sauces, caramel sauce is another thing I don’t often keep on hand. Caramel can be super tricky and intimidating, but as it turns out, it’s a little more forgiving than cooking shows would have you believe. Once you make it, you’ll wonder why you ever bought it! And, honestly, if you mess up? Then you’ve probably just made some caramel candies. Unless you burn it, but try not to do that.
Pie Crust
Pie crust is another thing I used to buy a lot, but got tired of having to run out and get when the holidays came around. Half the time the store sold out because everyone else had the same idea! I don’t know why I wasted my time, honestly; a pie crust is incredibly easy to make, and then you can fill it with any kind of pie filling you want. Now, the top crust is trickier if you want a lattice or a funky design, but the recipe would be basically the same.
Shortbread Tart Crusts
What if pies, but smol? Tiny tartlets are easy to make and turn into bite-size tarts, and you can fill them with just about anything. My recipe made lemon tarts, but things like the coulis or compote above are also good choices, as is any pie filling you like.
Butter, Salted and Unsalted
If your image of making butter involves a floofy dress, a barrel with a big stick, and a lot of manual labor, well, good news: we have tools now. A stand mixer makes it a heck of a lot easier, and making your own butter is surprisingly rewarding. It’s also tastier than a lot of store-bought butters, and you can customize it with herbs, spices, and anything else you want.
Condensed Milk
Condensed milk comes up in a lot of regional baked goods, and it’s not usually something I keep around, since I don’t often make those treats. The good news is, it takes less than ten minutes to make your own condensed milk, and then it works perfectly for recipes that call for it. Make some brigadeiros, a milk cake, or some fudge with it and you’re probably not going back to the canned stuff again.
Chocolate Ganache
A chocolate ganache is a flexible kind of chocolate you can use as a coating, a topping, or an ingredient. Thicker than syrup, it solidifies easily, and can be used as a shell or coating for other desserts too. I make this ganache at least once a month for something.
Apple Pie or Pumpkin Spice Mix
Whether you call it pie spice mix or pumpkin spice mix, it’s the same thing; a potent spice based on cinnamon that mixes all of the flavors of autumn baking that you’re used to. It’s just a mix of cinnamon, allspice, clove, ginger, and nutmeg, and you can adjust the proportions to suit your preferences. Start with my recipe and tailor it to your tastes.
Cake and Bread Flours
This is one I’ve made before but haven’t had cause to write a whole post about, so no picture or link here (or for the next few, for now.) A lot of us keep all-purpose flour on hand, but run into recipes that call for either cake flour or bread flour. Can you make one out of the other?
Cake flour is basically the same as normal flour, but it has a little less protein in it. This makes it lighter and fluffier for cake batters, with less risk of overworking it into something denser and tougher.
To make a homemade cake flour substitute, for every two cups of AP flour, remove a quarter cup of it and replace it with a quarter cup of corn starch. This maintains the texture and consistency of the flour, but removes protein/gluten, for a lighter flour.
What about bread flour? Bread flour is the opposite of cake flour; it has slightly more protein than bread flour. Unfortunately, adding protein is a little harder than removing it. If you happen to have vital wheat gluten lying around, it’s about 3 teaspoons per 2 cups of AP flour (remove 3 tsp flour, add 3 tsp wheat gluten). If not, well, you’re a little out of luck.
Fortunately, most recipes calling for bread flour will probably work just fine with AP flour and a little bit more mixing.
Buttermilk
I use buttermilk a lot… is what I would say, if I ever kept buttermilk on hand. For one thing, it’s surprisingly hard to find at my local stores, and half the time it’s sold out. For another, it only tends to come in containers two or three times the amount I use, and I often end up letting it go bad instead of using it all. So, I learned a trick to make fake buttermilk that works basically the same.
Making a homemade buttermilk substitute is as easy as taking whole milk (sorry, skim drinkers, you need the fat content) and adding an acid. Some people use vinegar, but I prefer lemon juice. Either way, it’s the same amount.
To make one cup of “buttermilk”, add 1 tablespoon of lemon juice to a measuring cup, then fill the cup up to the 1 cup line with milk. Give it a stir; it may curdle a bit, but that’s fine. You can then let it sit until you’re ready to add it to your recipe.
Your Requests
So, there you go! A bunch of recipes I use to make ingredients when I don’t have them on hand and can’t be bothered to go get them. I’ll be adding to this post as I run into others, so if you have any suggestions or requests, let me know in the comments below!