Switching and Swapping

Hi guys! Long time no see! I’ve been really tied up since September so have just not had time to post 😦 but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been baking! In fact I’ve probably been baking more than ever. At new year, I catered for a party for a friend, which included several lasagnes, a chocolate and salted caramel mousse, a strawberry mascarpone tart, a peach melba pavlova, a white chocolate cheesecake with raspberry coulis, and a maple pecan tart! And of course I still bake almost every weekend for my grandparents, who love a sweet treat. Also, with a brand new edition to the family, a beloved red Kitchen Aid, who has been named Betsy, it means that I have a much easier time in the kitchen!

I thought I would do a post about substitutions, as usually my posts consist of recipes I’ve tried out, but I thought it would be a good idea to do a few posts on general kitchen advice etc, as when you start out baking, some things can be a bit tricky!

 SUGARS

There are so many different types of sugars. So many- at least 10 that spring to mind for baking. And they all have different colours, granule sizes, flavours. Which means they’re all better suited to different things. This doesn’t mean they can’t be switched and swapped! I love experimenting for different flavours and textures, but here’s a general idea of the ones that can be substituted for one another for similar results:

• any dark sugars can be interchanged (muscovado, brown sugar, molasses sugar, demerara- although this has slightly larger grains, so the texture will be a little different- nice in cookies though!)
• similar with white sugars- interchangeable
• honey can be substituted, and adds extra flavour – use around 70g for 100g sugar
• syrups can also be substituted- e.g. maple syrup- use 65g per 100g sugar and reduce other liquids by 2 tbsp
• apple sauce- this isn’t as sweet, but adds a nice flavour, and you can always keep some of the sugar- use the same amount as sugar

FATS 

this is one that I have struggled with in the past. My best friend is lactose intolerant, so when a recipe calls for butter, I would always need to find an alternative, unless I wanted to make her ill (not the aim when trying to please with treats!) Here’s a few ideas:

• oil- when I use this instead of butter, I use about 80% of the usual quantity in the recipe, and add a little extra dry ingredients or reduce other liquid quantities slightly- however, in biscuits, it provides a much crunchier texture. In cakes, it usually makes it very moist (such as carrot cake- an oil-based cake!)
• Peanut butter- another nice one, unless you’re allergic! use the same quantity, and it adds extra flavour too!
• Apple sauce- a great substitute for oil or butter
• Mashed banana- this can change the texture slightly, but gives a good flavour-use the same amounts as the recipe calls for in fat
• full fat greek yoghurt- this works well, but you may want to slightly reduce the liquid content of other ingredients (yoghurt is also a good substitute for buttermilk!)

 

GENERAL

just to cover the bases with a few more obscure ingredients:

• as mentioned above, yoghurt and buttermilk are interchangeable
• cream cheese- pureed cottage cheese
• mayonnaise- sour cream and yoghurt
• oats- rice flakes

HOPE THIS IS HELPFUL FOR YOU ALL