Buttermilk is a fantastic ingredient for baking! It’s the secret to making extra light and fluffy bakes like muffins, red velvet cake and pancakes, and also adds moisture and a delicious tang to balance sweetness.

It isn’t something that one often has lying around in their fridge though, and it can be so frustrating when you’re gearing up to bake only to discover that you’re missing one of the key ingredients. But we’ve got a solution! On days like these – or if you only need a small amount of buttermilk and don’t want to waste a whole carton – you can make an easy substitute at home using just 2 ingredients!

The 2 ingredients

Acidity is what gives buttermilk its transformative properties. So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that to make your own ‘acidified buttermilk’ substitute, you’ll need a foodgrade acid + milk.

• Acid: Fresh lemon juice or any clear vinegar, like white spirit or apple cider, are suitable.
• Milk: We prefer using full cream milk, although low-fat, skim or even non-dairy varieties can be used.

How to make

YOU WILL NEED:
1 tbsp fresh lemon juice or vinegar
Scant 1 cup milk of choice

1. Place the lemon juice or vinegar in a measuring jug, then fill up to the 1 cup (250ml) line with milk. Note: This method gives you exactly 1 cup of buttermilk to use in your recipe. If the final amount doesn’t need to be accurate, you can just add a full cup of milk.
2. Gently stir to combine, then set aside undisturbed for 10 minutes before using. Don’t be alarmed if the texture looks a little unappetising – depending on the milk you’ve used, it may curdle and thicken slightly.

Conversions

A big part of our NOMU MiniMakes range is low to no waste. If you don’t need as much as a cup of buttermilk, you can make exactly what you need following the same ratio and method above, i.e…

• 1/4 cup buttermilk = 3/4 tsp lemon juice or vinegar + 1/4 cup milk of choice
• 1/3 cup buttermilk = 1 tsp lemon juice or vinegar + 1/3 cup milk of choice
• 1/2 cup buttermilk = 1 1/2 tsp lemon juice or vinegar + 1/2 cup milk of choice

etc.

Substituting

You can substitute buttermilk 1 : 1 with your homemade acidified buttermilk.