Butter Alternative for Baking

[tirgoddess]

Sorry if this thread is redundant, couldn't find it in any searches - a customer of mine would like a cholesteral, trans fat, hydrogenated oil free alternative to butter to bake with- is there such a thing?

[Gifted Gourmet]

this one is called Savory

[rooftop1000]

OK Thats It

JUST EAT LESS CAKE...dammit

tracey

[SweetSide]

Earth Balance is a butter substitute sold in natural food stores. No trans fats, no cholesterol as it is vegetable based, no hydrogenated oils.

I've used it in a vegan cake recipe that was specifically formulated for such a thing. However, as these products don't behave the same way as butter, my belief is that you aren't going to be able to go substituting it willy-nilly. As for the adjustments that would need to be made, I couldn't tell you.

Also, there are trans fat, hydrogenated oil free shortenings on the market that you can substitute for regular shortening in recipes that call for shortening.

[jackal10]

Use butter.

I suspect your friend is mis-informed, and any artificial alternative is likely to be less "healthy". There is some evidence that butterfat protects from other nasties that cause cancer...

Of course they could use just straight olive oil

[creativeingredients]

Coconut Oil is now considered quite healthy. It behaves like butter, but even better with it's higher smoke point.

Here is some info:

http://www.coconut-info.com/

[jgm]

Crisco has out a low trans-fat shortening. I would suggest the possibility of substituting it for part of the butter. You'll have to experiment, though, because I doubt it would behave the same way butter will in a recipe.

Also (you probably already know this) many people are substituting stuff like applesauce for fat in baking. Usually about 1-to-1 substitution at 50% works. In other words, if the recipe calls for 2 cups of butter, you'd substitue 50% of it, or 1 cup. And you'd use a 1-to-1 substitution, so you'd use 1 cup of applesauce.

I do agree that eating less cake is a better approach than sacrificing texture and flavor, but there are times when, depending on the recipe, the sacrifice is minimal, and you can have a healthier product that way. It's a decision to be made on a case-by-case basis. As we eat fewer and fewer saturated fats, and make other types of changes, our palates also change. Sometimes a revered "old" recipe can taste heavy and dull, and the recipe can actually be improved by doing a little remodeling.

[Pam R]

I use Earth Balance in most of my baking. Best substitutes for butter I've ever used - and I've used a lot.

[vinelady]

With the Earth Balance just make sure you use thier Buttery Sticks. They are much closer in taste to butter.

[Patrick S]

a cholesteral, trans fat, hydrogenated oil free alternative to butter

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Partially hydrogenated oils are usually only a concern insofar as they have been a marker for trans fat content. But shortening made with the new fully hydrogenated oils contain essentially no trans fats. As jgm poins out, the new Crisco is probably the closest thing to what you're looking for, a fat that is solid at room temperature like butter.

ETA: Being a butter devotee, I haven't tried this product or the other products mentioned above, so take that for what its worth.

Edited March 24, 2006 by Patrick S (log)

[andiesenji]

coconut oil is solid at room temperature. I use it in baking for vegans. It behaves like butter in most recipes.

There is also a fruit product that is a fat and egg substitute, made expressly for baking.

here is one link, you can google many others.

Fruit based fat substitute.

[Patrick S]

coconut oil is solid at room temperature.  I use it in baking for vegans.  It behaves like butter in most recipes.

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That's interesting. How does it taste? Is it widely available? Amazon is selling it for like $7.50 a pound. Is that typical?

[ray goud]

So, how old was Julia Child, AKA the butter goddess, when she finally left us for good? 91, right?!!

Ray

[andiesenji]

coconut oil is solid at room temperature.  I use it in baking for vegans.  It behaves like butter in most recipes.

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That's interesting. How does it taste? Is it widely available? Amazon is selling it for like $7.50 a pound. Is that typical?

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This is the one that I use.

coconut oil

I posted a photo of the jar in another thread. At room temp I scrape it out of the jar with a broad-tipped spoon. It has a faint coconut flavor but I have never noticed it transferring to bread - I use it in scones but chill it prior to cutting into the dry ingredients, exacly as I do butter.

[chiantiglace]

I would just use butter. Read this article from the NY Times

Welcome Back Butter

Unless extreme strict guidelines I honestly think the best thing we can do in life is eat well and in moderation. Screw all these new substitutes, I keep hearing bad things about Splenda such as chronic headaches and toothaches.

I still cant get over the people that are afraid to order green beans if they have been sautee'd in even the smallest amount of olive oil.

By the way I dont think that liquid butter substitute is going to do to well in ANY baking procedures.

A trans fatty acid (commonly shortened to trans fat) is an unsaturated fatty acid whose molecules contain trans double bonds between carbon atoms, which makes the molecules less kinked compared with those of 'cis fat'. Research suggests a correlation between diets high in trans fats and diseases like atherosclerosis and coronary heart disease. The US National Academy of Sciences recommended in 2002 that dietary intake of trans fatty acids should be eliminated.

The new labeling rule took effect January 1, 2006. The FDA created a process where companies may petition for an extension that will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. Extensions will be granted until January 1, 2008. The FDA estimates that by 2009, trans fat labeling will have prevented from 600 to 1,200 cases of coronary heart disease and 250 to 500 deaths each year. This benefit is expected to result from consumers choosing alternative foods lower in trans fatty acids as well as manufacturers reducing the amount of trans fatty acids in their products.

many food manufacturers used the 2006 deadline as a target date to reduce or eliminate trans fats from their products. This required some experimentation with alternative oils in an attempt to preserve the flavor and "mouth feel" of the food while maximizing shelf life. The solution for some products was a return to the saturated fats and tropical oils abandoned 20 years earlier, when saturated fats were a high-profile health concern

Edited March 25, 2006 by chiantiglace (log)

[pigeonpie]

OK Thats It

JUST EAT LESS CAKE...dammit

tracey

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Seconded, and then some - what is the point of a cake without butter?

I made the mistake of ordering chocolate cake in a vegan cafe once (I live in Brighton, which is kind of the UK's answer to San Francisco; unfortunately vegan cafes can actually make a living here ... maybe I should just move?).

Anyway, where was I? Yes, vegan chocolate cake. Looked fabulous. Tasted? Well, not quite revolting, but utterly, utterly, disappointing. Problem? THERE WAS NO BUTTER IN IT, obviously.

I haven't been back to that cafe.

[andiesenji]

There have been some negative things said about Splenda, questions answered here. but trying to find someone who actually has had a problem is not easy. There are web sites, who try to sell subscriptions, that purport to tell "the truth" about it but they have a vested interest in getting money for their information. Consider the banning of sodium cyclamate and the "studies" that took it off the market years ago that were later proved to be manipulated to show erroneous findings. When you review the studies on animals that show the problems associated with sucralose, note the amounts fed, which would equate to a human consuming a minimum of 10 ounces daily for 2 years. The stuff is so light that 10 ounces is an enormous volume. Dr. O'Neill, who takes care of me for diabetes, is also a toxicologist and he has read just about everything related to this subject and if he says Splenda is okay for me, I take his word.

Butter is great. I never stopped using it and would use it in everything for my own consumption.

However, I do have vegan friends who do not want to consume ANY products derived from animals and I respect their wishes, just as I do my Jewish and Muslim friends who do not wish to consume foods that are not kosher or halal.

There are suitable substitutes and it is not just the fat in a recipe that may make a cake, a quick bread or pie pastry less palatable. I have a recipe for a chocolate cake that is made with oil - I use avocado oil or canola oil or other neutral oil and substitute almond or rice milk with a little lemon juice for the buttermilk. The recipe is chocolate cake made with oil however I make a different frosting with almond milk, powdered sugar and cocoa, rather than the cream. I'm not at home this weekend so I don't have my exact conversion handy but it isn't difficult to translate and there are quite a few excellent cake recipes made with oil.

I got a recipe for lemon cake off one of the avocado sites that uses avocado oil and is delicious.

Edited March 25, 2006 by andiesenji (log)

[butterscotch]

the only butter substitute i've ever liked for any purpose was that powder- Butter Buds for

Hot Buttered Rum.

I'm sorry, I know it's not baking, but it was really really good, better than the real thing I thought. I haven't seem Butter Buds in ages.

Sorry if this thread is redundant, couldn't find it in any searches - a customer of mine would like a cholesteral, trans fat, hydrogenated oil free alternative to butter to bake with- is there such a thing?

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[scott123]

a cholesteral, trans fat, hydrogenated oil free alternative to butter

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Partially hydrogenated oils are usually only a concern insofar as they have been a marker for trans fat content. But shortening made with the new fully hydrogenated oils contain essentially no trans fats. As jgm poins out, the new Crisco is probably the closest thing to what you're looking for, a fat that is solid at room temperature like butter.

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Wouldn't a fully hydrogenated oil be completely solid//hard/unspreadable?

[Patrick S]

Consider the banning of sodium cyclamate and the "studies" that took it off the market years ago that were later proved to be manipulated to show erroneous findings.

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Its amazing how shoddy the science is behind many health scares and food fads. 99% of all health claims made about food, whether about risks or benefits, are based on inadequate evidence, misinterpreted evidence, or no evidence at all. Even supposedly solid dietary health claims, like the claim that reducing the proportion of calories in your diet from fat will reduce your risk of heart disease, turn out to be on shaky empirical grounds.

I'm sure you remember the saccharin scare -- saccharin was supposed to cause bladder cancer, but then it turned out that this was only a risk for rats (no such effect was observed in any other species, including mice or primates) who were fed the equivalent of hundreds of cans of soda per day for an entire lifetime, and the cancers were being caused by those megadoses of saccharin actually crystallizing in the rat's bladders, and humans who consumed lots of saccharin had not greater risk of bladder cancer than those who consumed none . . .

Back on topic, what factors determine the suitability of a butter substitute for baking? I imagine that melting point is probably a big one, but is there anything else?

[Patrick S]

a cholesteral, trans fat, hydrogenated oil free alternative to butter

←

Partially hydrogenated oils are usually only a concern insofar as they have been a marker for trans fat content. But shortening made with the new fully hydrogenated oils contain essentially no trans fats. As jgm poins out, the new Crisco is probably the closest thing to what you're looking for, a fat that is solid at room temperature like butter.

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Wouldn't a fully hydrogenated oil be completely solid//hard/unspreadable?

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Yes. This problem is solved, in Crisco's case, by adding unhydrogenated sunflower and soybean oils to the fully hydrogenated cottonseed oil.

[butterscotch]

Patrick, I bet you'd know this. what would be the net effect of replacing butter with margerine in a chocolate chip recipe? i'm looking to replicate a crispy lacy edge, a bit reminisent of a florentine without getting to far from a classic chewy/ crispy bottom chocolate chip.

i usually butter the sheet heavily with salted butter to get a bit of the salty buttery thing on the bottom.

someone recently told me that margerine is the secret, but i can't bring myslef to bake that way.

i'm thinking i'm going to try a recipe that's 1/3 florentine 2/3 toll house.... but i thought i'd ask, since we are on butter substitutes. tia.

Edited March 25, 2006 by butterscotch (log)

[Patrick S]

Patrick, I bet you'd know this. what would be the net effect of replacing butter with margerine in  a chocolate chip recipe?  i'm looking to replicate a crispy lacy edge, a bit reminisent of a florentine without getting to far from a classic chewy/ crispy bottom chocolate chip.

i usually butter the sheet heavily with salted butter to get a bit of the salty buttery thing on the bottom.

someone recently told me that margerine is the secret, but i can't bring myslef to bake that way.

i'm thinking i'm going to try a recipe that's 1/3 florentine 2/3 toll house.... but i thought i'd ask, since we are on butter substitutes. tia.

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I wish I had a good answer for you, but the truth is I don't have a lot of experience baking with margarine. My guess would be that since stick margarine has about the same melting point as butter, you wouldn't get the additional spreading you need to form crispy, lacy edges. On the other hand, tub margarine is softer, less hydrogenated and I think has a slightly lower melting point than butter or stick margarine, so that might give you what you need.

Edited March 25, 2006 by Patrick S (log)

[Catherine Iino]

Does anyone have definitive information on the health value/risk of coconut oil? You can find tracts both for and against, and I don't know who to believe!

[Patrick S]

Does anyone have definitive information on the health value/risk of coconut oil? You can find tracts both for and against, and I don't know who to believe!

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I doubt there is sufficient evidence to give you any kind of definite answer. Coconut oil is packed with saturated fats (92%), which have generally been considered one of the least heart-healthy types of fat. Now, there are different types of saturated fats, and if you read the pro-coconut oil sites, you'll see that they all point out that coconut oil contains a significant amount of the medium-chain variety which is thought to have a neutral of even beneficial effect on cardiovascular disease. The ones I looked at, however, did not point out that most of the saturated fats in coconut oil are in fact the long-chain varieties, like those in butter, that have often been considered "bad." In fact, coconut oil is about 75% long-chain saturated fats and only about 10% medium-chain saturated fats. I'm not saying that makes it "bad," only that quite a few people appear to be under the mistaken assumption that all of the saturated fat in coconut oil is of the medium-chain variety, as opposed to the long-chain varity that dominates in animal fats.

ETA: Apparently some of this confusion stems from different definitions of medium chain and long chain fatty acids. The above assumes that medium chain is defined as including 6-11 carbon atoms, and long chain is 12 and higher. If you assume that medium chain means 6-12 carbons, then about 50% of the saturated fat in coconut oil is medium chain, since coconut oil is 44% lauric acid, which has 12 carbons.

Edited March 26, 2006 by Patrick S (log)