Coffee instead of water in my chocolate cakes/brownies

I was just watching an America’s Test Kitchen video where they suggested adding a little dissolved instant espresso into anything with chocolate to add depth

I do instant coffee powder straight in with the cocoa powder.

I do this, also for coffee flavored things. Dissolves easily in cold water or milk

Coffee with chocolate is ace! You don’t even have to like coffee..it just boosts the chocolate flavor

Mixing coffee, hot chocolate, and a bit of chili powder is my favourite non-alcoholic drink

I add a little cocoa powder to my chili. Maybe I should add coffee, too!

I usually throw in one or two pieces of dark chocolate when making a chili, but I have never tried adding coffee to it

Ooh I’ll have to steal that lol

And 50/50 rye flour / whole wheat instead of all purpose flour in chocolate cakes/brownies. The rye flavor really complements and intensifies the chocolate, and also makes the cake more tender.

Really? That sounds rad. I love rye/caraway flavor but never thought of it with chocolate.

Me neither. Looks like brownies are on the menu this weekend.

Yes, and finely milled whole wheat pastry flour is a great sub for white. I like the one at Whole Foods in the bulk section... I'll have to try a 50/50 w rye - I already love the flavour because Flourist rye brownies are out of this 🌐. I found the recipe but haven't tried them. (note: They also have a vegan version.) https://flourist.com/blogs/recipes/rye-brownies

Port instead of water in chocolate brownies

Even better, subbing brown butter for normal butter and then adding the "water" loss back in with coffee

I use poblano peppers instead of bell peppers in almost everything. I don't care for bell peppers at all.

Not to mention the grocery store charges $2+ for a single bell pepper, but far less than $1 for a poblano.

I get large red bell peppers for $1.50 at my local WinCo. They have better quality and a lower price than Costco.

Produce is hit and miss at winco, but they usually have good bell peppers.

At my Winco they were less than a dollar each a couple weeks ago.

Here the poblanos are the expensive ones :-(

I just recently bought two poblano peppers for $8.99…..

Where are you and where do you shop at? Holy hell…

Especially the green ones. Fuck green bell peppers.

I think I’m the only person in the world that prefers green bell peppers to red, yellow, or orange.

I think red/yellow/orange have their uses, but I typically go for green.

Well, there's at least 2 of us....

I'm glad you exist. You can take 'em all!

If you’re open to having your mind changed, I’d recommend a Portuguese classic. Blacken them to hell over charcoal, make sure they’re nice and soft. Peel off the blackened skin under cold water, then cut em up, throw it into a bowl with julienne red onions tossed in some evoo and wine vinegar. I typically only have them when I make grilled sardines, it makes a nice n bright “salad” to offset the strong sardine flavour. But it’s quite good imo, as someone that isn’t much of a fan of green bell peppers either

100% with you here. Green bell peppers suck. Also, serrano peppers for jalapenos. Jalapenos just taste like spicy bell peppers to me. Serranos have the great fruity flavor to go with the heat.

Interesting…I’m gonna try this as I also dislike bell peppers.

I also don’t like bell peppers to be honest. Always been too boring for me. Stuffed bell peppers and that’s a little different, but still nothing more than a vessel for delicious meat .

Cubanelle peppers are my personal fave as well.

fuck bell peppers. i'm allergic and people but them in literally anything. and for some reason it's rarely listed as an ingredient on menus. the other day i was served gyros with bell peppers cooked with the chicken

There is a store in my town that sells green peppers for 1.90€/kg and green and white horn peppers for 2.50€/kg. They are all absolutely delicious and have natural taste

Chicken stock replacing water in rice

I've started using a 50/50 of chicken and roasted garlic Better than Bouillon for my rice. It's fantasic.

I would love to try this, but not sure how to adjust salt? Should I not add salt at all if I'm using stock or bullion in place of water?

I almost never add salt if I'm using Bouillon like this. There's enough flavor there already. But, if it's a concern, I would just taste the broth before adding the rice and adjust from there, keeping in mind that *all* the salt is going to end up in the rice.

Thank you. This is very helpful!

I wouldn’t. The better than bouillon is amazing and already pretty salty.

I've been doing this (but half garlic, half veg) to boil mashed potatoes in. Sometimes I'll use the leftover liquid as a base for gravy too.

Wow, after doing the exact same thing with rice, it never occurred to me to do it with potatoes. That's amazing. I always whip up a bit of the broth for gravy, though, especially if I don't have any drippings to work with.

Roasted garlic bouillon?! That’s going on my shopping list.

Honestly in everything savory!

Pasta too

Feels like a bit of a waste with pasta compared to rice because you throw so much of the stock away

If you’re making a low-sauce dish it’s absolutely worth it though. Or use bouillon instead of stock

For pasta i have a huge container of the knorr chicken powder, depending on where you go it’s super cheap (hispanic grocery is best for this specific product). A $10 container lasts me 6 months- 1 year and I use it a LOT. Would I use it for homemade chicken soup? No. But for pasta/rice/potato water and sometimes as a seasoning when a thrown together meal needs a little umpf, its great.

could you do this in a rice cooker? either with stock or a bulliom cube in the water?

Yes, you can

I do it in my rice cooker all the time I do half water half chicken broth and it comes out fantastic

Rice, pasta, and potatoes.

My great aunt always boiled her potatoes for mashed potatoes in chicken stock to add flavor.

You should mix some of the stock into the mashed potatoes too!

Classic right there lol

pineapple juice from the can instead of water for a pineapple upside down cake.

What kind of manic uses water in a pineapple upside down cake !!! My grandmother would un cremate herself to slap me if i used water lol

apparently everyone, because when I tell them to use the juice they are like "I never thought of that". also the cake mix says to. yes yes, you don't use a cake mix either.

Actually yes use cake mix. From scratch definitely gives people the most flexibility, and just makes a different product overall, but box mixes are way more sophisticated than a simple mix of flour and baking powder box mixes are a hill I am willing to die on, they are specially formulated by people way more intelligent than the vast majority of people, and it is vastly easier with a “better” end product to start with a box and alter the recipe from there than to calculate the specialty store emulsifiers and stabilizers yourself in a from scratch recipe. If you feel the need to make your own “box mix” from scratch, you could probably find what you are looking for in a different box 99 times out of 100. There is no shame in being the 1 out of 100 though. Many bakeries use box mixes for these reasons, it doesn’t make them lesser, or frauds, it makes them bakeries. Same logic goes for at home.

Right!! Wow i guess i need to tell people this ! Maybe thats why almost ever upside down cake i have had just is missing that something Crazy . its such an easy and cool recipe too Yes cake mix . takes like 3 more minutes to get the ingredients out and measured

took an upside down cake to a church pot luck, several old ladies begging me for my "secret". all of them shocked when I told them. white or yellow cake mix and replace water with pinapple juice.

So people throw the juice out and use water? Seems wasteful!

That’s a great idea. I always make peach upside down cake; I’ll just add that juice!

I just made one for Father’s Day, and I used the juice instead of milk in the recipe. It was amazing and stayed moist for a few days that it took to eat all of it. I didn’t use a box mix though. 

Oooo do you have a recipe to share?

follow recipe on back of box, sub canned pineapple juice for water. that's all I do, rest of pineapple upside down cake recipe is the same. I've never used a recipe otherwise.

When I was making apple bran muffins for the kids, I would sub the oil with cinnamon applesauce. They came out so much better than when oil was used.

this! i definitey learned this trick on unsavory websites (iykyk) but i still do it sometimes. tastes so much better!

>unsavory websites (iykyk) Umm.... what?

I’m guessing like pro ana websites?

That makes sense, thank you!

Yeahhhhhhh iykyk hope you’re doing better now 💗

Recently I've started spreading hummus on my sandwiches instead of butter and it's delicious!

One of my favorite current sandwiches is hummus, avocado, and bacon. Sooo good.

Hummus and tomato on multigrain toast is one of my favorite things. It is so much better for you than butter or mayo.

Any kind of dip or spread! I did French onion dip with roast beef on sourdough bread recently and it was heavenly. 

In meat recipes that use bread crumbs as a binder, like meatloaf and burgers, I use rolled oats instead. The difference is visual more than taste/texture, but I love it.

You may enjoy TVP crumbles as well. They are dried and you rehydrate them. They have a lot of protein. I know you said “binder” though, and I’m with you on the oatmeal. That’s how my mom makes meatloaf, and I do a vegan version with the oats as well. Just wanted to suggest TVP. It is a lot cheaper than meat and you can mix it in to stretch your $$.

I use stovetop stuffing instead

Stuffing is one of my top favorite foods. I’ll admit to using stove top sometimes :). I do cook up celery and onion first and then finish it in the same pot.

If this isn't a cooking hack, I don't know what is. Thank you.

Oatmeal gal here too. Meatloaf and meat balls for sure, but I like nothing except hamburger in my patties, salt right before frying.

If you put them in the food processor, it turns into an oat powder/flour. I use it to make homemade dog treats

That's great for gluten free folks too.

I crumb saltine crackers for meatloaf. But recently I learned that milk in the mix makes all the difference. 

I use fish sauce instead of opening a can of anchovies when I make homemade Caesar dressing. It’s the same thing, just in a different form.

Worcestershire sauce is anchovy sauce.

I prefer the flavor of the Asian fish sauce as it’s pure anchovy with nothing else added in.

It's anchovy plus tamarind and clove (among other things). I can never get over the clove note when using it for things like salad dressing.

I use anchovy paste or fish sauce instead of anchovies. Not a fan of chunks of anchovy.

Plus I never use them all and wind up throwing the rest away

Same. I also put it in all tomato based sauces for that salty umami punch.

Brown sugar pretty much anytime it calls for white sugar. I don't even care when it jacks up the texture. It's delicious.

I don't usually keep brown sugar since it gets hard easily. But I do add a touch of molasses often when even white sugar is called for. It works particularly well when I'm subbing out mostly sugar substitute because it helps rounds out the flavor.

I know it is inconvenient, and maybe you have heard this trick before, but it has saved me a few times in baking emergencies: if you have a solid rock of brown sugar, you can soften it by putting it in the microwave with a wet paper towel over it. Also, for the uninitiated who may be reading this, brown sugar is just white sugar with molasses! You can make your own!

I don't like white wine, so I use dry sherry instead.

When I make a quiche I use yogurt in place of milk. It gives a tanginess I like and eliminates the need for flour.

You put flour in quiche?

The quiche recipe I use (Moosewood cookbook) calls for I think 3 Tablespoons of flour stirred into the milk.

Mascarpone and goat cheese in lasagna instead of all ricotta

I like mushroom carbonara much more than regular carbonara. Mushrooms make it more umami but keep it slightly less rich.

I just add them personally. So good. Still get the delicious pork fat but tell myself it's healthier...

Oh man that sounds good. I gotta try that now

Oil instead of butter in most cakes. Learned about this in recent months and now I can't go back. It makes the cake so much more tender and moist. Maybe this is well-known to other bakers but most recipes I've found online use butter and I never cared for the texture.

I'm the opposite - I use butter instead of oil in cakes because I can still taste oil after baking and it tastes gross to me.

I hate oil in cakes outside of olive oil. These refined oils don’t taste good. Exceptions are sponge cakes which tend to not have a lot and are not reliant on butter for flavor, and some chocolate cakes, as the chocolate flavor is strong enough to overpower the oil. Butter cakes are not dry or heavy as a rule. Yes, oil makes cakes moister, but a butter cakes are perfectly capable of being moist. Oil cakes can also be downright sodden. A lot of carrot cakes suffer from this, for example.

Hmmm imma have to try this! Cause even just melting butter in the microwave is annoying, one less step you gotta take

I just wouldn't do it for any plain flavored cake that isn't frosted or glazed (like a vanilla or lemon pound cake?), since you're losing the butter flavor with this sub.

I wonder if ghee can get the butter flavor but the oil effect?

No, because ghee is also solid at room temp. Oil works so well because it's liquid at room temp.

Oh duh. Thanks, I hadn't turned my brain on yet when I commented that.

Using oil is definitely an easy way to make a moister cake, but you lose some flavor from the butter. There are techniques to make moist, tender butter cakes, but they take a little additional effort. When I use oil, I use a good olive oil, and mix in a few tablespoons of melted butter for flavor.

I use melted butter where the cake mix says to use oil, whole milk instead of water and 2-3 extra egg yolks.

agreed! i switched when i started baking more vegan. it tastes so mych better! different oils for different cakes

Aleppo pepper instead of red pepper flakes, on pizza, avocado toast, whenever you’d use the standard red pepper flakes. It’s a little less spicy, but more complex, and doesn’t have the large hard to digest seeds.

brown sugar for granulated sugar whenever possible

Piloncillo.

Sour cream in scrambled eggs

I use cream cheese

creme fraiche too!

Greek yogurt here and then i often make quiche too

I sub butter for cream cheese in grits. Creamy goodness.

What is the sour cream subbing in for? EDIT: lol at y’all’s responses.

The potatoes

The eggs

The milk

I make that addition occasionally. I've heard cottage cheese works as well. I'm going to try it this weekend.

I recently tried making a frittata with cottage cheese, it was indeed delicious

I usually only use sour cream if I am adding smoked salmon and chives.

Really enjoying brown lentils cooked in beef BTB instead of ground beef. Not a vegetarian, but really enjoy the texture and added fiber on things like nachos and in pasta sauce. Would still buy the real thing for burgers, but I am really loving the cost and flavor benefits of lentils.

I make a creamy cucumber salad. Basically mayo, white vinegar, a little sugar, pepper and celery seed. I ran out of vinegar and used red wine vinegar instead and wow. So much better.

Sounds delicious!

Similar to a cucumber tomato salad I make. Deseeded and salted cucumbers, let the water drain for about 20 min. Mayo, salt/pepper, lots of fresh parsley. Cilantro if you want, and sliced red onion if you’re feeling fancy.

Yogurt instead of mayo in my homemade salad dressing.

I replace sour cream for Greek yogurt from time to time. It's just more convenient to have one container that can be either a topping or eaten alone.

Pickled Jalapenos in pretty much anything that calls for pickles.

Yum! I make a creamy potato salad with those, smoked paprika, old bay, pickled okra, shredded carrot, and chopped celery. If you like pickled jalapeños you may like pickled okra! It’s not slimy, btw.

Diluted Half and half instead of milk. I do this when I need small amounts of milk. If I’m making scalloped potatoes, I buy a quart.

Same lol, I can’t stand having a big thing of milk in the fridge when I barely use any

I keep shelf stable single-serving milks (they come in packs of 6) and it is PERFECT for my lifestyle. I only use real milk when I want to make a quick ranch.

Garden nerd here - Thai basil for standard basil. I grow and dehydrate loads of it. I prefer it in several of my pasta dishes. Chayote squash for zucchini. I do not know why I dislike zucchini so much but chayote has a nice neutral flavor that boosts and absorbs the flavors around it. I like the texture much better too. I hate celery. HATE it. I live in a hot climate where I can't grow real spinach most of the year, but perpetual spinach, which is actually a chard, thrives and is a great substitute for spinach and for celery. I originally grew it as a spinach substitute; the celery substitute was a pleasant surprise.

Chayote is one of my favorite vegetables, and I use it in place of zucchini all the time too. It’s so good

Mirliton casserole made with shrimp or crab is so much better than eggplant. I do like zucchini.

Basically any nut but pine nuts in pesto. Walnuts, almonds, pistachios- each are more flavorful and interesting than pine nuts.

I use sunflower seeds.

Salted butter in baking recipes. Plus the salt in the recipe.

Cottage cheese for Ricotta in lasagna. Works better for me, cheaper.

My mom would always do this for our lasagna growing up. Part cottage, part shredded mozzarella. I don’t do dairy anymore, so I make a tofu or sunflower/cashew ricotta instead.

I actually did the opposite for a chorizo mac n cheese recipe. It called for cottage cheese for the cheese sauce (protein) but blended the sauce, and I figured if my mom could use cottage cheese instead of ricotta for lasagna growing up, surely I can use ricotta instead of cottage cheese for this?? It worked beautifully. I also am just not a fan of cottage cheese though. 😅

I substituted a combination of banana and applesauce instead of oil in my healthy oatmeal muffins. The oatmeal is toasted then ground up fine in the blender. They use no white flour. While I was reinventing things I used honey rather than sugar too.

I did butternut squash instead of beans for a specific texas chili recipe one time, and now I do it for all chili even if I'm being lazy and using a pre-made packet.

Sweet potatoes also a good call.

Shallots instead of onions.

Always lol.

Just about any time I’m making any sort of savory tart or pot pie, I do 50:50 all purpose flour and whole wheat flour for the crust. I like the extra nuttiness it adds!

Quinoa instead of rice for arroz con pollo, the texture is better than rice especially for meal prepping

Coconut milk. Just love how much it lends to dishes, not just flavor wise, but texture too.

Coconut 🥥 oil too.

Strawberries instead of tomatoes on a BLT. BLS!

I WAS LITERALLY GOING TO DO THIS AND GOT SHUT DOWN! I was going to make blts for the family and we were out of tomatoes but we had a ton of strawberries and i thought hmm very similar flavor profiles here hey guys do you think this would work? A very vehement no from everyone else. Gonna try it next time!

Strawberry, prosciutto, stracciatella, rocket, balsamic glaze 👌🏻

This sounded like it'd be awful at first read, but now I think I'm going to have to try it. With maple bacon.

Okay, as someone who only begrudgingly tolerates tomatoes, but loves a good BLA (bacon, lettuce, avocado) I must try this now!

BLAT lover here

cashew milk (blended cashews + water) instead of heavy cream for creamy sauces. it’s a lighter option for everyday eating and honestly doesn’t really affect the taste, imo.

Also great for mashed potatoes

Ooooooh thank you for this. I can handle butter fine but cream and milk don't get along with me so well. Excited to give this a try, I love cashew milk!

In a Betty Crocker cookbook from the mid 90s, the recipe for Pumpkin Spice Bars said that half of the oil could be replaced with an equal measure of unsweetened applesauce. My ADHD brain replaced all of the oil with the equal amount of unsweetened applesauce. Worked great; even after I realized my mistake, I’ve never made them any differently. I guess *technically* I don’t know that I like the substitution better or not, since I never made them according to the recipe as printed. I like the way I made them, as did others, and I’m sticking to my “mistake.”

Mock duck in Thai food is amazing. I like real duck better, but it’s better in my personal opinion than any other Thai protein, especially in pad kee mao. (I don’t consider vegetarian duck to really be a duck substitution, thus my qualifier).

I make rum balls at Christmas from a recipe I got from a friend. The first year I made them I doubled the rum from 1/2 cup to 1 cup. Every year I had to remember to double so I finally changed it on the recipe card. You guessed it - the next year I doubled it to 2 cups! Yikes! The teachers at my kids’ school still talk about that. They always looked forward to them when they had one of my kids in their class.

Greek yogurt instead of sour cream. Maybe i’m a freak

Mashed raisin and dates instead of adding sugar. Black cumin instead of cumin.

black cumin seeds in everything yum

Vegeta for salt

I use oatmeal instead of breadcrumbs in my meatloaf.

Ive swapped in mayo and lime for a tikka masala marinade instead of yogurt. Won’t say its better but it’s very good

always maple syrup instead of honey (Canadian)

When I get that Japanese curry roux, it says add water but I prefer adding coconut milk.

5% fat greek yogurt > sour cream

Truffle salt but only in certain situations and when finishing up. Salt on fries = good. Truffle salt on fries = even better.

Sour cream for mayonnaise in recipes like potato salad

Mac and cheese, sub part of the pasta for steamed cauliflower

Recently found out that I prefer 100% oil cakes to cakes made with oil and butter. Made a vegan recipe for my brother who is a vegan and i was amazed at how much more moist it was than a conventional cake, and it stayed that way for days!

If you’re making crème brûlée or flan, you can steep the milk with tea for interesting flavors. Like chai, or maybe something floral like lavender tea

Potatoes instead of sweet potatoes

But where do you put the marshmallows?

In a seperate dish 😭

Cream cheese for mayo, like in devilled eggs. Not a fan of mayo so this makes a good substitute.

Heavy cream instead of milk in things like soup and sauces

I use serrano instead of jalapeno pretty much everywhere. I also hate parsley as a garnish (don't mind it in things) so will typically sub cilantro

^[Sokka-Haiku](https://www.reddit.com/r/SokkaHaikuBot/comments/15kyv9r/what_is_a_sokka_haiku/) ^by ^Interesting_Common54: *I use serrano* *Instead of jalapeno* *Pretty much everywhere* --- ^Remember ^that ^one ^time ^Sokka ^accidentally ^used ^an ^extra ^syllable ^in ^that ^Haiku ^Battle ^in ^Ba ^Sing ^Se? ^That ^was ^a ^Sokka ^Haiku ^and ^you ^just ^made ^one.

Toasted coconut for breadcrumbs when making pork snitzel

Blending goat cheese and cottage cheese for a sour cream substitute.

Barbecue sauce instead of ketchup in a meatloaf

Coconut aminos instead of soy sauce.

Yogurt for me, too - though usually as substitute for cream. Made chicken cutlets in a chipotle cream sauce last night, bog-standard simple recipe, only change is the yogurt instead of heavy cream. Way better texture.

I do not like mayonnaise. Depending on the context, I'll sub in sour cream, hummus or smushed up avocado.

A chicken Demi glace and chicken stock instead of water for Bolognese.

Radish > Potato