I enjoy cooking with buttermilk. It adds a little bit of “zing” and moistness to several of my recipes. I recently found a good recipe for Buttermilk Chocolate Cupcakes on Cooks.com. (See bottom of post for recipe links) The cupcakes turned out great, moist, and without an overload of sugar.

Buttermilk runs near $3.00 in my area. Because I only use it in a few recipes, often when the expiration date draws near I am left with half a carton or more to use. I have found buttermilk freezes surprisingly well. I pour it into ice cube trays, freeze, pop out the cubes and store in my freezer. When I thaw the cubes, the buttermilk separates a bit, but a quick whisk with a fork reincorporates the liquid.

A good rule for freezing liquid is to make sure the ice cube trays you are using are BPA free. A good article on toxin-free cooking and food storage can be found here: 12 Ways to Avoid Toxins in Kitchen

It’s a good idea to put as many of the “kitchen fixes” in practice as you can without becoming a complete nervous wreck over it. Sometimes, through the Internet and constant news programs, the problems we face in keeping out homes and bodies healthy can become overwhelming and a danger in itself to our stress levels and mental health.

A Thank you to Jane who added these additional ideas for freezing liquids in the comment section: “I think a lot of us have had that problem with leftover buttermilk. If you put them in ice trays, though, I would think that you would have to use them exclusively for this or other leftover liquids, etc, because they are plastic and tend to absorb the odor of whatever you would freeze in them. I’ve tried the dried buttermilk but it is expensive. I think you could also measure out 1/2 cups and put that in those snack-sized or sandwich ziplock bags. I freeze a lot of spaghetti sauce, soups, etc, in quart sized freezer bags because they are flat and don’t take up as much freezer space as a rubber maid container. Before I freeze food in the rubber maid containers, I press a layer of plastic wrap directly onto the food surface (tucking the excess into the container) to avoid ice crystals. Sorry for the long post.  I should add that when I put those ziplocks in the freezer (remove all air in the bag), I lay them on a flat surface  until hardened – easier to stack them afterwards.”

Buttermilk Chocolate Cupcakes

Scoop the batter out with an ice cream dipper for uniform cupcakes.

An alternative frosting can be found here: Chocolate Sour Cream Frosting

Chocolate flavor with a tang of sour cream is a novel choice for a cupcake topping. I do refrigerate these cupcakes to keep the sour cream fresh. The frosting has a fudgy consistency due to the melted chocolate. Milk chocolate or dark chocolate are both good choices. Happy Baking!