When I want to bake muffins, I reach for whichever homemade dairy product happens to be in my fridge that day: cultured buttermilk, sour cream or yogurt. As I explain this week in my Twice as Tasty column for the Flathead Beacon, each has a different texture and flavor but can be used interchangeably in many baked goods.

Cultured buttermilk tends to be just slightly thicker than heavy cream, and it adds flavor not just to sweet rhubarb muffins but also to savory Corn Kernel Muffins with Sage. My favorite substitute for it is the whey from Homemade Small-Batch Yogurt: Drain the yogurt through a fine-mesh strainer and capture the tangy liquid in a measuring cup. If the whey seems too thin, stir in a couple of tablespoons of the yogurt before using it in Berry Chocolate Muffins.

If Homemade Sour Cream is thicker than buttermilk, thin it with a little regular milk. But you can often simply bake with it, turning Sour Cream-Applesauce Coffee Cake into softly puffed muffins.

Learn more about using homemade buttermilk, yogurt, and sour cream and get the complete recipe for Tangy Rhubarb Muffins in my column.

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Twice as Tasty

With rhubarb just starting to set up long stalks in the garden, I’ll soon be using it in more than muffins. At my house, my rhubarb grows all summer in the shady woods without bolting. Where it grows in the sun at Mitchell Farm, my main vegetable gardening space, I need to make the most of the young, tender shoots before the plants start to form flowers.

Here are just a few other rhubarb recipes on the blog. You can find more in the recipe index.

• Huckleberry–Rhubarb Galette
• Rhubarb–Apple Crisp
• Rhubarb–Rosemary Sorbet
• Rhubarb–Vanilla Syrup
• Strawberry-Rhubarb Shrub

Rhubarb also makes a delicious finishing salt that I prepare much like Herb-Infused Salt: Dice it and layer it in a jar with flaky kosher salt, and shake the jar daily for 10 days before using, either as is or ground more finely. You can find other savory rhubarb recipes for Fermented Rhubarb Pickles, Rhubarb Kimchi, and Spiced Chickpeas with Fermented Rhubarb in my cookbooks.

Want more Twice as Tasty recipes? Get my books! Click here to order a personally signed, packaged, and shipped copy of The Complete Guide to Pickling directly from me. I also share tasty ways to use pickles in The Pickled Picnic; it’s only available here.