Butter Substitute
Out of butter mid-recipe? Learn the exact swap and ratio for melted, creamed, and cut-in butter so your bake or skillet still works.
Match The Swap To Butter's Job
Most butter swaps fail because people trade one fat for another cup for cup and call it done. Butter is only about 80 percent fat — the rest is water and milk solids, so a straight cup of oil adds more grease than the recipe asked for.
Before you grab anything, ask what the butter was doing: melted and poured, creamed with sugar, or cut in cold. Melted butter takes oil, solid butter takes solid fat, and swapping across those lines is where brownies turn greasy and biscuits turn flat.
Oil For Melted Butter
In brownies, muffins, and quick breads, use 3/4 cup neutral oil for every 1 cup melted butter to account for the water butter loses.
Solid Fat Stays Solid
Anything creamed or cut in — cookies, pie crust, biscuits — needs shortening, lard, or firm coconut oil swapped 1:1 and kept cold.
Applesauce Only Halfway
Fruit puree and Greek yogurt can replace no more than half the butter, measured 1:1, or the crumb turns gummy and rubbery.
Put The Salt Back
If the recipe assumed salted butter, add 1/4 teaspoon salt per 1/2 cup of fat you swapped in, or the whole thing tastes flat.
The method
- 1
Read the recipe's verb
Look at what it tells you to do with the butter. Melt, cream, or cut in — that word decides which swap works.
- 2
Melted means oil
Measure 3/4 cup vegetable, canola, or light olive oil for every 1 cup of butter. Whisk it into the sugar and eggs the same way you would melted butter.
- 3
Creamed or cut in means solid
Use shortening, lard, or coconut oil that is firm to the touch, measured cup for cup. Chill it hard before cutting into flour so it stays in pieces.
- 4
Cut fat with care
If you are stretching a short stick of butter, replace up to half of it with applesauce or plain Greek yogurt. Keep the rest real fat so the crumb stays tender.
- 5
Fix the seasoning
Most substitutes are unsalted and none of them taste like butter. Add a little salt, and a splash of vanilla in sweets, to bring the flavor back.
- 6
Check doneness early
Oil-based batters can look wet longer and set faster than they appear. Start testing with a toothpick about five minutes before the recipe says.
Show what you know
Three quick calls. See if you would make the right swap under pressure.
Question 1 of 3
Your brownie recipe calls for 1 cup melted butter and you have none. How much oil goes in?
Put it to work
A two-minute dessert that gets its richness from peanut butter instead of a stick of butter — proof that a swap can carry a bake.
★ dessert
dessertChocolate Peanut Butter Mug Cake
My mouth is watering just thinking about this!
Nicole RenardIngredients
- 1 Egg
- 2 tbs Peanut butter
- 2 tbs Almond Milk
- 1 tsp Vanilla
- 4 tbs Almond flour
- 1 tbs Coconut sugar (or regular sugar)
- 2 tsp Cocoa powder
- Pinch Salt
- Chocolate chips
Instructions
- 1Add all dry ingredients to your favorite mug & stir until combined
- 2Add wet ingredients and mix until combined
- 3Sprinkle chocolate chips on top & microwave for 1.5 min
- 4Add additional chocolate chips on top & enjoy!
P.S. Pepper keeps the recipe, the timings and your own notes in one place — so the next time you cook it, you're not starting from a search box.
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