Pull out an old baking recipe book, and you’ll find the delicious favourites – cookies, bread, cakes, brownies, muffins, you name it. And seemingly everything can be made with four main ingredients – flour, sugar, eggs, and butter. Butter is used to add softness, moisture and creaminess. It also helps the dough to rise as the butter’s water content evaporates while baking.
That said, butter is incredibly high in calories and fat, which includes saturated fat. Saturated fat, even in small amounts, increases bad cholesterol, which can put you at risk of heart attacks, strokes, blood clots, and leads to heart disease. Since it’s so high in calories (about 100 calories per tablespoon), it also contributes to weight gain and obesity.
Beyond the health impacts, the dairy industry is a huge contributor to greenhouse gases, with dairy cows producing up to 500 litres of methane per day! And the industry is far from ethical.
Luckily there are many vegan alternatives to use instead of butter in baking that are just as effective.
Coconut oil
Coconut oil is a delicious vegan alternative to butter as it behaves similarly to butter compared to other oils. It solidifies when cool and melts at room temperature, making it very versatile. If you use unrefined coconut oil, you can expect a more distinctive taste, but refined coconut oil is basically flavourless. The best time to use coconut oil is to replace melted butter in muffins or cakes. We use organic extra-virgin coconut oil in our organic sourdough cinnamon buns. Or use solid coconut oil to replace butter sticks in cookies.
Vegan butter
Vegan butter is a dairy alternative that looks and tastes like regular butter. It’s typically the same composition as margarine, but recently companies have been launching options that are more similar to real butter. Most margarine is already vegan and made from plant-based oils like avocado, oil, palm oil or coconut oil mixed with water and is easy to find at any supermarket.
There are also options like Flora plant-based butter that are more solid in texture, making them better for making things like cookies and icing. But many include palm kernel and palm oil. Although vegan butter is lower in saturated fat than regular butter, it can be highly processed, so pick your vegan butter carefully.
Applesauce
Applesauce is a very popular butter alternative in the vegan community. It’s one of the healthiest substitutes you can make and drastically lowers the fat and calorie content of your baked goods. Even the unsweetened varieties are naturally sweet, so you can also reduce the amount of sweeteners you use in your recipes. Applesauce works as a binder, so it’s also used as a vegan egg replacement, but contains more liquid than butter. Make sure to strain out as much of the excess liquid as possible before adding it to your other ingredients.
You can swap out butter for apple sauce at a rate of 2:1. Applesauce works best in baked goods like cakes and sweet bread, creating a more moist and dense consistency. It will make your baked goods softer, so you shouldn’t use applesauce if you’re trying to back crispy cookies, as they can become mushy.
Olive oil
Olive oil is available just about everywhere and is an inexpensive swap to butter in baked. It’s much lower in fat than butter and high in antioxidants. You’ll need less olive oil than you would butter, so you should substitute at a ratio of 3:4. As olive oil is a liquid, it will only work for recipes that don’t require butter to remain in its solid form. It works great for bread, muffins or brownies but not so great for flaky pastries, scones or hard cookies.
Mashed banana
Bananas are high in potassium, fibre, vitamin C and vitamin B6, just to name a few. They help support digestive health, can improve blood sugar levels and may help you feel fuller (which is beneficial when munching on baked goods!) Mash up your bananas, and you’ve got the perfect vegan butter replacement to use in many of your vegan baked goods recipes. Because of the consistency of mashed bananas, they won’t emulsify into your other ingredients the same way butter would. Make sure they are very well mashed up, and slowly add your batter until you get the ideal consistency. Bananas are also sweet, which means you can reduce the amount of processed sugar used in your baking recipes.
There is no one-size-fits-all replacement ratio when using bananas instead of butter. We recommend starting by using half the amount of banana than butter quantity and mixing your ingredients together. If it’s too dry, you can continue adding more bananas until your batter reaches the perfect consistency.
Mashed bananas can be used when baking quick bread, muffins and cakes, but bare in mind they are denser than they would be with butter. If you want light, fluffy baked goods, then it’s better to choose an alternative option.
Avocado
Avocados are a fantastic vegan alternative to butter, especially in chocolatey recipes. They are much lower in sodium, saturated fat and calories than butter and contain no cholesterol. You’ll also be adding fibre, vitamin K, folate and other healthy vitamins to the mix. The creaminess of avocado can perfectly replicate the texture of butter, especially in recipes like bread, donuts, chocolate cakes, muffins and cookies. You can swap butter for mashed avocado at a ratio of 1:1. Keep in mind that avocados will add a green hue to your recipes, so you may want to use it with ingredients like cocoa to cover the colour.
Vegan butter alternatives
With so many healthy and effective vegan swaps available, you’ll never need to use butter again in your baked goods recipes. Not only is switching to these options better for the environment, but they are also better for your health without sacrificing taste. Most of these swaps are easy to find at your local grocery store and relatively inexpensive. Try out one of these vegan alternatives to butter in your baking recipes to make them healthier, tastier and more planet-friendly.
