The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

subbing ingredients

mean_jeannie's picture
mean_jeannie

subbing ingredients

What do you think of substituting ingredients in recipes?  Do you do it?  Many traditional foodies will swap raw honey for sugar in a recipe for example, but I find I am unsure of the proper ratio when subbing ingredients or how the results will be affected.  Conversely, what about omitting ingredients?  Say a recipe calls for an egg but you don't have one or don't eat eggs.  I suppose this would all boil down to trial and error.

Just a thought I was having.

PaddyL's picture
PaddyL

If you mean ingredients for bread, I do it all the time.  No honey?  Maple syrup, or sugar, but I'd use less sugar.  Shortening or butter, substitute canola/safflower/peanut/corn oil.  One egg in a bread recipe won't make that much difference if you leave it out, but more than one would change the texture.

Marni's picture
Marni

I do it all the time.  To me that's a big part of the fun of baking - experimenting.  Of course, it does take experience to know that some ideas just won't work.  PaddyL mentioned some examples.  Substituting liquid sweeteners for sugar means cutting back on other liquids is another.

Marni

mkelly27's picture
mkelly27

I've never used either Diastaltic or non-diastaltic malt syrup , ever.  I just blank that part out in recipes and use maple syrup.

    I make maple syrup every spring and usually have a few gallons on hand.  Most of my bread fans are delighted to know that the seeded rye sandwich loaf had no sugar but maple syrup in it.