Sour cream baking?

[Farrar]

So, we get Hello Fresh every couple of weeks. It's a bit overpriced, but sometimes the convenience and the ability to try something different is nice. 

But... a lot of the recipes use sour cream. Either they use sour cream when I would use milk (such as in a recipe for a pot pie) or they use sour cream to make sauces we're supposed to drizzle over things. 3/4 of us do not like sour cream much. So we never eat the sour cream sauces (sometimes I make them for dh, who then eats some of it). And now I've got a ton of little sour cream packets in my fridge.

Rather than chuck them out (I hate food waste!) I was remembering that sometimes people use sour cream in baking. Maybe for cakes? I thought I could use them up that way. I found some recipes, but I wondered... does it take the place of buttermilk? What's the role of the sour cream in a recipe?

Anything to look for other than cakes? Anyone have a baking recipe that uses sour cream? Or, I'll happily take any other recipes that use it up in ways that simply don't taste anything like sour cream.

[gardenmom5]

we use sour cream and milk whenever buttermilk is called for.  pancakes, biscuits, etc.   we never buy buttermilk, and I never use a mix.

[Farrar]

Oh, in pancakes instead of buttermilk. That's a good idea. So... any recipe that calls for buttermilk you can just sub milk and sour cream? In what proportion?

[JennyD]

Sour cream is the nectar of the baking gods, my friend.   Sour cream coffee cake!  Crumb cake! 

Yes, it works like buttermilk, but better (i.e., richer).

 

[Farrar]

Ooh, crumb cake. That looks yummy.

I do a good bit of baking - especially cookies, brownies, scones, and quick breads and I certainly know how to make a decent cake. I just... can't remember ever using sour cream to bake. I guess I knew it was a thing, but I wouldn't have chosen those recipes really because I wouldn't have sour cream on hand because I don't much like it.

[bookbard]

Oh my goodness I just discovered coffee cake doesn't have coffee in it.

(Now I wonder is that just me not knowing or is it a US/Australian name thing?)

Anyway when I have left over sour cream or yoghurt I just substitute it for milk in cakes.

[Pippen]

Sour cream sugar cookies are nice and soft!

Cheesecake

Edited January 24, 2021 by Pippen

[EKS]

I make a chocolate cake that has sour cream in it.  It's very yummy.

[Pippen]

1 minute ago, EKS said:

I make a chocolate cake that has sour cream in it.  It's very yummy.

i have one of those too--Hershey's Celebration Chocolate Cake. It's our bday cake recipe.

[RootAnn]

We have a banana bread recipe that uses sour cream to make it rich. 

I also have a breakfast muffin recipe that calls for vanilla yogurt. I sub sour cream for the yogurt when I only have the former.

[Drama Llama]

Sour cream apple pie

[Carol in Cal.]

I’m not sure whether you’re supposed to do this or not, but when I have a recipe that calls for cream, like for scones or biscuits, I use either cream or sour cream, whichever one I have on hand.  I don’t recall it making a big difference in the results.

[Lecka]

My mom told me coffee cake is to *go with* coffee.  Not made out of coffee.  Coke cake, on the other hand, has Coke in it.

I was SO confused by this as a child.  
 

Edit:  according to my mom — it’s not that you have to drink coffee.  But it would be a snack served at a gathering, often mid-morning, when coffee would also be available, and most people would drink a cup of coffee and eat a piece of coffee cake.  Not that these are rules — just a common time and way to have a coffee cake.  

Edited January 24, 2021 by Lecka

[Farrar]

I remember discovering this about coffee cake in my early 20's. Like, I don't drink coffee and I'm not that into coffee flavored baked goods like tiramisu and I had never really had coffee cake - it wasn't a feature of my youth. I'd heard of it, but we didn't have it at our house or anything. So I never ate any. At some point not long out of college, I was offered some coffee cake and realized there was no coffee involved and I was floored.

[footballmom]

Ina Garten has a recipe for sour cream pancakes.  Delish!

[Storygirl]

https://www.melskitchencafe.com/chocolate-chip-cake/

We have made this cake a few times (and just last week!). It doesn't call for or need frosting, but it uses over a cup of sour cream. Plus, it only requires one bowl for mixing.

[Starr]

I made this cake today and dropped it off for a friends birthday with fresh berries in the middle and around the sides.  https://www.marthastewart.com/1074762/lemon-bundt-cake

[Carol in Cal.]

Even if you are not into sour cream sauces, might you like sour cream in soups?  I use it in my cream of mushroom soup and one of my fresh tomato soup recipes.  I’d say it’s pretty essential to either one.  Also, of course, there is the classic sour cream on your baked potato treat, preferably with chopped chives on top.  And, there is the sour cream garnish on Mexican food, which increases flavor complexity and cuts the pepper a bit.

[Farrar]

19 minutes ago, Carol in Cal. said:

Even if you are not into sour cream sauces, might you like sour cream in soups?  I use it in my cream of mushroom soup and one of my fresh tomato soup recipes.  I’d say it’s pretty essential to either one.  Also, of course, there is the classic sour cream on your baked potato treat, preferably with chopped chives on top.  And, there is the sour cream garnish on Mexican food, which increases flavor complexity and cuts the pepper a bit.

I might like it in a soup. I'd have to try that. I definitely don't like it on Mexican food or on baked potatoes. Neither do the kids. And dh likes it okay, but isn't super into it. I don't loathe it. I mean, if it's in something, I'll eat it. And the Central American style is okay to me - the fresh stuff they have in restaurants that's a bit less thick. But when I order food in a Mexican restaurant, I generally ask them to omit it or push it immediately to the side.

[ktgrok]

I use it in baking a lot - I often sub some of the milk for it. 

[4atHome]

https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/20163/grandma-johnsons-scones/

[Tanaqui]

I am amazed both at the idea of not liking sour cream and also of not having coffee cake as the default baked good at bake sales and visits and whatnot. Clearly some of us grew up in very different foodways.

[bookbard]

Well, we have tea cakes here, and they don't have tea in them. So it makes perfect sense! 

[Farrar]

9 hours ago, Tanaqui said:

I am amazed both at the idea of not liking sour cream and also of not having coffee cake as the default baked good at bake sales and visits and whatnot. Clearly some of us grew up in very different foodways.

I had definitely seen coffee cake at church tables in an Entenmann's box, but I still had no idea it had no coffee in the cake itself and I never once in my childhood memory knew anyone who made a coffee cake. It was some Yankee invention. I never tried it because I thought, well, I don't like coffee things. The default at a table at church or a bake sale was generally a bunch of Krispy Kremes. 

Sour cream is just really... tart for me. I assumed my kids would actually like it as they like a number of things I don't. I'm generally a no sauces person (I also don't like mayo, for example) but they like the "special sauce" at Shake Shack and ranch dressing and things like that. But every time the Hello Fresh box has me make "lime crema" or "garlic cream sauce" or something to put over a dish, they take a taste and decide not to add it and they also also for their sour cream left off at Mexican restaurants generally. 

[kristin0713]

I use sour cream, Greek yogurt, and buttermilk interchangeably in recipes. It works really well in baked goods like coffee cake and banana bread. 

[Farrar]

So, am I understanding correctly from all you interchanging things bakers that you just swap sour cream, sour cream + a bit of milk, yogurt, or buttermilk in equal amounts? No need to do any math or anything?

[Tanaqui]

If you're subbing in sour cream for actual milk then you will need to add a little milk to make it more watery, but I never math. I probably ought to, but I usually do it on a 1:1 basis, just like I do when switching brown sugar for white.

[Amy in NH]

This is our Christmas morning tradition:

Sour cream coffee cake

 

Mix:

1 stick butter

1 C sugar

2 eggs

½ tsp lemon juice

 

Mix:

2 C flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

¼ tsp salt

 

1 C sour cream

 

Grease and flour a tube pan.

Alternate adding sour cream and flour mixture until mixed.

Layer 1/2 batter, 1/2 topping,  1/2 batter. 1/2 topping - smoothing batter into the pan, and crumbling topping over it.

Bake 45 minutes to 1 hour at 350.

 

 

Topping:

½ C brown sugar

4 Tbsp flour

4 tsp cinnamon

4 Tbsp melted butter

 

[kristin0713]

2 hours ago, Farrar said:

So, am I understanding correctly from all you interchanging things bakers that you just swap sour cream, sour cream + a bit of milk, yogurt, or buttermilk in equal amounts? No need to do any math or anything?

Yep 🙂 

[katilac]

And I will add that sour cream is generally fine far past its expiration date. 

[Tanaqui]

And if it's not, you can tell.

[cintinative]

I have a favorite gluten-free coffee cake that uses sour cream.  😃 

I think there is a chocolate bundt cake with sour cream that we used to make (pre-Celiac diagnosis)

[Farrar]

I made us a sour cream lemon cake for dessert tonight. It was SO good, y'all. SO GOOD. I may have to go have another slice right now, actually.

I marked a couple of the other recipes. I've got another cup (which means it turned out I had 16 sour cream packets!) so I'll probably make a coffee cake next week.

[cintinative]

This is the chocolate bundt cake recipe.  https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/chocolate-fudge-bundt-cake-recipe