Comments on: What is Buttermilk?

By: Pam

Pam — Fri, 02 Feb 2024 16:45:13 +0000

I come from a long line of biscuit makers (and bakers) on both sides. My aunt (whose biscuits are to die for!) says that adding a teaspoon of baking soda will balance out the taste and make the sourness you describe (for vinegar and milk type buttermilk) non existent. It must work as a lot of people know that she always made the best biscuits!

By: Ken

Ken — Sun, 06 Aug 2023 17:53:11 +0000

I laminated this recipe dough three times and it was great! So east to make! The laminating just helped them rise even higher in the oven.
Served them split with macerated strawberries and whipped cream. Will def make this one again!!

By: Sharon Keef

Sharon Keef — Sat, 25 Jun 2022 20:19:10 +0000

In reply to Tessa Arias. Katie can u not sub. Sour cream for buttermilk

By: VictoriaSj

VictoriaSj — Sat, 27 Mar 2021 10:33:04 +0000

Hi Tessa, love your cookie book! I have done several recipes for the kids and they just love it and my baking skills have improved so much. Here in the Philippines we do not have the liquid buttermilk. Commonly I use the powdered buttermilk. What is the best substitute for a liquid buttermilk aside from the powdered one.

By: Mary

Mary — Mon, 01 Mar 2021 19:15:35 +0000

Thanks for another very interesting comparison. Sadly you didn’t compare my go to subsitution for buttermilk, which is homemade milk kefir…easy to make and always available in my fridge 🙂 I would love to hear your results.

By: Edgard

Edgard — Sat, 21 Mar 2020 21:43:58 +0000

I just came accross your videos yesterday, looking for information on baking soda vs baking powder. Since them I have watched and read a bunch of stuff. Everything is very good, and I really like your scientific approach to baking.
I can’t this weekend, but next I am going to try making buiscuits. It has been a long time since I tried my hand at them, and now I realize that I was over-mixing them a lot, which is probably why I was never satisfied with them…
I have a question about this recipe. I see that you use both baking soda and baking powder, and I was wondering why you didn’t just use baking powder?
The other question is related. I am from Panama City, Panama, and here buttermilk is very rare. I doubt that I can get a hold of some. So I will probably have to use milk. The question is this. Since I won’t be using the acidic buttermilk, do I need to add more baking powder, or remove the baking soda (as there won’t be an acid ingredient)?
Thanks!

By: Jim

Jim — Sat, 05 Jan 2019 19:29:40 +0000

I’m not an expert, but I believe when you make substitutions either with or for buttermilk, you have to adjust for the change in acidity or your results will not be good. Baking soda is alkaline and will react with the acidity in the buttermilk to make the carbon dioxide bubbles that raise the dough. Baking powder contains an acid along with baking soda, so it works to raise the dough all by itself. If you substitute buttermilk for regular milk, the extra acid will overwhelm the baking powder and it will not raise well, so you have to reduce or eliminate the baking powder and add some baking soda. The same is true in reverse. If a recipe is formulated for buttermilk it probably calls for baking soda. If you substitute regular milk there will not be enough acidity to react with the baking soda, so you need to replace it with more baking powder. I suspect that’s why some of your trials resulted in a finer crumb, because they weren’t able to raise fully.

By: Sidney Frank

Sidney Frank — Sun, 28 Oct 2018 19:51:44 +0000

Have you used buttermilk past the due date? It doesn’t seem to smell much different.

By: Jillian

Jillian — Fri, 27 Jul 2018 11:04:38 +0000

I’ve only ever tried vinegar or lemon in milk, so i’m curious about the yogurt option. How much yogurt and water would I need to make 1 cup of buttermilk substitute?

By: Tessa Arias

Tessa Arias — Tue, 12 Sep 2017 22:14:31 +0000

In reply to Nathalia. I'm so glad you thought so, Nathalia!