Top 10 Ingredient Substitutions

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! If you're hosting Thanksgiving this year and you're anything like me, you have forgotten some ingredient that you thought you had or skimmed over in the recipe when you were making your grocery list. You can't very well leave all of the other things that you have started cooking and, well-intended as they may be, if your guy isn't the one who regularly cooks or does the grocery shopping, whatever he comes back with has roughly a 20% chance of being exactly what you need. One of my favorite cook books, especially around the holidays, is the America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook. It has a ton of product recommendations and pictures so that  you know you are getting the desired results. One of the awesome things this book has to offer is a list of emergency substitutions for ingredients that you may not have on hand, check out the top ten below. I wish you all happy, safe, and sane cooking!

To Replace	Amount	Substitution
Baking Powder	1 tsp.	1/4 tsp baking soda + 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar (use right away)
Heavy Cream	1 Cup	1 cup evaporated milk (only use this for soups and sauces)
Fresh Herbs	1 Tbsp	1 teaspoon of dried herbs
Sour Cream	1 Cup	1 cup plain whole-milk yogurt (and visa-versa if you forgot yogurt)
Buttermilk	1 Cup	1 cup milk + 1 Tablespoon lemon juice or white vinegar (Let stand to thicken, about 10 minutes. Not suitable for raw applications such as buttermilk dressing) Also - this really makes you think twice about cooking with butter milk - no?
Wine	1/2 cup	1/2 cup broth + 1 teaspoon wine vinegar (added just befor serving) 1/2 cup broth + 1 teaspoon lemon juice (added just before serving) Vermouth makes a good substitute for white wine (But really, if you forgot wine just give up now!!)
Confectioners' Sugar	1 Cup	1 cup granulated sugar + 1 teaspoon cornstarch, ground in a blender (not a food processor) - Works well for dusting over cakes, less so in frostings and glazes.
Cake Flour	1 Cup	7/8 cup all-purpose flour + 2 Tablespoons cornstartch
Dark Brown Sugar	1 Cup	1 cup granulated sugar + 2 Tablespoon molasses (pulse together in a food processor)
Unsweetened Chocolate	1 Oz.	3 Tablespoons cocoa powder + 1 Tablespoon vegetable oil 1 1/2 oz bittersweet or semisweet chocolate (remove 1 Tablespoon sugar from the recipe)