The Best Substitutes for Apple Cider Vinegar

What is apple cider vinegar?

Apple cider vinegar (often shortened to the acronym ‘ACV’) is vinegar made from fermented apples, yeast and sugar. It’s usually used to make salad dressings, however, it can also be used in baking recipes; it’s used in our vegan victoria sponge cake and vegan pancakes.

There are also lots of health benefits of apple cider vinegar, including lowering blood sugar, supporting weight loss and improving skin health.

What is apple cider vinegar used for in baking?

Vinegar is often used in baking to act as a leavening agent. As vinegar is acidic, it reacts with baking soda to oxidise - creating bubbles which helps recipes to rise, giving them a light and airy texture. Apple cider vinegar can be used as a leaver in cakes, cookies, pancakes and more.

Apple cider vinegar substitutes

There are lots of apple cider vinegar alternatives you can try for baking, including other types of vinegar and acidic ingredients. You can find our favourite substitutes below.

White vinegar

Replacement ratio: Replace 10ml of apple cider vinegar with 10ml of white vinegar

Ideally, you’d use another type of vinegar to replace ACV as they also contain acetic acid. White vinegar makes a great replacement for apple cider vinegar as it has a neutral flavour profile. This means it shouldn’t affect the flavour of your final bake, compared to if you’d used ACV.

Red wine vinegar

Replacement ratio: Replace 10ml of apple cider vinegar with 10ml of red wine vinegar

Red wine vinegar has a slightly fruity flavour, even compared to apple cider vinegar, however, this can work well in some recipes. It also gives bakes a slight pinkish colour which can affect the colour in lighter-coloured bakes, however, you won’t notice this in darker recipes like chocolate cake or red velvet cake.

White wine vinegar

Replacement ratio: Replace 10ml of apple cider vinegar with 10ml of white wine vinegar

White wine vinegar is another apple cider vinegar alternative that works well in your bakes, as this also isn’t too strongly flavoured so won’t impact the taste of your recipe. Also, white wine vinegar won’t affect the colour of your final bake as much as red wine vinegar will.

Champagne vinegar

Replacement ratio: Replace 10ml of apple cider vinegar with 10ml of champagne vinegar

Champagne vinegar is another mildly fruity vinegar, similar to white wine vinegar. As it is light in colour and not too overpowering, it also works well as a substitute.

Rice wine vinegar

Replacement ratio: Replace 10ml of apple cider vinegar with 10ml of rice wine vinegar

Rice wine vinegar is another pale vinegar that won’t affect the appearance of your bake. It has a mild rice flavour, however, you won’t notice this in small quantities once it is baked. You should also be sure to use unseasoned rice wine vinegar, as seasoned contains added sugar and salt, which will likely affect how the recipe tastes.

Malt vinegar

Replacement ratio: Replace 10ml of apple cider vinegar with 10ml of malt vinegar

Malt vinegar will work as a replacement for apple cider vinegar when baking, however, we wouldn’t recommend using it if you have any of the types of vinegar we’ve mentioned above. This is because it is dark, so it can affect the appearance of your bake. It also has a slightly malty flavour that will affect the flavour if used in larger amounts.

Another type of vinegar we wouldn’t recommend swapping ACV out for is balsamic, as it can vary in acidity, colour and sweetness. This will affect how your bake rises, looks and tastes.

Lemon juice

Replacement ratio: Replace 10ml of apple cider vinegar with 10ml of lemon juice

Some acidic fruit juices also make a good baking replacement for apple cider vinegar. This is because the acid helps your recipes to rise. However, you will need to adjust how much you use based on the acidity of the juice.

Lemon juice has a pH between 2 and 3, which is more or less the same as ACV. This makes it an ideal replacement as you can simply do a straight swap quantity wise. Unsurprisingly, this replacement will also give your bake a slight hint of lemon, which will work great in lemon and fruit-flavoured bakes.

Lime juice

Replacement ratio: Replace 10ml of apple cider vinegar with 10ml of lime juice

Lime juice also has a similar pH to apple cider vinegar, so you easily swap this in for ACV and your recipe will rise just fine. However, there will also be a slightly limey flavour, so bear in mind whether this will be suitable for your finished bake.

Orange juice

Replacement ratio: Replace 10ml of apple cider vinegar with 10ml of orange juice

Orange juice is less acidic than lemon and lime juice, with a pH of 3-4. However, you can still use orange juice in the same quantity of ACV and your recipe will still rise. Orange juice also contains more sugar than lemon and lime juice, so may make your recipes sweeter than planned. This shouldn’t be an issue unless the recipe calls for lots of ACV - for example, more than a tablespoon.

Apple juice

Replacement ratio: Replace 10ml of apple cider vinegar with 10ml of apple juice

Apple juice also has a higher pH than apple cider vinegar. You should be able to use the same quantity as you would ACV for your bake to rise, however, if you want to be safe you can also add just an extra 10%.

This replacement will also add a subtle apple flavour to your bakes, which nicely mimics the natural flavour profile of apple cider vinegar.

Citric acid

Replacement ratio: Replace 10ml of apple cider vinegar with 10ml of water mixed with 5g of citric acid

Citric acid is a useful ingredient for baking. It’s used to add a hint of sourness to recipes whilst lowering the pH, which makes it perfect in this case. When using this alternative, one teaspoon of citric acid mixed with one tablespoon of water should be used to replace one tablespoon of apple cider vinegar. However, the pH of store-bought citric acid can vary, so this may take some experimenting to find the right one.