Recipe Club

Substitutions

Our handy substitution hints might save you having to dash to the shops!

  • Self-raising flour 1 cup self-raising flour = 1 cup plain flour + 1½ teaspoons baking powder.
  • Butter 250g butter = the same quantity of margarine or 7/8 cup of oil (if recipe required melted butter).
  • Egg 1 whole egg = 2 egg yolks + 1 tablespoon water.
  • Caster sugar place white sugar in a food processor and pulse for approximately 1 minute until the grains are finer.
  • Dark Brown Sugar 1 cup Dark Brown Sugar = 1 cup Caster Sugar + ¼ cup Treacle or Golden Syrup.
  • Soft Brown Sugar 1 cup Soft Brown Sugar = 1 cup Caster Sugar + 2 Tbsp Golden Syrup.
  • Milk 1 cup blue or light blue milk = ½ cup water + ½ cup evaporated milk or cream. Alternatively use soy milk.
  • Buttermilk 1 cup buttermilk = ½ cup plain non-fat yoghurt + ½ cup milk.
  • Sour cream 1 cup sour cream = 1 cup milk + 1 tablespoon lemon juice or white vinegar stirred through and allowed to stand for 5 minutes to sour.
  • Baking powder 1 teaspoon baking powder = ¼ teaspoon baking soda + ½ cup buttermilk or sour milk and reduce the liquid in the recipe by half.
  • Cornstarch 1 tablespoon cornstarch = 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour.
  • Lemon juice small amounts of lemon juice e.g. 1 teaspoon can be substituted with vinegar. 1 tsp lemon juice = ½ teaspoon vinegar.
  • Honey 1 cup honey = 1 cup & 2 Tbsp of sugar + ¼ cup of the same liquid used in the recipe.
  • Unsalted butter – many US and UK recipes call for unsalted butter. You can buy unsalted butter in NZ, however regular butter (salted) is fine to use in your recipes.
  • Shortening 1 cup shortening = 1 cup butter or margarine.
  • Cinnamon 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon = ½ teaspoon ground all spice.
  • All Spice 1 teaspoon all spice = ½ teaspoon ground cloves + ½ teaspoon cinnamon