Buttermilk Brownies

I’ve never cared for the taste of buttermilk straight up from the bottle, but in a recipe it is an entirely different story. When I first started baking with buttermilk, I didn’t really know what buttermilk was. Buttermilk is essentially the liquid that remains after churning butter…the milk from the butter. It has a yogurt-y flavor and is thicker than regular milk, but not as thick as heavy cream. Most commercially made buttermilk is made by adding a lactic acid bacteria culture to pasteurized skim or non-fat milk (and may or may not have added butter flecks).

These buttermilk brownies call for a small amount of buttermilk, so if you don’t have buttermilk in stock and don’t want to purchase an entire bottle, then you have a few homemade options before you:

1. Substitute for buttermilk: Pour 1 tablespoon of white vinegar or lemon juice in a liquid measuring cup. Then pour enough milk in the measuring cup to bring the liquid up to the 1 cup mark. Let stand for 5 minutes, then use as buttermilk replacement in your recipe.
2. Make buttermilk at home: Pour 1 cup of heavy cream (avoid ultra-pasteurized) in a medium mixing bowl. Use an electric mixer to whip the cream until you have butter. Pour off the clear buttermilk liquid to use in your recipe. [If you want to use the butter, knead it under cold water for a couple of minutes to remove any residual buttermilk. Then store in your refrigerator until ready to use.]