Butter and substitutes
Let’s start by saying that fats play an important role in the normal diet. They should make about 30% of daily calories, which means that an adult should take 60 to 80 grams of fat per day. It is important to consider that in almost all the products we eat are percentages of fats, which are cakes, sausages, meat, fish ….
But fats are not all equal, there are fats that contain saturated fatty acids, unsaturated and polyunsaturated others.
Usually in the kitchen I try to use less butter can. The reason I would like to minimize the butter because it contains saturated fatty acids that promote the increase in cholesterol.
As all foods if quality and added in small quantities to the diet, do not create health hazards.
It is best used raw and not to fry; the normal butters have a smoke point of about 160 ºC, then very low, since the optimum temperature for frying is 180 ºC.
Often I find it hard to change old pastry recipes of my notes with other fats, because now tested and sure result.
I’m still trying and there are many alternatives.
Replace butter with olive oil
For recipes of sweet pastry I like to use very fragrant oils, such as soybean oil, while the savory dishes is very good extra virgin olive oil.
Replace butter with oil over other advantages in addition to that healthy. The cakes will be softer, digestible and will keep longer.
Let’s see how.
It is the normal butter composed of about 80% of the fat fraction, and from 20% water, lactose and protein, to balance the recipes, be necessary to replace it with about 80% oil and the addition of a 20% liquid part us according to the recipe.
The simplest task to be done to figure out how much oil instead of butter is this:
FOR THE FAT:
WEIGHT OF BUTTER X 80: 100
FOR PART liquid:
WEIGHT OF BUTTER X 20: 100
example, if in a recipe are provided 180 g of butter will:
180 X 80 : 100 = 144
144 g will be the oil that we use
180 X 20: 100 = 36 or 180-144 = 36
36 is the liquid part that we have to add to the recipe
Replace butter with soy cream or oatmeal
Replace butter with fresh cream normal it does not seem the right move, because usually this cream contains about 35% fat and the rest is water, proteins, minerals and vitamins, so it would become very difficult to balance the recipes.
While the soy cream or oats is obtained starting precisely from processed vegetable oils with other ingredients (depends from product to product) type soybean lecithin, stabilizers, rice flour, etc. which make it more similar to the characteristics of butter and increased by the cases are also healthier.
To replace the butter with soy cream, we use this ratio:
WEIGHT OF BUTTER X 125: 100
example, if in a recipe are provided 180 g of butter will:
180 X 125: 100 = 225
225 g will be the cream of soya that we use
We should probably slightly reduce other liquid ingredients in the recipe.
Replace butter with yogurt
For dessert you can substitute butter with yogurt, soy yogurt or greek yogurt.
Also in this case, the ratio will be:
WEIGHT OF BUTTER X 125: 100
example, if in a recipe are provided 180 g of butter will:
180 X 125: 100 = 225
225 g will be the yogurt that we use
Also in this case, we should slightly reduce other liquid ingredients present in the recipe
Replace butter with ricotta
Even cottage cheese can be a valid substitute for butter in different recipes.
We will use the amount of cottage cheese in the same proportion of butter.
= 100 g butter 100 g ricotta
Replace butter with fruit puree
For leavened cakes and pies it is definitely way more natural. Among the fruit, the ripe banana and avocado are those most suitable and also in this case will be added to the recipe in the same proportion of the butter.
= 100 g butter 100 g of fruit pulp
We try to avoid always margarine, because obtained at industrial level with mixtures of oils thickened chemically with a particular process that is the hydrogenation. It is now established that during processing of plant oils (not always vegetable) in margarine, may be formed of acute called Trans that are harmful to humans.
