Ingredient Substitutions

If you are on a special diet, for diabetes, weight loss, food allergies, or something else, you may find that you need to adapt the cookie recipes on this site to suit your needs. Or you may find that you don’t have a particular ingredient on hand. To help out with these substitutions, I’ve listed some of the more common ingredient substitutions on this page. This is by no means an exhaustive list! If you know of an ingredient substitution that you think I should include, please contact me here.

Ingredient Substitutions:.

Ingredient Substitution
Baking powder
(1 teaspoon)
1/4 tsp. baking soda plus 5/8 tsp. cream of tartar

or

1/4 tsp. baking soda plus 1/2 cup buttermilk or sour milk (decrease
liquid by 1/2 cup)
or
1/4 tsp. baking soda plus 1/4 to 1/2 cup molasses
or
1/4 tsp. baking soda plus 1/2 Tbsp. vinegar or lemon juice used with
sweet milk to make 1/2 cup liquid (decrease liquid by 1/2 cup)

Yeast
(1 package)
1 cake yeast

or
1 Tbsp. dry yeast

Corn syrup
(1 cup)
1 cup sugar plus 1/4 cup liquid
Egg
(1 whole)
3 Tbsp. beaten egg

or
2 egg whites
or
1/4 cup egg substitute

Egg white

(1 whole)

2 tsp. sifted dry egg white powder plus 2 Tbsp. water
Egg yolk
(1 whole)
2 Tbsp. sifted dry egg yolk powder plus 2 tsp. water
Flour (all-purpose flour)

(1 cup, sifted)

1 cup + 2 Tbsp. cake flour
or
1 cup minus 2 Tbsp. unsifted flour
or
1-1/2 cup bread crumbs

or
1 cup rolled oats
or
1/3 cup cornmeal plus 2/3 cup flour
or
1/2 cup whole wheat flour and 1/2 cup all-purpose flour

Flour, cake
(1 cup)
1 cup minus 2 Tbsp. all-purpose flour
Flour, self-rising

(1 cup)

1 cup minus 2 tsp. flour plus 1-1/2 tsp. baking powder
and 1/2 tsp. salt
Flour, whole wheat
(1 cup)
1/2 cup whole wheat flour and 1/2 all-purpose flour
Gelatin, flavored prepared
(3 oz. pkg.)
1 Tbsp. plain gelatin plus 2 cups fruit juice
Marshmallows, miniature

(1 cup)

10 large marshmallows
Marshmallow creme
(1 jar)
Melt 16 ounces of

marshmallows and 3-1/2 Tbsp. corn syrup in a double boiler

Shortening, for baking
(1 cup)
1 cup minus 2 Tbsp. lard
or

1 cup and 2 Tbsp. butter or margarine

Sugar, white
(1 cup)
1 cup 1 cup honey or corn syrup minus 1/4 cup of liquid
in recipe
or

1-1/3 cup molasses minus 1/3 cup of liquid in recipe
or
1 3/4 cups powdered or confectioners’ sugar
or
1 cup packed brown sugar