How to Make Buttermilk

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I have also started posting tips & tricks on my Facebook page, but I am deciding to post them on the blog as well because its much more easy to open the blog then to login to Facebook and then open my page, and then open the notes section. 

Starting off the tips with some easy substitutions. There are so many times when you have to skip a recipe because you are missing an ingredient, or its unavailable or its too expensive. Turns out there are a number of basic baking ingredients that can easily & inexpensively be made at home. 

I am going to start with buttermilk - a complicated sounding name but with the most simplest substitution possible. 

First of all, what is buttermilk. Buttermilk is the liquid left when butter is churned out of whole milk. The taste is slightly sour, with the sourness resulting from the acids in the milk. Despite its name, there is no butter in buttermilk, and in fact it is actually lower in fat than regular milk or cream. Since relatively few people churn butter, what is available in markets abroad (not in Pakistan) is cultured buttermilk which is a pasteurized milk product where a culture of lactic acid is added to milk to curdle and sour the milk.

That is the literal definition of buttermilk, however, why its important in baking is because of the following:

1. It adds a tangy flavor to cakes, breads & biscuits.

2. It helps in making tender & light baked goods.

3. Since it is acidic, it neutralizes the sodium carbonate which is released after adding baking soda & can leave a metallic taste to baked goods. Generally recipes utilizing buttermilk will have baking soda instead of baking powder as baking powder is acidic in nature and may not properly react with the acid in buttermilk. 

And now a simple & quick method to make buttermilk at home! 

How to make Buttermilk 

Ingredients:

Milk - 1 cup

Vinegar or Lemon Juice - 1 tbsp 

Method:

1. Place one cup of milk in a bowl.

2. Add one tablespoon of vinegar or lemon juice.

3. Allow the mixture to stand for five minutes till its slightly thickened and you can see see small curds. 

4. Use buttermilk in recipe.

Recipes that buttermilk is used in on my blog:

One Bowl Chocolate Cake

http://kayshouseoftreats.blogspot.com/2013/03/one-bowl-chocolate-wonder.html