Hey Everybody!
    I was wondering if substituting butter for oil is as simple as exchanging the equal amount of butter for the oil?  Or, is it more complicated?  Would I need to make any adjustments to the liquid in the recipe? 

    Thanks!  Merry Christmas

If the recipe called for clarified butter, I think you’d be more successful with a direct substitution, but regular butters have extra water and dairy elements in addition to the fat, so any substitution would need to take that into account.

Butter is 80% water, so you can do a substitute, just do the math and either increase or decrease the liquid (depending for which you are subbing). If a recipe calls for 1 cup butter, you could do 13 tablespoons oil and 13 tablespoons water, for example. This, however, really only works in breads and/or quick breads. For cookies, which depend on the set-up and texture of better, I’d be a bit more leery about making the substitution.

CAKEMUNCHIN:
  Good afternoon to you. A most interesting question. Generally speaking, there may be some recipes you may get away with
doing what you just proposed. Most often you will not. When you subst. butter for oil or vice versa, it will alter the flavor & taste of the baked product.
  One way it may work is if you employ melted butter. Remember, depending on the grade of butter you will be using it averages approx 80% to 81.5% butter fat. maybe 2% milk solids, the balance of 17% is water. You must account for that in the recipe to keep it balanced. Water is not fat but oil is.
  Can you mention the recipe you would like to do…perhaps a forum member may provide you with the same recipe using butter…who knows it may turn out better than the one you have.
  Anyway good luck in your baking & I hope I was able to help you make the right decision for yourself. enjoy the rest of the day.

  ~FRESHKID.

That is a great idea!  I will post the two recipes after Christmas, and I would appreciate any suggestions or other recipes!  Thanks so much!  I’ll Post it soon!

CakeMunchkin - 22 December 2007 10:09 AM

Hey Everybody!
    I was wondering if substituting butter for oil is as simple as exchanging the equal amount of butter for the oil?  Or, is it more complicated?  Would I need to make any adjustments to the liquid in the recipe? 

    Thanks!  Merry Christmas

Hi

I don’t think this is a good substitution to make. Butter has a certain percentage of water in it and has a higher melting point than oil (sorry if I’m stating the obvious)... so even if you adjust the liquids, you will still have a difference in the mouthfeel of the baked good.

KitchenNut - 22 December 2007 02:33 PM

Butter is 80% water, so you can do a substitute, just do the math and either increase or decrease the liquid (depending for which you are subbing). If a recipe calls for 1 cup butter, you could do 13 tablespoons oil and 13 tablespoons water, for example. This, however, really only works in breads and/or quick breads. For cookies, which depend on the set-up and texture of better, I’d be a bit more leery about making the substitution.

I think you might have gotten a bit mixed up here. Butter contains between 80-85% butter fat, and only between 15-18 % water, and a small percentage of dairy solids (all this depends on the brand of butter, European style butters will have more butterfat and less water). You can substitute butter for oil provided you do one of two things:

1. Decrease the amount of liquid in the recipe to compensate for the amount of water in the butter (the amount of dairy solids won’t affect the recipe enough to be noticeable).

However, since it’s difficult to determine how much water butter actually contains unless you have a chemistry lab in your kitchen, you can:

2. Clarify the butter to remove all the water from it, then cool it down slightly before using it. If you are using clarified butter for quick breads and muffins, make sure you add it to the batter while it is still melted and warm (and make sure all your other ingredients are at room temp or slightly warmed—cold eggs and cold liquids will cause the butter to solidify which can affect how the batter emulsifies).

I have used the second method with excellent results. I have also used commercially made ghee (which is basically clarified butter with the dairy solids slightly browned), which can actually be quite tasty in a simple cookie or quick bread.

Another thing to consider here:  baked good that contain butter will be more firm when cold than those made with oil, so that might help you to decide whether or not a substitution is really desired.