Buttermilk…how I hate you! I want muffins, and every recipe that I look up seems to include you. And yet, I’ve never been to the store and seen “non-dairy buttermilk” sitting on the shelf. So frustrating!
Anyone in the same boat? If you look up “non-dairy buttermilk substitutes” on Google, you’re bound to get a plethora of useless information. Everyone’s favorite piece of advice seems to be to add lemon juice to almond or soy milk. This works for regular, dairy-filled milk because the lemon juice causes curdling. When I tried this with almond milk, I just got a very interestingly-flavored almond milk. That’s right: absolutely nothing happened. The lemon almond milk behaved exactly the same as regular almond milk – it just tasted weird. Perhaps that’s because curdling or a sour taste in almond milk (or soy milk) is a sign that it’s gone bad. Whatever the case, I couldn’t figure out a substitute for the evil buttermilk.
So what would happen if I just skipped the substitution and used regular almond milk instead? This is what I did for years, but it yields some disappointing results. In baking, my recipes tasting like something was missing. Sometimes the consistency was all wrong. So I spent a lot of time scouring the internet for recipes that did not have buttermilk in the first place, which turns out to be very limiting.
Then, my husband asked me to make his family’s special chocolate cake for his birthday. (I’m still working on perfecting the icing, so that will be a different blog post). The recipe calls for a bunch of dairy and quite a bit of buttermilk. There was no way I could get away with just using almond milk, so I turned to the Google machine again for answers. This time, I found a blog called Joy the Baker with an interesting idea about using plain non-dairy yogurt (you can check it out here). Excited, I quickly ran to the store, baby in toe, to purchase the substitute that would change my baking life forever…and I couldn’t find it anywhere. In fact, I discovered that no store in my area sells plain non-dairy yogurt. This was more annoying than a 10 hour car ride with Jar Jar Binks! Irked, I finally decided to grab the only thing on the shelf that had the thickness of yogurt and the acidity of buttermilk: imitation sour cream.
And you know what? It worked perfectly! *Insert happy dance here* I’m super excited to share this substitution with you all. Here is the magical formula:
Perfect Buttermilk Substitute
1 cup buttermilk = 2/3 cup imitation sour cream + 1/3 cup almond or soy milk
1/2 cup buttermilk = 1/3 cup imitation sour cream + 1/6 cup almond or soy milk
- Since there’s no such thing as a 1/6 measuring cup, use a Pyrex or similar container. Add the imitation sour cream up to the 1/3 line, and then add your milk substitute on top of that up to the 1/2 line. That should give you the correct amount.
To practice substituting buttermilk, I’m sharing my favorite recipe for chocolate chip oatmeal muffins. When I just used almond milk in this recipe, the muffins tasted great but had the consistency of a doorstop. Now that I use my buttermilk substitute, I can no longer get away with making only one batch!
Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Muffins
Yield: 9 muffins
Ingredients:
- 2/3 cup imitation sour cream
- 1/3 cup almond or soy milk
- 1 cup rolled oats (not quick oats)
- 1 large egg
- 1/4 cup brown sugar (dark or golden)
- 1/2 cup margarine, melted and slightly cooled
- 1 cup + 2Tbsp all-purpose flour
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 3/4 tsp cinnamon
- 1/8 tsp ginger
- Splash of vanilla extract
- Mini chocolate chips
Directions:
- Mix imitation sour cream, milk substitute, and oats together in a large bowl. Let it sit for at least 1 hour (but not overnight).
- Preheat the oven to 375°.
- Grease the muffin tin or line it with cupcake papers.
- Add egg, brown sugar, and melted butter to the bowl with the soaking oats. Mix.
- Add the rest of the ingredients, but don’t overmix your batter.
- Fill your muffin tins 2/3 full with delicious batter.
- Bake for 10-15 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
Have you tried this buttermilk substitute? How did it go? Do you have another substitute that works well? I would love to hear from you!
May the Force be with you!
– Master NoMoo
MasterNoMoo 