NOTE: The second version of my Dairy-Free Butter can be found HERE. It’s very similar but coconut-free for those with allergies.
I hope you don’t mind the recent influx of nutritional content to my posts. ‘Cause this one is a doozy. Ever since starting our Whole30, plus the rounds of blood work I’ve done lately, I’ve become even more impassioned about health and the WHY of all these ingredients and recommendations I make here at Bare Root. So, on that note, let’s learn a little about fat today. I’d like to compare the health benefits of butter vs virgin coconut oil vs extra virgin olive oil.
Butter is a great natural source of vitamins and minerals, primarily vitamin A, and fat-soluble vitamins D, E, and K. It also contains short and medium-chain fatty acids, which are great for our gut health and actually strengthen our metabolism (see this link, scroll to ‘Butyric Acid’). Butter is a healthy source of cholesterol. And lastly, it has a near perfect omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acid ratio of 1:1.
The problem is, all these factors are diminished when eating grain-fed butter, of which most options at the store are (see this great article from Mark’s Daily Apple). Grain-fed cows produce milk with lower amounts of vitamins and minerals. The lesser known consequence is an imbalanced fatty acid ratio, favoring the 6’s, which is not something we need excess of in our bodies.
So unless you are prepared to spend the money to get grass-fed butter, I’d highly recommend looking for an alternative. Enter: my dairy-free butter recipe. This beautiful concoction came about as a result of my recent IgG allergy test, which showed my body presently has an extreme intolerance to dairy.
I’ve mentioned my frequent consumption of sweet potatoes so you see, having to give up butter seemed pretty painful. I just don’t know how to eat a sweet potato plain. Maybe if I was more hardcore or had bigger muscles or taste buds of steel, I could’ve handled it in a more macho fashion. But I do love my fats and eating a warm sweet potato is not the time to bypass getting some good, healthy fat! So, moving on to the dairy-free butter ingredients…
Virgin coconut oil is not a source of omega-3’s but is the world’s best naturally occurring saturated fat, which will give you a healthier heart, immune system, and even improve your skin. This is due to approximately 50% of the fat in coconut oil being lauric acid. Two-thirds of the fats in coconut oil are medium-chain, as with butter, and will help tremendously in your gut health.
Extra virgin olive oil, like butter, is a great source of omega-3’s and promotes heart health. The monounsaturated fats in EVOO help lower your cholesterol. It’s a great source of vitamins E and K and the phenols found in EVOO helps combat inflammation in the body and that nasty list of conditions up above.
So all in all, this dairy-free butter recipe is pretty good replacement for the real thing. Obviously, I think very highly of butter, especially considering that it is an animal fat, and comes with all the benefits inherent in animal foods. But let’s be real here, some of us are on a tight budget and/or have legitimate dairy allergies. Whatever your reason, don’t skip out on getting good fats in your diet or simply having the satisfaction that is a melty sunny-colored little blob on top of your sweet potato or banana bread.
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Whipped Dairy-Free Butter
Yields: approx. 2 c. “butter”
- 1 c. organic virgin coconut oil
- 1 c. organic extra virgin olive oil
- 1 t. sea salt (optional, use if you enjoy salted butter)
Directions:
- Combine ingredients in a small saucepan over low heat. Gently heat, whisking until oils are mixed and salt is melted.
- Pour mixture into the bowl of your stand mixer and place the bowl in the fridge. Cool the mixture until it just begins to harden, about 30 minutes. (DO NOT let it harden all the way or you won’t be able to whip it.) It’s ready to whip when it turns solid in color, rather than translucent. If you get impatient, you can freeze the bowl for NO LONGER THAN 3-5 minutes.
- With your stand mixer on low speed, mix to break up clumps, about 30 seconds. Turn to high speed (about an 8 on my KitchenAid) and mix until the mixture doubles in volume, about 1-2 minutes.
- Scoop into molds (like these shown above) or just throw it into a container and keep in the fridge. The mixture will not stay whipped if left on the counter (unless your house is kept at 70F at all times; being in AZ, mine is definitely not).
A note on choosing oils to use for this recipe. If you’re thinking of switching them out, keep in mind that you do need at least one oil that’s saturated, as it sets up fairly solid at room temperature and therefore whips up really well. Coconut oil is the best (healthiest) choice for this. As for the second oil, you could also use 100% pure avocado oil which would allow your “butter” to keep a stronger coconut flavor due to the mildness of avocado oil. I prefer to use EVOO because of the health benefits but also for the yummy olive flavor. I feel that the coconut/EVOO blend is best of both worlds when it comes to health and flavor balance and is, therefore, the best combo for this recipe.
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This is a great paleo recipe. I loved this dairy-free butter recipe. Nice pictures too!
Thanks, Purabi! 🙂
Love this! I did a vegan butter recipe that was a lot more complicated, so I really like the simplicity of this. I can’t have butter, so I will definitely be trying this out!
…and did we already connect on the fact that we’re both in AZ?? It seems to be where the blogging action is at! 😀
I somehow did NOT make the connection we are both in AZ! How funny! I obviously did not look at your bio close enough. I did notice, though, that we both contribute to FaveGlutenFreeRecipes, I think!
Anyway, let me know how the butter goes, if you try it. I’d love to see what yours even if it’s a little more complicated cause it’s nice to have options!
Wonderful! Thanks for sharing!
Thanks, Becca! 🙂
Ooo, this looks amazing! Can you use it for baking?
Hey Marlene! I wouldn’t use this particular blend in baking due to the extra virgin olive oil (low smoke point = oxidized when baking, BAD!). I’d made it with avo oil and coconut oil, as both have a pretty high smoke point and would be safer to cook with. And on another note, you probably don’t even need to whip it for baking. I bake with avo oil and coconut oil all the time with great results!
Ooh, thanks for the tip!
I have a dairy, soy, and gluten allergy. I also have a really nasty latex allergy, so I can’t use olive oil, avocado oil or grape seed oil. Do you think a different kind of oil would work? I would really like to have some kind of butter back in my life.
Hey Hillary, I’m so sorry to about all your allergies 🙁 Have you tried macadamia nut oil before? I’m allergic to macadamias so I’ve never tasted it but from what I know, it’s rich and buttery in texture (like olive oil) and it’s also high in MUFA’s and low in saturated fat (again, like olive oil) so it’s liquid at room temp. As long as you’re not baking with it, this would make it a good choice to replace the olive oil with. It does have a bit of a flavor, though so does good quality olive oil.
Other than that, I can’t think of any other oils you should be including in your diet just for the sake of having "butter." If you try it, let me know!
Igg does NOT indicate true allergies. true allergies (detectable by a rast test that measures IgE) are an immune response that cause many symptoms, the most severe (which would be present in an "extremely allergic" person) being anaphylaxis.
That said, this recipe looks intriguing. Must try for my dairy anaphylactic daughter.
Hey Kathleen-I apologize, I should’ve used the word ‘intolerance’ instead. I’ve changed it to prevent confusion for others in the future. Thanks for sharing!
this is awesome! thanks for sharing this recipe 🙂
I’d go for the healthy fats. I’ve been using extra virgin olive oil because of the omega-3 content. I’m not really a fan of butter though.
I’m off butter for awhile due to dairy sensitivity, so I went trolling the web for a good substitute…Wow, this stuff is delicious! I just had it on some leftover baked spaghetti squash with a little cinnamon and stevia. I didn’t really believe it would ‘whip up’ to this lovely white-ish spread until I tried it for myself.
Thank you Angela!
Love that it worked out so well for you, Ro! Spaghetti squash and cinnamon is one of my favorite uses for this stuff. 🙂
I really love this simple and easy recipe to follow. I just had a quick question and that is how long will this butter last in the fridge for?
Hey Francine! I haven’t checked it with extra long times in the fridge cause I always use it within a month! I would say that just like the ingredients on their own will last 6 mos – 1 year, especially when kept chilled, that you’d get the same shelf life out of them combined. Now, if you’re keeping it on the counter, that’s a different story altogether. The shelf life would be shorter and I wouldn’t recommend it anyway due to it probably not staying whipped. Hope this helps! 🙂
Really keen to make this tomorrow. I tried making a ‘butter’ today which included soy milk and all I could taste was soy milk-nasty!
Ew! Let me know how it goes and whether you vary from the oils and how you like it. I’ve found that using good quality coconut and olive oils to be the best way to achieve a pleasant taste.
My son has a slight allergy to coconut oil in addition to dairy and soy. What would u use to replace the coconut oil with this recipe?
Hey Stacey! The coconut oil is a hard one to replace because it’s a healthy saturated fat and is therefore solid at cooler temps, allowing it to be whipped up. My best guess would be red palm oil, if you haven’t tried it Nutiva makes an organic cold-pressed form of it. It had a slight carrot type taste to it, so you’ll have to give it a go and see what you think. It is very high in saturated fat though and beta-carotine and coq10 so it’s a great oil to use in your diet. I haven’t tried whipping it so if you do, let me know how it goes!
I did this and I love it! You have saved me a ton of money. Thank you!
I forgot to mention that I portioned mine into paper cupcake cups and then froze them in a ziploc baggie. No oily cleanup and the cupcake liners fit just right in a little glass snack bowl.
Ohhh paper cupcake liners are a great idea for portioning. I’m gonna have to try that cause I always end up with a greasy mess to cleanup!
Hey Ashley! I’m so glad you’ve shared your experiences on baking with it. I haven’t done it much myself, as I don’t have the luxury of eating many baked goods right now. And people keep asking how it works with baking so thank you for sharing! Also, palm shortening is a good alternative to vegetable based shortenings. Hope your chocolate chip cookies turned out amazing! 🙂
My friend’s daughter has a dairy/soy allergy and I was wrecking my brain trying to find a substitute for those creamy cake frostings. I can’t wait to experiment with the oils so that it doesn’t turn into an olive oil frosting! Thanks for the idea!
Nice, so glad to help. If you can get your hands on some Chosen Foods avocado oil from Costco, that would be the perfect sub for the olive oil. It has little to no flavor at all!
Ooh, thanks for the tip!
Oh, what a wonderful recipe! I was recently diagnosed with an IgE intolerance to dairy (I definitely dropped some swears when I found out :D) and I was lamenting the loss of my beloved butter. I was so excited to try this! I used to love whipped butter, especially the kind that came on big pancakes at IHOP during my pancake days. This was so simple to make, too. I did have to put the bowl in the freezer for more like 7-8 minutes for it to mostly harden. When it was whipped it was quite white and was a little reminiscent of Crisco. I wondered if there was a way that I could give it that gorgeous yellow butter color that is an indicator of all the fat-soluble vitamins. And then, I thought: Palm oil! Its high levels of beta carotene gives it a nice red-yellow color. I added a tablespoon of red palm oil to the mixture and it turned out beautifully! Perfectly pale yellow exactly the color of butter. Thank you, thank you for the recipe! Can’t wait to put this in my butter coffee and on my grain-free breads. Mind if I post my slightly altered recipe on my own blog?
Hey Rosemary! I’m so glad that it eased the pains of the IgE diagnoses just a bit 🙂 And I appreciate the feedback on the time in the freezer. I do have a note for the red palm in the comments of this post and actually have a redo with red palm already shot and ready to go. I’d be totally fine with you linking back to the recipe though and noting you added the red palm in.
I just made this and it’s wonderful! I halved the recipe and it made a LOT… more than the amount I get when I buy the earth balance butter (but so much less expensive). I love the taste. I can’t wait to try it with bread. Thank you!
Thanks, Rae! I’m really glad you are happy with it. Yeah, it does make a ton. I have had great results with freezing it in ice cube trays for up to 6 months without much change in flavor.
Can you use this to replace butter in baking?
Yes, it should work in most recipes.
This is awesome! Thank you!!
Are you able to use a vitamix or a food processor, instead? I don’t own a mixer:(
Debi, that’s a great question. I’m thinking a vitamix may be difficult to get it uniformly whipped up, the food processor may be better cause if you have a full-size food processor, it’ll be a wider surface area. FYI – you could always let it chill halfway and just use a whisk and a strong arm. It doesn’t need to be perfectly whipped to work out. Let me know what your results are like.
Thank you for getting back to me:) I used a food processor and it worked just fine. I found it to be a bit too olive oily and too salty, though! I will just adjust a little and it will be great! Thank you for the recipe & again for the response:)
Thanks for posting your feedback! I’m glad it worked with the food processor. Have you tried Chosen Foods expeller-pressed avocado oil? They sell in most Costcos. Although it doesn’t quite the same health benefits as EVOO, I’ve found it makes a good sub for it if you want less olive flavor. Just a thought. 🙂
I think you are incorrect to say that avocado oil isn’t as healthy as EVOO. I’ve only read that avocado oil is superior health wise to EVOO. I might be wrong but I don’t think so. I am going to try your recipe either way. I use both oils. I also make my own spreadable butter with 8 oz. of KerryGold to either avocado oil or EVOO. As you mentioned, if you want a milder tasting butter use the avocado oil. EVOO definitely will give the butter a strong taste, but I like it. I agree that the Chosen Foods avocado oil at Costco is A+.
I thought I would leave you a comment letting you know that I’ve made this recipe about 4 times so far. While my times to harden at all are a lot longer (I probably get it too hot), I absolutely love this. I use it as a direct replacement for butter in baking and it actually makes cookies easier to perfect. I would advise everyone to make snickerdoodles with an 1/2 cup of this and 1/2 cup of shortening if they are able/willing to use shortening. The cookies turn out perfect every single time and anyone who has tried my batches agrees that they are even better than normal butter cookies. Currently waiting for my double batch of "butter" to harden and then I’m off to try making chocolate chip cookies with homemade non-dairy chocolate chips! Thanks for the recipe!
Hey Ashley! I’m so glad you’ve shared your experiences on baking with it. I haven’t done it much myself, as I don’t have the luxury of eating many baked goods right now. And people keep asking how it works with baking so thank you for sharing! Also, palm shortening is a good alternative to vegetable based shortenings. Hope your chocolate chip cookies turned out amazing! 🙂
Thank you for the great idea! I will try it out! Thank you also for your response:)
I made this last night. It was an easy recipe to make. I only made half and achieved the same amount as my good Irish butter that I used to have. I kept opening the refrigerator to make sure it was not solid! lol I think this will work out well for cooking, but how do you mask the olive oil taste? Thanks for the recipe!
Thank you for the feedback, Mindy! I’m really glad it worked well for you. To mask the olive flavor, you’d be best to try using an expeller-pressed avocado oil (not virgin) in the place of olive oil. I have more details on using it and what brand I like in my Round #2 recipe, which is linked to here. You can swap out the olive oil for avocado oil 1:1 in this recipe with very similar results in the end product.
I’m allergic to extra virgin olive oil. Can I use grape seed oil as a substitute?
Yes, that should work. Although I wouldn’t recommended it due to the high levels of omega 6’s in grapeseed oil. Especially if you plan to heat this "butter," grapeseed is highly prone to oxidation.
SALT DOES NOT DISOLVE IN OIL!!! DIFFUSION IS IMPOSSIBLE!!!
Hi- what could be the reason my butter did not whip up thick. It emulsified and stayed liquid 🙃
Without having any details, my best guess is it didn’t chill long enough.
I agree- I used it as a spread anyway – poured the liquid into ramekins and put into the fridge . I do like it and will try again.
Thanks!
Glad to hear it, thank you for the feedback! 🙂
I used the exact Chosen Foods avocado oil suggested with Kirkland’s organic virgin cold pressed unrefined coconut oil and a bit of sea salt, and followed the recipe exactly — it’s been in the fridge for almost an hour and is still an oily liquid that hasn’t solidified even a slight bit… 🙁 what could be the problem??
Hi Mariah Nelson,
It does take a while to go back to a solid but have patience it it will let it go til you see it going to a solid – it takes time for the coconut oil to chill and then start to solidify <3 but it does work sweetheart <3
OMGoodiness Angela Gallardo this is absolutely awesome <3 I've had to give up dairy products again which means no butter do you know how much real butter not margarine you use till you have to find a new source……Well this recipe does work and I use coconut oil & avocado oil minus the PH sea salt and i use a hand mixer <3 it comes out whipped and it's spreadable even in the fridge it needs to be either wise it melts….I'm very humble by your effects and very grateful for you sharing this recipe with us <3 take care and have a fantastic day <3
Hi I would love to try this, Olive oil is so expensive here where I live and avocado oil too, can I exchange the olive oil with sunflower oil? What ration would you recommend?
You’re already saving money, buy the Olive oil!
@lakerslovewater:disqus Best comment ever!
@jolenenel:disqus Sunflower oil would work but I cannot recommend it, as it’s highly inflammatory.
Hi can I use this recipe in cakes
Hi Sarah, it’s hard to speak for every cake recipe but I’m fairly certain it will work in most. Let me know if you try it out!
This looks great. Does it taste coconut-y though? I love coconut oil but my mum is a little skeptical about it so I’m not sure she’s enjoy it if it was potent! Thanks 🙂
It has a slight coconut taste but if you want to avoid that, you can get refined coconut oil. It’s a chemical-free process, has a neutral flavor, and still has all the healthy saturated fat benefits. http://amzn.to/2A8kDRn
Your other option is to try my my Dairy-free Butter #2, which is free of coconut oil: https://barerootgirl.com/nourish/2014/12/18/dairy-free-butter-2-coconut-free/
Have been making a more complicated Dairy Free Butter, so can’t wait to try your recipe. How long does it last in the refrigerator? Also, can you freeze the extra?
Hey Becky, sorry for the delay! It should last in the fridge a REALLY long time. I’ve never had it go back and kept a previous batch in for over a year. Think about what the shelf life of the oils is (as stated on the bottles you use) and go from there. Also, definitely can freeze and thaw it easily.
Hi can I use an immersion blender instead of my stand mixer?
Can’t wait to try this!
Hey Jill! That’s a great question. I haven’t tried it but I’m guessing you can. You likely won’t get it nearly as whipped up as with a stand mixer. Let me know if you try it.
That whipped dairy-free butter is absolutely DELICIOUS! Thank you very much!!!
Hi, I’ve never been a fan of butter however had some flavoured with garlic and chives – this sounds interesting and wondered if this is an alternative that could be ‘herbed’? My intention is to use it to add to scrambled eggs with the herbs or spread on toast with avocado for example.
Oh, for sure! I think that’s a great idea. LMK if you try it!
I’m very excited to try this!!! Looks EASY!
Do you know how impossible it is to find anything except butter?!
All others have Flax, seeds…and/or a legume of some kind?!!! (Most people granted are not allergic to flax, seeds and every kind of legume on earth (soy, pea, peanut, lentil, garbanzo, sesame, tahini, sunflower, etc.)
Hooray!!
Someone just sent this to me to try and it looks amazing and simple. My question is, can I use refined coconut oil? I don’t like the taste of unrefined. Also, the other day I was reading somewhere about mixing ghee and coconut oil for baking. Is that another option to use? Thank you 😊
I’m dairy free and have been replacing butter in recipes with oil for some time. I’ve found that adding a small amount of milk alternative gives better results, maybe one fourth the amount of oil. I also expect whipping it with the oils in this recipe would make a more solid product.
I did not know the complimentary nutritional value of coconut and olive oil. Thank you for sharing your research.
That’s an excellent tip! Thank you so much for sharing. I’ll have to test this out.