You don't have butter in the fridge, but you feel like making a dessert that requires it among the ingredients? Nothing could be easier: in preparing biscuits, tarts and cakes you can easily Replace butter with oil!
Replacing butter with oil may be necessary if you are lactose intolerant and will also allow you to achieve lighter desserts. But to replace butter with oil when preparing tarts and cakes you need some clarification, so we asked our pastry chef Emanuele Frigerio, teacher at La Cucina Italiana’s cooking School, for some help.
How to replace butter with oil
Baking is all about chemistry. Butter contains on average 80% fat and 20% water, while oil is just fat. Since their compositions are different, similarly different doses need to be used to replace butter with oil: the quantity of butter has to be replaced with about 18-20% less oil. For example, to replace 100 grams of butter about 80 ml of oil is required. Obviously, the quantities are also valid in reverse: if you have a recipe with oil but you want to use butter instead, just use about 20% more.
Replace butter with oil: which oil to choose?
Which is the best oil to use to prepare delicious desserts? The choice is all a matter of taste. You can of course use extra virgin olive oil, but its intense taste may not be valued by everyone, especially the little ones. Its flavor will undoubtedly be very strong, so it all really depends on the dessert you are preparing and your own tastes. Applying the same conversion rules we mentioned above, you can use seed oil. Peanut oil, sunflower oil, corn oil or rice oil are all fine too.
