In general, the following foods work best as butter replacements in cakes, muffins, cookies, brownies, and quick breads:

Vegetable oil is a viable substitute for butter when baking cookies. You will likely need to use a smaller amount to keep your cookies from being greasy.

For biscuits, scones and pie pastry, in which cold, solid butter is cut into dry ingredients, oil is a poor substitute because the dry ingredients would absorb the oil, yielding a sodden dough. Cakes, quick breads, brownies and certain cookies—in which butter usually is creamed or melted—have a bit more wiggle room.

• Applesauce. Applesauce significantly reduces the calorie and fat content of baked goods.
• Avocados.
• Mashed bananas.
• Greek yogurt.
• Nut butters.
• Pumpkin purée.

Butter is considered a solid fat because it is solid at room temperature and oil is considered a liquid fat because it’s liquid at room temperature. Because of this, you can’t rely on oil to provide any leavening help in baked goods, which can result in a denser texture.

Note: Butter adds flavor and tenderness to baked goods and results can vary. swapping it out can yield slightly denser results. Any recipe that needs vegetable oil. Note: Some olive oil tends to have a peppery taste, which can alter the flavor of baked goods.

Using vegetable oil, such as canola oil for baking, can help prevent a dry cake and you will find it as an ingredient in many recipes, as well as a staple for boxed cake mixes.

The following may be substituted cup for cup for vegetable oil in baked goods:

• Applesauce, preferably unsweetened.
• Banana, ripe and mashed.
• Butter, melted.
• Cauliflower – unseasoned, cooked, and pureed.
• Ghee.
• Margarine, melted.
• Mayonnaise.
• Pumpkin, cooked and pureed.

Use the same quantity specified in the directions (for example, if it calls for 1/3 cup of oil, use 5 1/3 tablespoons of butter).

Butter to Oil Conversion

Generally, when substituting canola oil for butter in baked products, you can use ¾ cup of canola oil for every cup of butter. Once you start using canola oil in some of your breads and cookies, you should find that, overall, very little needs to be changed.

Out of butter? You can use oil! When substituting oil for butter in a baking recipe, it doesn’t go as a 1:1 substitution; use ¾ the amount of oil for the specified amount of butter in a recipe. For example, if the recipe calls for 1 cup of butter, substitute it with ¾ cup of oil.

As a general rule of thumb, substitute three-quarters of the butter in a recipe with olive oil. In other words: If a baking recipe calls for a stick of butter (8 tablespoons), for example, use 6 tablespoons of olive oil.

Olive Oil. Best all-around award goes to olive oil. You can use it for almost any kind of cooking without breaking it down. The healthiest type is extra-virgin olive oil (EVOO).