Jennifer Garner Has the Easiest Hack for Making Buttermilk at Home

We love Jennifer Garner's #PretendCookingShow, and we almost always walk away with some major recipe inspo (and cravings for her easy tomato sauce or delicious-looking pumpkin bread). In her latest episode, Garner video chatted her mom to get some advice on how to make her cornbread recipe.

Garner wrote in an Instagram caption, "I call my mom every time I make cornbread—even though I've written the recipe in every notebook, even though I am sure I could toss it together in my sleep. Maybe watching this will show you why, perhaps, I just like to call my mom. ♥️This cornbread takes no time at all, is incredibly forgiving, and is an every other day staple at my house: perfect to fill in a dinner, perfect for a snack, perfect for breakfast. Plus, it tastes like home. I hope you love it as much as I do. ♥️"

As usual, Garner kept it real (and hilarious) while making the cornbread by balancing her iPad on a cat stand and spilling half of the batter on the floor. She also didn't have the right size cast-iron skillet, so she made her cornbread in a Dutch oven (like this one from Amazon, $70). And when she ran into another small snafu—she didn't have any buttermilk—she asked her mom what to do.

Her mom said, "You know, I don't know, Jennifer. I'm rarely without buttermilk." Garner got crafty and made her own buttermilk by combining regular milk and a splash of vinegar. (Our test kitchen recommends using 1 tablespoon of vinegar to 1 cup of milk. You can use other acids, such as lemon juice, in place of vinegar too.)

She mixed everything together and entertained her mom by dancing while the cornbread was in the oven. Her mom kept up the adorably sassy attitude by saying, "No wonder it's called a Pretend Cooking Show."

Once Garner's cornbread came out of the oven, it looked amazing and she seemed really proud of herself for mastering her buttermilk hack. If you want to try it out for yourself, here's her family's recipe:

Grandmom’s Cornbread

By: Patricia English Garner

Ingredients:

• 2 Tbsp oil
• 3/4 cup cornmeal
• 1/4 cup flour
• 1 rounded tsp baking powder
• 1/4 rounded tsp baking soda
• 1 Tbsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 egg
• 1 cup buttermilk

Directions:

1. Set oven to 450 degrees. Pour oil into a heavy skillet and put that in the oven.
2. Mix cornmeal, flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar and salt in a bowl.
3. Add egg to the mixture and enough buttermilk until the batter is thinner than pancake batter.
4. VERY carefully take the skillet out of the oven and pour oil into batter.
5. Mix the batter and pour it into the hot skillet.
6. Return to the oven and bake. Watch carefully after 10 minutes, until brown.
7. Mom says eat with butter.
8. Yum.

We'll be bookmarking this recipe—and Garner's buttermilk hack—for the next time we're craving some comfort food.