Most US ingredients easily translate into UK ingredients, they just have different names, however some ingredients are special to the US so for those I have suggested the best equivalents, or ways to make your own substitutes. There are a few things you can pick up in places like Selfridges or Tesco's American Grocery Isle, but why go out of your way to buy them, when you probably have something just as good in your cupboard already.
Recently, lots of the ingredients listed below have become available to buy in the "International Speciality Food" section of the Amazon Grocery store. However, if you don't want to be overloaded with cardboard and packaging, there's always a British supermarket alternative!!
See also: Cups to Grams Converter for Baking
| US Ingredient | UK Equivalent 1 | UK Equivalent 2 | UK Equivalent 3 |
| All Purpose Flour | Plain Flour | ||
| Angel Food Cake Mix | Just bake one from scratch! Find recipes | "Duncan Hines" angel food cake mix available from Amazon Groceries | |
| Baking Soda | Bicarbonate of Soda | ||
| Baking Spread | Stork | Any supermarket brand of "Perfect for Cakes" or "Best for Baking" spread | |
| Bisquick / Biscuit Mix | Scone mix (available in most supermarkets) | Make your own - scone mix recipe here | Bisquick available to buy from Amazon Groceries |
| Bitter-sweet Chocolate | Dark Chocolate with 70% Cocoa solids or more | ||
| Bread Flour | Strong Flour | ||
| Cake and Pastry Flour | Plain Flour | 2tbsp Cornflour to every 100g Plain Flour, sifted well. | |
| Cane Syrup | Golden Syrup | Make your own Recipe here | "Sweetbird" cane syrup available to buy from Amazon Groceries |
| Candyquik | Wilton Candy Melts available from Hobbycraft, Lakeland or Amazon | ||
| Canola Oil | Rapeseed Oil | Available to buy from Amazon Groceries | |
| Confectioners Sugar | Icing Sugar | ||
| Cool Whip | Birds Dream Topping | ||
| Cornmeal | Polenta | Maize Flour | "Natco" available in health food section of some Supermarkets or from Amazon Groceries |
| Cornstarch | Cornflour | ||
| Dark Corn Syrup | Treacle | "Karo" available in Tesco American Isle or from Amazon Groceries | |
| Graham Crackers | Digestive and Rich Tea Biscuits combined | Ginger Biscuits | Shortbread |
| Graham Flour | Wholemeal Flour | ||
| Half and Half | 50% Milk to 50% Double Cream | 50% Milk to 50% Whipping Cream | Single Cream |
| Heavy Cream | Double Cream | ||
| Kosher / Course Salt | Sea Salt | Rock Salt, ground | |
| Light Cream | Single Cream | ||
| Light Corn Syrup | Golden Syrup | "Karo" available in Tesco American Isle or from Amazon Grocery | |
| Marshmallow Fluff | Available from Amazon or Tesco American Isle | Make your own Marshmallow Fluff Recipe | Melted Marshmallows |
| Molasses | Treacle | Maple Syrup | "Meridean" Organic Molasses available from Amazon Groceries |
| Nilla Wafers | Farley's Rusks | Lady Fingers (Trifle Sponges) | |
| Perfect Sweet Classic Bake Mix | Currently not available in the UK. Made from almond meal, whey protein, psyllium & Xylitol. However, you can buy gluten-free & sugar-free cake mixes from Amazon Grocery | ||
| Pine Kernals | Pine Nuts | ||
| Powdered Sugar | Icing Sugar | ||
| Pudding Mix | Bird's Instant Custard Powder | Angel Delight | |
| Refrigerator Biscuits | Not readily available in UK. It is a dough for American biscuits (which are like savoury scones, not cookies) that is bought frozen/chilled. Here is a recipe to make your own refrigerator biscuit dough. | ||
| Saltines Crackers | Delser or Doriano Crackers in most large supermarkets | ||
| Semi-Sweet Chocolate | Dark Chocolate with 50% Cocoa solids or less | Plain Chocolate | |
| Shortening / Crisco | Brands "Trex", "Flora White" or "Cookeen" | Softened Butter or Lard | Crisco is available from Amazon Groceries |
| Sweetened Coconut | 35g desiccated coconut to 1tbsp icing sugar to 1tbsp hot water, left to soak | "Baker's Angel Flake" coconut is available from Amazon Groceries | |
| Sucanat | Demerara Sugar | Muscavado Sugar | |
| Super Fine Sugar | Caster Sugar | ||
| White Sugar / Table Sugar | Granulated Sugar | ||
| Whole Wheat Flour | Wholemeal Flour | ||
| White Cake Mix | Dry ingredients for a delicate sponge cake made with egg whites. Made with sugar, flour, powdered milk, baking powder & bicarbonate of soda. When ready to use, lard/shortening, water, vanilla and eggs whites are added to turn it into a cake batter. Try Betty Crocker's Super Moist White Cake Mix from Amazon, or here's a recipe to make your own. | ||
| Yellow Cake Mix | Dry ingredients for a traditional sponge cake. Made with sugar, flour, powdered milk, baking powder, salt, butter & vanilla. When ready to use, water and whole eggs are added to turn it into a cake batter. Try Betty Crocker's Super Moist Yellow Cake Mix from Amazon, or here's a recipe. | ||
This is really helpful Rosie as a lot of my magazines are from the US. I always just go to American Soda in Ashton for ingredients but this is very useful for when I can't get out there. Thanks!!
ReplyDeleteDo we have an equivalent to 12-oz. tubes refrigerated biscuits
ReplyDeleteThank you for this, so informative and appreciated x
ReplyDeleteYou can get molasses at health food shops, found that out a couple of years ago. For buttermilk (which is used often in American baking), you can substitute 1 tbsp. plain live yogurt with some milk to have the same lift and flavor of buttermilk (it will be a thinner mixture than buttermilk so add the milk a little at a time.) or use the old standbys of adding a tablespoon or vinegar or lemon juice to milk. Using butter in place of Crisco will change the consistency of the final product- not hugely, but Trex is the closest in my experience. Have fun baking!
ReplyDeleteKind regards,
American living in UK for nearly 18 years who loves baking
Thanks for the tips! Buttermilk has just started in the last few years to become available, but only in major supermarkets like Tesco.
DeleteYou can also make a very easy buttermilk substitute by adding 1 tablespoon (15ml) of vinegar or lemon juice to 1 cup (240ml) of milk. Stir, and let sit for 5-10 minutes before using.
DeleteThanks for these. As an American ex-pat living in the UK for the past 13 years, I had to learn most of these to cook some of my favorite recipes, but a few (like the dream topping - never even noticed it) are new to me!
You can buy buttermilk in tesco now :)
DeleteAwesome! Many thanks and much appreciated x
ReplyDeletesuper helpful. thanks soooo much for sharing :D <3 x
ReplyDeleteI find a mixture of digestve and rich tea biscuits taste nearer to graham crackers than all digestives.
ReplyDeleteI use whey left over from straining my yogurt to make cream cheese in place of buttermilk in pancakes and scones. Not as thick as buttermilk but seems to add the same lovely rich flavor .
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone have any suggestions for a chocolate biscuit crust? I really don't want to have to buy Oreos, split them, scrape the filling out and just use what's left! Who would have thought it could be so hard to find a chocolate - not chocolate covered - biscuit/cookie????
ReplyDeleteDo you think Bourbons would work? They might be a bit cheaper than Oreos anyhow!
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Deletekeep the middle bit in the oreos in, just crush them as you normally would, and just put a bit less marg/butter into it. i do this all the time and it comes out lovely. bourbons would work too, i've even used the cheaper tesco own biscuits and they all work fine.
DeleteBy regular chocolate covered biscuits, put them in a plastic bag and bash them to crumbs (or use a food processor), then put them in a saucepan to warm through to melt the chocolate into the biscuits crumb (add a little butter but only if necessary) and press into your dish.
DeleteThis is a great converter, very helpful. i watch alot of American recipes and this has made my life alot easier. Thanks
ReplyDeleteThat is a good converter, great. when i check out much Us formulas and this also possesses manufactured gaming many much easier.
ReplyDeleteKosher salt is just salt, however it is flaked so a lot less dense than rock or ground salt, so normal volume measurements don't read across well. You can buy Maldon brand salt flakes here in most supermarkets which are similar.
ReplyDeleteWhen i uncover a number of digestive in addition to loaded herbal tea biscuits preference more detailed to help graham crackers in comparison with many digestives.
ReplyDeleteSorry? What you have written makes no sense at all!
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ReplyDeletehi rosie, cn you tell me an alternative to something called biscuit mix for a recipe I would like to try please. Is it the refridgerator biscuits in your chart or is it something else/
ReplyDelete=Biscuit Mix is basically a scone mix (Biscuits are a sort of savoury scone/dumpling that they eat with gravy in the US). You can buy a bag of "scone mix" in Tesco or Sainsbury's from the baking section, or you can just make it yourself. Here's a recipe: http://www.recipetips.com/recipe-cards/t--160836/biscuit-mix-substitute.asp
DeleteFYI, U.S. biscuits aren't necessarily, or even usually, served as a savory food. They're often eaten split with butter and honey or fruit jam. Biscuits and gravy is more of a regional dish of the American South.
DeleteBiscuits here in american are not savory and they are not like dumplings they are usually buttered and sometimes are served with a sausage gravy over them - those are home made biscuits and they are kind of close to scones - not like scones are canned biscuits lazy people will put into something like chicken and dumplings or something to use as dumplings (not me)
Deletehi rosie, can you tell me an alternative to something called biscuit mix for a recipe I would like to try please. Is it the refridgerator biscuits in your chart or is it something else or is it bisquick, a little confused....lol
ReplyDeleteAs a fan of Baking, it is really appreciated that you share this.
ReplyDeleteSome recipes are asking for pudding mix. Do you know what could be the equivalent here?
ReplyDeleteAfter a bit of researching it looks like the closest alternative is Bird's Instant Custard Powder (must be instant) or you can try Angel Delight vanilla flavour. Thanks for the suggestion I'll add this to the table.
DeleteHello there, I am after an alternative for something called vanilla Candiquik? Could you give me any ideas at all. Thanks
ReplyDeleteThe closest UK ingredient to Candyquik, is probably the white "Candy Melts". They come in a bag and you can buy them from Hobbycraft, Lakeland, or online. Used for making sweets & covering cake pops etc.
Deletein america there are all flavors of pudding mix even the other day i had pumpkins spice
DeleteHello, can you explain what caper juice is? We have capers, pickled in vinegar, but never heard of caper juice. Thanks very much.
ReplyDeleteCertainly not a foodie of any kind , but have never heard of Caper Juice in the US. If I found a recipe that called for it, I'd turn the page..... 8-)
DeleteI would imagine is recipe is calling for you to drain the juice from a jar of capers. "Caper juice" isn't something you can buy on its own in the U.S.
DeleteYou can now buy cornmeal at asda, great for corn dogs x
ReplyDeleteSo it's a bit like Bisquick - it's a ready made generic baking mix that includes flour, baking powder, salt and fat. You can use it for baking pretty much anything. You can buy a ready made scone mix from Tesco, or a bread mix (be aware that this contains yeast though). Or just make your own. Here's a recipe to give you the quantities - http://www.marthastewart.com/1086611/homemade-baking-mix.
ReplyDeleteThis is such a great list.. thank you, it will save me a lot of time (I'm wearing poor Google out! lol).
ReplyDeleteI've seen a recipe for Sucanat, is there a UK equivalent you could recommend? Thanks
Sucanat is essentially a crystallised raw cane sugar. It has a similar texture to demerara sugar, but tastes more like muscovado sugar. You can substitute either!
DeleteThank you! Have downloaded the PDF for quick ref. Buttermilk is now readily available in most supermarkets and it makes great 'biscuits'.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for this you are a life saver, I've been trying to find a substitute to cornstarch for so long, tried to use arrowroot but it doesn't seem to have quite the same effect, now that I know it's cornflour it's going to make recipes a lot easier to do �� thank you x
ReplyDeleteThank you for this info, my mind is now unbaffled
ReplyDeleteWhat is UK equivalent to Angel cake mix
ReplyDeleteThere currently is no alternative. Unless you can get hold of A LOT of dried egg white powder, it's much easier (& more delicious) to just make your own Angel Food Cake from scratch. Here's a recipe to try: http://www.foodnetwork.co.uk/recipes/angel-food-cake.html
DeleteWhat can i use to replace powdered butter mix in a dry rub recipe.
ReplyDeleteCan you let me know an alternative for vanilla wafers please ...Thank you.
ReplyDeleteIf you mean "Nilla wafers" then the closest is Farley's baby rusks or lady fingers (trifle sponges)!
ReplyDeleteA reverse question for you. I'm watching the Great British Baking Show Master Class, and they mentioned "baking spread." I don't know what would be the equivalent...margarine or butter flavored shortening?
ReplyDeleteI'd like the answer to this too!
DeleteStork! Margarine made for baking with as it's soft so much easier to cream with sugar than a block of cold butter. Mary Berry always uses it. All supermarkets do their own brand as well - "Asda Best for Baking cakes spread" "Morrison's Best for Baking Soft Spread" "Aldi Greenvale Perfect for Baking" etc. I'm still a big fan of butter as I prefer the taste - I just bring it to room temperature first.
DeleteI'm in the US watching this same Masterclass episode. I found you because I've also been trying to figure out what baking spread is. You have it on your list as a US ingredient, but I don't think any of us had ever heard of it before!
DeleteCan you tell me what is the American equivalent of our Baking Powder is this different to Baking Soda and Bicarbonate of Soda. which is best to use when making say a banana cake.
ReplyDeleteIn Canada and US baking powder is different from baking soda, so I'm guessing your UK baking powder (different from bicarbonate of soda) is the same thing with the same name. You use soda for acid foods (buttermilk, vinegar, lemon juice) and powder for other things. Google says, "It can be composed of a number of materials, but usually contains baking soda (sodium bicarbonate, NaHCO3), cream of tartar (potassium bitartrate, C4H5KO6), and cornstarch. (A base, an acid, and a filler respectively.)"
DeleteHi my bf lives in London and I'm going to see him this winter....I wanted to make some sugar cookies but I'm not sure about the frosting. My mom and I use pillsbury's vanilla frosting, is there anything that is really close to this? Or maybe the same just a different labelling?
ReplyDeleteThanks for this list, from the American heartland. Caster sugar and golden syrup are new terms to me, so this was helpful.
ReplyDeleteHi, thanks for the list, I'm looking for an UK alternative to Pilsbury Grands Biscuits please
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for your help! This is such a useful List. I will use this time and time again. I found this site because I got so tired of seeing recipes for Graham crackers and couldn't ever work out what it was!
ReplyDeleteJust so you know, if this helps - you can get coloured candy melts from the British shop The Range in be baking section, too, as well as Hobby craft. I don't know the brand but it wasn't massively expensive.
Thanks again and hope this helped!
Very helpful list. Is there an alternative to Saltines please?
ReplyDeleteThere are Italian brands called Delsa, Delsar, or Doriano that are very similar and can be found in a few supermarkets like Tesco, Morrisons and Sainburys.
DeleteDelser is the correct spelling sorry!
DeleteI have a cookie recipe book which contains a few strange ingredients:
ReplyDelete1. Squares of chocolate - as it's only asking for small numbers e.g. 1-3 squares, I assume this is not standard squares you find in a bar of UK chocolate.
2. Salad oil (1/2 cup), which could be anything.
Please help.
Useful info regarding baking chocolate squares:
Deletehttp://www.glencoehouse.co.uk/bakers%20chocolate%20squares_change%20size_dec%202013.pdf
Salad oil just means vegetable oil. In old school US recipes, this meant corn oil, sunflower oil, safflower oil, or soybean oil. These days, canola oil (a.k.a. rapeseed oil) is usually what’s used.
DeleteIf a recipe calls for “salad oil” for a salad dressing or a dip, I will usually use olive oil.
Baking is as much a piece of observing Christmas to me as firecrackers are a piece of the fourth of July festivity.
ReplyDeleteHi there
ReplyDeletethis is brilliant ! could you please tell me what an alternative to oval butter biscuits
and also velveteen pls
ReplyDeleteThis helped me out a lot specially as a American still trying to get use to making subs for a lot of favs like Graham crackers which are used in quite a few cakes\pies. I have found that if you want a Graham cracker knock off base mcvites ginger nuts and shorties mixed in equal parts with a touch of coconut sugar taste almost spot on to Graham cracker crumbs.
ReplyDeleteWe often said to ourselves "I wish I could bake that cake too, my family and kids will definitely love it".baked comfort foods
ReplyDeleteThank you for this list of UK alternatives to US ingredients. It's so helpful
ReplyDeleteFat consuming foods are maybe acclaimed as catabolic. As you may not yet observe, they are normally highlighted and they will assuredly coordinate your financial plan as well.towards good health
ReplyDeleteWow!!a whole new world of dumplings and biscuits, shows that at nearly 70, it's never too late to learn, thanks so much for the information, I think I know what's on the menu tomorrow, and I'll have fun as well..thank you all for the your ideas..
ReplyDeleteThanks Rosie, It was so good for you to take the time to compile this list. Greatly appreciated. Much love from London, England.
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ReplyDeleteLooking for apple butter please is it just puree and butter mixed
ReplyDeleteApple butter is apples cooked slowly until they form a thick spread. Spices are often added. Check on the internet - I looked the other day and found many recipes. Note: there is no actual butter in apple butter; it gets that appellation from its consistency and smoothness. You can make "butters" from many fruits, such as peaches and pumpkins.
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