The Best Buttermilk Recipes

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Have you ever bought buttermilk for one recipe, but then had no idea what to do with the rest of it?

And likely, you never did figure out what to do with it before it spoiled and you had to pitch it.

If that sounds familiar, or if you find yourself not even buying buttermilk for that one recipe, because you don’t think there’s anything else to make with it, these 25 recipes will keep you busy.

The Best Buttermilk Recipes - Now you know what to do with it so you'll never waste it again! 25+ easy recipes for cakes, breaeds, muffins, donuts & more at averiecooks.com

And lest you think buttermilk isn’t really all that special, it is. It’s magical. It keep cakes, muffins, rolls, donuts, and more so soft, springy, bouncy, and tender, with the perfect balance of density and fluffiness. The results are unparalleled.

Make sure to read to the end for three helpful buttermilk DIY tips.

Cakes

Blueberry Muffin and Buttermilk Pancakes Cake – A cake that tastes like  hybrid of muffins and pancakes. Can be made with frozen berries

Blueberry Muffin and Buttermilk Pancakes Cake 

Cranberry White Chocolate Chip Bliss Cake – Like a Starbucks Cranberry Bliss Bar in cake form

Cranberry White Chocolate Chip Bliss Cake - The flavors of Starbucks Cranberry Bliss Bars in a Soft, Easy, No-Mixer Cake! Recipe at averiecooks.com

Peanut Butter-Swirled Strawberry Jelly Cake (aka, PB & J Cake) – If you love PB & J, this is your cake

Peanut Butter-Swirled Strawberry Cake - Easy Recipe at averiecooks.com

Peaches and Cream Fluffy Muffin Cake – If you don’t have fresh peaches, most any frozen fruit like mangoes, strawberries, or mixed berries may be used

Peaches and Cream Fluffy Muffin Cake - Recipe at averiecooks.com

Peanut Butter Honey Buttermilk Cake with Chocolate-Peanut Butter Streusel – This is a one-bowl, easy cake, ready in about 30 minutes that’s so moist and soft, and everyone loves it at parties

Peanut Butter Honey Buttermilk Cake with Chocolate-Peanut Butter Streusel averiecooks.com

Carrot Cake Loaf with Cream Cheese Frosting – My favorite recipe for carrot cake, and it’s a one-bowl, easy cake baked as a loaf

Carrot Cake Loaf with Cream Cheese Frosting averiecooks.com

Cream Cheese-Swirled Cherry and Mixed Berries Cake – Homemade version of an Entenmann’s cream cheese coffee cake

Cream Cheese-Swirled Cherry and Mixed Berries Cake - Easy Recipe at averiecooks.com

Strawberries and Cream Coffee Cake with Vanilla Cream Cheese Glaze – One of the best coffee cakes ever. Use your favorite fresh, frozen, or seasonal fruit in this incredibly moist and soft cake

Strawberries and Cream Coffee Cake with Vanilla Cream Cheese Glaze

Blueberry and Jam Buttermilk Coffee Cake with Buttery Vanilla Glaze – One of the best coffee cakes or cakes I’ve ever made. Highly recommended – tied with the one above

Blueberry and Jam Buttermilk Coffee Cake with Buttery Vanilla Glaze

Brown Sugar-Topped Cinnamon-Sugar Coffee Cake with Vanilla Cream Cheese Glaze

Brown Sugar-Topped Cinnamon-Sugar Coffee Cake with Vanilla Cream Cheese Glaze - Fast, Easy, No-Mixer Recipe on averiecooks.com

Muffins, Donuts, and Pancakes

Chocolate Lover’s Chocolate Chocolate-Chip Muffins

Chocolate Lover's Chocolate Chocolate-Chip Muffins with Nutella averiecooks.com

Cinnamon Sugar Mini Donut Muffins – They taste like fried mini donuts, but they’re baked and healthy

Cinnamon Sugar Mini Donut Muffins - Recipe at averiecooks.com

Baked Vanilla Donuts with Vanilla Glaze – Yeast-free, easy, and if you don’t have a donut pan, try them as muffins. The closest I’ve come to a baked, at-home Krispy Kreme

Baked Vanilla Donuts with Vanilla Glaze

Baked Chocolate Peanut Butter Donuts with Vanilla Peanut Butter Glaze – The best baked chocolate-peanut butter donuts I’ve had, and I included this recipe in my cookbook

Baked Chocolate Peanut Butter Donuts with Vanilla Peanut Butter Glaze

Baked Cinnamon Bun Donuts with Vanilla Cream Cheese Glaze – Like a Cinnabon, in donut form

Baked Cinnamon Bun Donuts with Vanilla Cream Cheese Glaze 

Strawberry and Sprinkles Buttermilk Pancakes – Kids go nuts for these. So do parents

Strawberry and Sprinkles Buttermilk Pancakes averiecooks.com

Chocolate Buttermilk Pancakes with Homemade Salted Caramel Sauce – Chocolate and salted caramel is the breakfast of champions

Chocolate Buttermilk Pancakes with Homemade Salted Caramel Sauce - Recipe at averiecooks.com

Easy Buttermilk Waffles with Mixed Berry and Lemon Preserves

Easy Buttermilk Waffles with Mixed Berry & Lemon Preserves - As fast and easy as using boxed pancake mix, but so much better! Crispy on the outside and soft & fluffy inside!

Breads and Rolls

Nutella-Layered-and-Swirled Peanut Butter Bread {Peanut Butter Loaf Cake}

Nutella-Layered-and-Swirled Peanut Butter Bread {Peanut Butter Loaf Cake} - Easy, no-mixer bread baked in a loaf pan that tastes like cake! Recipe at averiecooks.com

Cinnamon-Sugar Crust Cinnamon-Ribbon Bread – Even picky eaters who want the crust cut off will go nuts for this sweet, slightly crunchy crust. The bread interior is so soft & fluffy

Cinnamon-Sugar Crust Cinnamon-Ribbon Bread averiecooks.com

Blueberry and Cream Cheese Muffin Top Bread – An entire loaf that tastes like muffin tops

Blueberry and Cream Cheese Muffin Top Bread averiecooks.com

Cinnamon and Spice Sweet Potato Bread – The sweet potatoes keep this bread so soft and moist and it’s richly spiced

Cinnamon and Spice Sweet Potato Bread

Browned Butter Buttermilk Banana Bread with Strawberry Butter – Such a flavorful bread because of the browned butter and buttermilk and uses those ripe bananas

Browned Butter Buttermilk Banana Bread with Strawberry Butter averiecooks.com

30-Minute Cheesy Avocado Pizza Skillet Bread (vegan and whole wheat) – No-knead, no-yeast, and so easy

30-Minute Cheesy Avocado Skillet Pizza Bread (Whole-Wheat & Vegan) - Recipe at averiecooks.com

30-Minute Honey Whole Wheat Skillet Bread – Fast and so easy to make, you’ll think you left something out

30-Minute Honey Whole Wheat Skillet Bread 

Fruit, Seed and Nut Crackers – Fancy artisan crackers that are actually crispy can be achieved by first baking a loaf of a bread, slicing thinly, then baking the slices as crackers. This recipe inspired the bread above

Fruit, Seed and Nut Crackers 

Buttermilk (DIY) Tips

1. You can make buttermilk by souring regular milk. Add about 2 tablespoons vinegar or lemon juice to 1 about cup milk, wait for 10 minutes for it to curdle, then use as indicated.

2. You can thin out Greek yogurt or sour cream with milk, to approximate the consistency of buttermilk. For example, if a recipe calls for 1 cup buttermilk, I use about 2/3 cup Greek yogurt or sour cream to 1/3 cup milk, stir, and use as indicated. It’s not the exact same, but most recipes will still ‘work’.

3. I highly recommend this Powdered Buttermilk. If you don’t use buttermilk much, but you’ll see a recipe that needs a half cup, but because you feel you won’t use the rest of the jug before it goes bad, you opt of trying the recipe, then this powder is your new best friend. Shelf stable, keeps for ages.

Thanks for the entries in the West Elm $50 Gift Card Giveaway and the $100 Gift Card Giveaway

Are you prone to buying buttermilk but then not knowing what to do with it?

What do you make with buttermilk?

About the Author

Welcome to AverieCooks! Here you’ll find fast and easy recipes that taste amazing and are geared for real life. Nothing fussy or complicated, just awesome tasting dishes everyone loves!

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Please note: I have only made the recipe as written, and cannot give advice or predict what will happen if you change something. If you have a question regarding changing, altering, or making substitutions to the recipe, please check out the FAQ page for more info.

Comments

  1. Love the look of some of the recipes. I love anything with cinnamon or blueberries. Most of my buttermilk goes into waffles in early summer. I make a big batch and keep them in the fridge or freezer. Then it is just a case of getting out the toaster in the morning, and picking the raspberries to go on top of the waffles.

  2. Averie (or anyone else) — do you have an opinion on real buttermilk versus cultured buttermilk in baking recipes? I’ve always used the cultured stuff the grocery store has but lately I’ve been buying all our dairy from a local creamery. They only sell “real” buttermilk, if you know what I mean ;)

    1. I only have access to the buttermilk you’d be in the grocery store or Trader Joe’s (which is what I buy b/c it’s the cheapest) and it works just fine for me.

  3. Thank you SO much for this Avery! I am ALWAYS throwing away buttermilk! It’s awful and so wasteful!

  4. I love this round-up Averie! I sometimes wonder what to do with that buttermilk I have left, when I don’t have enough for pancakes :).

  5. Here’s a savory use for all that extra buttermilk. Marinate chicken in it. Really. Tender and Juicy. Really. GREG

  6. I always have a TON of buttermilk on hand (because I make my own butter) and always seem to have to throw some of it out because I don’t use it fast enough—I don’t think I’m ever going to have to waste any buttermilk again with all these amazing recipes!

  7. How did you know?! I have half a carton of buttermilk left in the fridge after making my cornbread stuffing. And I’ve been meaning to make your blueberry coffee cake for ages now!

  8. What a wonderful idea! I have definitely wasted some buttermilk because I used it for one thing and forgot about it. This is such an awesome compilation of recipes! And of course they all look delicious. I’ll have to try some next time I have leftover buttermilk!

  9. Wow! You made all of this with buttermilk! Everything looks amazing and I love the photography!

  10. I have an unopened carton of buttermilk that has been sitting in my frdge for a few months. It has not curdled. Do you think it is safe to use? ‘Cos these recipes have inspired me!

    1. Your squash and brussels sprouts dish…girl, I have been on a major b sprouts kick and that would be perfect w/ the sricacha!

  11. I have an amazing biscuit recipe which uses buttermilk–angel biscuits–it also uses both yeast and baking soda. I’ve tried it without buttermilk and it just isn’t the same. I find that biscuits are tricky to make–they can so easily be dry and tough–I’m convinced the buttermilk is what makes these so good. I also regularly make pancakes with buttermilk and I’ve tried a few of your yummy recipes also. Oh, and I make some truly sinful cinnamon rolls for Christmas morning breakfast and they use buttermilk.

    1. The very last recipe in this post, my overnight cinnamon rolls, pretty dang sinful and I love them :) Glad you have your keeper recipe, too! And the biscuit recipe which uses buttermilk–angel biscuits–it also uses both yeast and baking soda…they sound incredible. Buttermilk, yeast, baking soda. You cannot go wrong. Light as angels I bet! I have a biscuit recipe in my cookbook that is really good and light but it just uses bmilk or milk, with tons of baking powder. Your idea is awesome.

      This recipe is sort of a savory version of my cookbook and while I didnt use bmilk, I used sour cream (or greek yog) – same difference, really
      https://www.averiecooks.com/no-knead-buttery-parmesan-and-sour-cream-bread/

      1. The parmesan/sour cream bread is on my to-do list, actually. I make a lot of soups/stews this time of year and I love homemade bread to go with it. Yeast breads are my fave but sometimes I need quick and tasty. I can email you the biscuit recipe if you’re interested.

  12. I actually have almost a whole leftover container of it and was wondering just today what to do with it. This is wonderful! So smart.

  13. No, I actually don’t buy buttermilk. I use the homemade substitution all the time. I usually use half-and-half with lemon juice, not milk. Half-and-half curdles faster-in like 30 seconds-1 minute and it gives more flavor!

    1. Anything with half and half is going to be better tasting than milk. It’s about 22% fat compared to 2% fat :)