Monday Q&A | Homemade Desserts and Using Up Dairy
Every Monday, I answer a few of the questions that my readers send me. If you have a question you'd like me to answer in a future Q&A post, just leave me a comment here or email me (thefrugalgirl [at] gmail [dot] com) and put Q&A in the subject line. I look forward to hearing from you!
To limit sweets eating do you only serve homemade treats (not processed cookies or candy, etc) and not every day and only with some meals? We eat healthy foods but sweets are our downfall. I love your blog. It is very helpful and uplifting to me! Thanks for taking the time and energy it takes to provide so much goodness to people. Your optimistic attitude is very helpful for me.
-Linda
I'm so glad my blog is encouraging to you!
I'm actually kind of a slacker when it comes to non-bread baking. My kids would love it if I made more home-baked desserts, but there are only so many hours in a day. 😉
I do sometimes make granola bars or energy balls for dessert, but otherwise my kids usually eat something like two Starburst candies, or a small piece of chocolate.
I'm mostly of the opinion that dessert is rarely healthy, so I focus more on portion control than on trying to come up with healthy desserts.
I've been trying to cut back on our grocery budget each month by using things up before they go bad and also only buying things I will actually use all of. I've noticed I seem to have a great deal of difficulty using things like half and half, whipping cream, etc. that I buy to use in specific recipes. I know about the buttermilk substitute of milk and vinegar but do you know of substitutes for any of the other kinds of dairy? I hate the idea of making something we won't eat just to use the leftovers..that's more wasteful that just throwing it out to begin with. Would love to hear any suggestions you might have!
Erin
I do tend to buy specific dairy products like buttermilk and half and half, because the substitutes never seem to be quite as good (especially buttermilk substitutes. There's just nothing quite like real buttermilk). The good thing about dairy products is that I find them to be quite versatile, and so I rarely have trouble using them all up (as long as I'm paying attention!). If you become skilled at using up various dairy products, you won't have to rely on inferior substitutes.
You can use buttermilk to make pancakes, waffles, or biscuits. If you have more than you can use right away, you can freeze the buttermilk, although it won't be as thick when it thaws.
Half and half and whipping cream can be added to eggs when you scramble them, used in place of milk in baking recipes, or thrown into a smoothie (whipping cream takes yogurt/fruit smoothies to a whole new level!). Half and half and whipping cream can also be frozen.
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Readers, do you have any good substitutes to suggest to Erin? And if you've got a great way to use up things like half and half or buttermilk, I'd love for you to share it.
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Today's 365 post: Who designs a pot with no holes in the bottom?
Joshua's 365 post: Cool Cars
I keep powdered buttermilk on my shelf for use in recipes requiring the same. It may be a little expensive but you get much more out of the container and it lasts.
I do the same for baked goods, adding the powder with the flour and the water when I'm supposed to add the buttermilk. Since none is wasted and it's there when I need it, I consider it a win. Also, I don't like commercial cultured buttermilk. To me it bears only a faint resemblence to real buttermilk (ie, what's left over after one makes butter from cream), so I don't notice the difference between cultured buttermilk and buttermilk powder.
update! the october 2011 "cook's illustrated" answers the question about buttermilk. To summarize, while the producer claims that buttermilk should be used with in 5 to 7 days of opening, other reputable guidelines claimed up to 2 weeks. Anecdotal experience shows buttermilk lasting up to 3 weeks / until mold grows. So, they did an experiment via a taste test of buttermilk pancakes made from brand new, 1-week-old, 2-week-old, and 3-week-old pancakes. The older milk retains its tartness but loses its buttery flavor. So, it's safe to eat, but won't taste as delicious.
i meant 1-week-old, 2-week-old, and 3-week-old BUTTERMILK
When I purchase a large container of buttermilk, I immediately bring it home and pour it into 8ounce freezer containers...( I like BALL freezer jars)....most of my recipes call for 1 cup of buttermilk, so I just thaw one out overnight in the refrigerator. This has saved us so much money.
I could be wrong, but isn't half and half - half cream and half milk? So you could just buy cream and mix your own half and half. That would save you two cartons to go bad.
I've always treated it thus and never had any issues with recipes. I never buy half and half.
Half and half is indeed half heavy cream and half whole milk. However, it is also homogenized, whereas your homemade mixture is not (only the fat in the whole milk would be homogenized. For most recipes, this isn't an issue, but do NOT put it in your coffee! The heavy cream doesn't mix in right, and everything looks curdled, even if it's not.
I, like Jean, use powdered buttermilk. Or, if I have too much of one of these things...:
- soda bread
- rice pudding (I've also been known to throw a vanilla yogurt in here)
- regular
- ice cream
- icings (and then toss in fridge or freezer; I feel like the sugar keeps it good longer)
Basically, I just use them to make already-delicious things even more delicious. Nomnomnom.
Whenever I decide to make a meal that involves a rarely used dairy product, like buttermilk or whipping cream, I look at the expiration date (which is usually pretty far into the future) and make a note to use it up by that date. When I'm making my meal plans, I choose other recipes that would use that item. We all do this with the meat in our freezer or veggies that we need to use up. I just add the dairy items to my list of criteria when picking recipes.
I use whole milk yogurt in recipes that call for buttermilk. Maybe it's because I've never used buttermilk much, but I find it perfectly good for scones, banana bread, and biscuits. Lemon yogurt also works in banana bread, because the flavor is masked.
I often eat plain yogurt mixed with honey, so it's easy to keep on hand and use it up regularly.
From a chemistry standpoint, regular milk is a workable substitute for buttermilk EXCEPT if the recipe uses baking soda for leaven and there's no other acid. IOW,
1. if the product is supposed to rise (say, biscuits), and
2. uses baking soda to make the rise, and
3. there's no other acidic ingredient, such as molasses or lemon juice
THEN regular milk won't work. Buttermilk is acidic, milk is not. Without the acid, the baking soda can't do its job properly.
From a taste standpoint ... well, taste varies. Buttermilk adds a tang that milk doesn't. Whether milk is a good substitute depends on your taste preferences. If you like the tang you could try using sour cream or yogurt, or - if these are too thick - either combined with milk.
thanks for the information, William!
I like to add whipping cream or half & half to a pasta sauces for a creamier version of the original. It's a great way to add a little something extra once in awhile and use up the dairy as well. Also, pasta sauces are a great way to use up some almost-too-wilty spinach. This has been effective even for the non-spinach lovers, because the flavors of pasta sauce are much stronger than the spinach.
Casseroles are very forgiving. Sub any close-dated dairy product for liquids in scalloped potatoes with ham, tuna-noodle, broccoli-chicken-rice, etc. I've used oldish dairy products in yogurt, as well -- makes a richer yogurt, which is nice once in a while, and yogurt is sure to get used quickly.
Also, re. mixing half-and-half -- look at the fat content (memory says cream is 45 percent, half-and-half is 15 or so, and milk is 4, 2, 1, 0 percent, depending) and calculate the parts to get the milkfat percentage of the required ingredient, rather than just mixing half of one with half of the other. (I've done this fairly often but have discovered it doesn't work with ice cream -- I imagine it has something to do with the homogenization process.)
I, too, have found that 2% or 4% milk can substitute for some or all of the cream in quite a few recipes. Examples include creamy soups (like New England Clam Chowder), cheese sauce for vegetables, and casseroles if the texture doesn't have to be perfect (#1 example: green bean casserole). I've never substituted in baked goods, but I don't make that many of them.
I once bought a quart of buttermilk from a local dairy and then realized that a quart is a lot of buttermilk for 2 people to use up, so I had to look up things to do with it. 🙂 One of my favorites was Buttermilk dressing (http://allrecipes.com/recipe/lettuce-with-buttermilk-dressing/detail.aspx). Also, I read that you can keep cultured buttermilk in the fridge and as long as nothing is growing in it, it's safe, kind of like yogurt. I don't know about that extreme, but I did have mine for weeks and weeks, and it was fine.
I forgot to say that if 4% milk isn't something you usually keep around, either, and even a quart is too much, you can buy it in single-serving sizes are convenience stores.
I know someone who freezes half n half in ice cube trays and then when they are frozen stores them in a ziploc bag in the freezer to put in coffee at a later date. Don't know if it would cool your coffee down too much (you could try pouring in a little coffee over the cube to letting it melt and then filling up the rest so it doesn't cool down the whole cup).
My standby dessert for using extra whipping cream is a really cheat version of cheesecake. I just posted it today.
I use whole milk in recipes that call for half and half, and it doesn't seem to make TOO much of a difference. I usually don't make things that call for buttermilk; I just find a recipe that is similar that I can use regular milk for.
do you have a printable version of the granola bar recipe you mention in your first answer?
You could make a big batch of waffles (or pancakes I guess) with the buttermilk and freeze those. I love having homemade waffles ready to thaw and eat whenever I want a not-so-healthy breakfast (I have them as weekend treats), so I do this when I have extras.
This may not sound like a solution to the buttermilk problem but it works for me somehow. I think biscuits and pancakes are a thousand times better made with buttermilk than with any substitute or concoction. But, if I buy a carton just for one recipe the rest often goes to waste. I found that I can buy one carton of *cultured* buttermilk, and use half for the recipe, then I can mix the other half with regular milk, leave it out overnight, and voila - NEW fresh buttermilk. I just keep doing that so I always have a supply of fresh buttermilk. It helps me use up milk that I otherwise might have to throw out as well. Also, plain yogurt is a good substitute for sour cream in many recipes (though it might not be as great on a baked potato).
I routinely use yogurt instead of sour cream EXCEPT for sauces that get heated. Yogurt is too lean, it curdles when heated. Sour cream has a lot of fat so it doesn't curdle easily when heated.
The presence of protein is what allows it to curdle.
I have to agree with Jean and Molly about the powdered buttermilk. I never bought buttermilk because I don't make that many things with it. Then a friend introduced me to powdered buttermilk ( a Southern gal who grew up on real buttermilk and she doesn't find any difference). The beauty of powdered buttermilk is that it last forever and you always have buttermilk on hand.
Also, you can use whipping cream in place of butter in biscuits. I haven't tried this, but I have seen the recipe in my Gourmet cookbook.
Cream Biscuits
2 c all purpose flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/4 c heavy cream, plus additional for brushing
Combine dry ingredients in a bowl. Add cream and stir just until dough forms. Cut into biscuits and bake at 425 degrees for 12-15 mins.
I have never actually tried this recipe, but how can you go wrong putting heavy cream in your biscuits? LOL
There's a continuum of dairy products from heavy cream to skim milk (with sidebars for yogurt, sour cream, buttermilk, and creme fraiche.) In general, a recipe can survive going one up or one down on the fat scale, more than that the taste/mouthfeel changes enough that you have to experiment and decide for yourself.
So when I want to make a recipe that uses high-fat dairy, I look for other recipes that use the same or similar product. I also am careful about getting a distant expiration date, keeping it in the coldest part of my fridge, and getting ultra-pasturized heavy cream. I don't have any personal experience with freezing cream.
In many cases you can use evaporated milk (NOT sweetened condensed, which has a ton of sugar) 1:1 in place of cream. If you're careful you can even make something like whipped cream although the mouthfeel is different.
Organic dairy products are almost always ultra-pasturized. So, while they usually cost more on the front end, they have extra-long expiration dates, giving you more time to use them up.
Sweets for dessert may not be heathly, but there's definitely a range of unhealth. I prefer the unhealth that comes from butter and sugar, to the unhealth that comes from partially hydrogenated veg oil and unpronouncable ingredients, so I bake a fair amount.
I just used the remainder of my whipping cream in a pan sauce that I made for last night's dinner of grilled venison. Didn't use a recipe although you can easily find one. Sauteed shallots, beef stock, (a leftover that I had frozen to keep usuable), small amount of brandy, (I don't drink it but I do like to cook with it, but you can omit), and the remainder of an almost gone jar of currant jelly. Healthy pat of butter and then the cream to finish. Seasoned it at the end. Was luxurious tasty no doubt due to the small amount of cream in it.
I use buttermilk to make soda bread (I don't know if it has a different name in the USA) and it's absolutely scrummy. If I don't have enough I just make it up with milk or natural yogurt.
There's just nothing like home made Irish soda bread.
J x
why not just make homemade whipped cream with the whipping cream. If whipped to stiff peaks and stored in an airtight container, it will keep in the fridge for up to a week. You can re-whip it if it starts to fall. Two tablespoons on fresh fruit, dropped in coffee or hot cocoa, dabbed on a piece of bread, etc.
My preferred recipe, easily scaled:
1 c. whipping cream
2 T sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
I fold jam into the whipped cream and use it as a light frosting on angel food cake or a filling for crepes.
You can also experiment with whipping it into butter for rolls or whatever! we did that one time when I accidentally overbought by a whole pint, and it was yummy!
or butter!
My family wanted me to thank you for the idea to put leftover whipping cream in smoothies. We just had one with homemade yogurt - of course 🙂 - frozen raspberries, bananas, vanilla and whipping cream. They're in the kitchen scraping their glasses as I type this. Thanks, Kristen. 🙂
I use buttermilk in cornbread.....it's takes cornbread to a new level.
If you don't bake with buttermilk often, buy the very small size. At Walmart it's about 1.09. I do use a lot of it, as I bake a lot, and nothing makes cakes moister and pancakes more tender than buttermilk!
As was mentioned above, just purposely choose a recipe to use it if it's about to expire, and freeze the results if you're not using right away. Bonus! Freezer food!
Here's a great recipe from my blog that I make with any fruit that needs to be used up. It's great with blueberries, peaches and rhubarb depending the season. I use half and half or cream interchangeably in the recipe.http://www.joscountryjunction.com/?p=4152
Cream soups is another great way to use it up.
with buttermilk, mayo and herbs, you can whip up an excellent 'ranch dressing.' No chem, no packages, no bottles. (I don't like bottled ranch dressing myself)
I do this too! Homemade ranch-style dressing is 100% better than the stuff in the bottle!
If you have extra cream lying around, just put it in a mason jar and shake it until it turns to butter. And you can even make herb butter and put it in the freezer. Or you can whip it into butter. It turns into butter JUST past the whipped cream stage. You'll see it start to separate. Might not make much, but it's really handy to have around.
I just keep a list of things I make with those ingredients so I can have a pre-brainstormed idea of how to use it up...including those pesky recipes that call for yolks or whites! I find that buttermilk lasts quite a bit beyond the date so I don't worry as much about that, and our default for cream is that it usually winds up in a pasta sauce or soup.