Since moving to India, I've made everything from crackers to ice cream sandwiches from scratch. I've also tried all sorts of baking substitutions. My success with these kitchen experiments has ranged from fabulous to disastrous.
Here are the successful baking substitutions I've tried.
- Cream of tartar: equal amount of white vinegar or lemon juice
- chocolate chips: cut up a chocolate candy bar (yum)
- Vanilla extract: almond extract (adds a different flavor, but still good)
- Sour cream: plain yogurt (in baking)
- Plain yogurt: milk (I used this substitution making muffins and it worked well)
- Whole wheat flour: ground oatmeal (just put it in the blender)
And here are the baking substitutions that didn't work for me.
- Powdered sugar (icing sugar): Grind up regular sugar with some cornstarch in the blender
- Brown sugar: white sugar + honey
- Corn syrup: honey
- Sour cream: plain yogurt + dash of lemon juice (fine for baking, but not good for putting on tacos)
I've already posted the best from scratch recipes I've tried on mommysavers, and they're listed at the end of this post. Here's the worst one: homemade corn syrup. It solidified into a chunk of rock sugar. Yuck.
The cracker recipes I tried were just “ok.” I think the savory crackers would have been great if I had been making them in a jelly roll pan in an American oven, but my pan cooked them unevenly.
I love graham crackers and miss them a lot, but these turned out more cookie-like than the Honey Maid. The kids liked them though.
And here are all the successful from scratch recipes I've made in India. So far! I'm still perfecting homemade marshmallows.
- Homemade Ice Cream Sandwiches
- Homemade Popsicles
- Frugal Foreigner From Scratch: Homemade English Muffins
- Frugal Foreigner From Scratch: Homemade Chocolate Sauce
- Frugal Foreigner From Scratch: Homemade Soft Pretzels
- Frugal Foreigner From Scratch: Homemade Chocolate Pudding
- Frugal Foreigner From Scratch: Homemade Hummus and Pita Bread
- Frugal Foreigner From Scratch: Homemade Tortillas
- Frugal Foreigner: Breakfast for Dinner
- Mardi Gras Recipe: French Beignets
If you can get molasses, then mixing 1 cup sugar to 1-2 tablespoons of molasses (depending how dark you want it) you’ll get brown sugar.
You can probably find date molasses in India and can usually substitute that (mixed with granulated sugar) for brown sugar…
I make sour cream here in Bangalore. My husband prefer this over the store bought sour cream in America. We haven’t had side-affect from it. It could be the type of good bacteria in the yogurt.
1. Mix equal parts milk (prefer Nestle) and cream.
2. Cover and let rest for 5 hours at room temperature.
3. Refrigerate for two days.