Help with Foamy Buttermilk Syrup

I've been making a simple buttermilk syrup to go with simple buttermilk pancakes for years now. The foaming mostly comes from the last-minute addition of baking soda (full recipe at the end of this post).

Now that I'm armed with a whipping siphon, xanthan gum, sodium citrate, lecithin, and little bits of wisdom from the ChefSteps (including the whipping siphon class), I'd like to tackle two possibly-related challenges:

1- How can I make the foamy-ness last longer? It separates pretty quickly into two layers, and not long after that the foam dies completely. Keeping it warm helps a little.

2- Can I create a similar foaming effect without baking soda? My wife swears she can taste it, and she's not a fan.

I'll start experimenting on my own, but would love any ideas from the community on what things I should try.

Thanks!

Buttermilk Syrup

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup buttermilk

1 tsp. vanilla

1 tsp. baking soda

Melt first three ingredients in large pot. Remove from heat. Then add vanilla and baking soda.

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Comments

Chris_Young_80640

You can make the foam last longer by thickening it. A small amount of xanthan gum (around 0.25% by weight) would be a good start. You can remove the baking soda if you place everything into a whipping siphon and charge it with nitrous oxide.

jed

Excellent. Thanks Chris. I'll try a few variations next weekend and report back with pics and results.

jed

Here's my first report back, followed by one question.

This picture shows, from right to left: the original recipe, the original with xanthan gum, and the original sans baking soda, dispensed from a 1 liter whipping siphon charged with 3x nitrous oxide.

The surface has a slight slope, so you can see that the original recipe is separating and running more than the two modifications, which both did a better job in their own ways. I'm particularly happy about the whipping siphon option, since I can get foamy syrup "on demand" and even keep it refrigerated and re-warm it a few days later.

However, the whipping siphon version had a distinctly more sour buttermilky taste. In some contexts that's great, but in this case I'm going for straight up sweet syrup. I'm guessing that the lack of baking soda is to blame? Can I replace it with regular salt? If so, what amount? Any other ideas?

Thanks again for the suggestions @chris