substituting butter for olive oil in dessert

Adding more extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) to your life is one way of reducing unhealthy fats. EVOO, including olive oils, is a heart-healthy fat and is high in polyphenols. The both lends extra flavour and textures to your favourite dishes. But when it comes to baking we’ve long been substituting butter for olive oil.

In the Mediterranean using olive oil for baking is a familiar feature in many baking recipes. While to some it may sound a bit unusual, baking with olive oil has actually been done for centuries and baking with olive oil instead of butter gives baked goods a light and airy texture, which can be used with confidence. Using lower intensity and late harvest olive oils when baking is recommended to give a mild, subtle flavour. High-intensity oils could interfere with the flavour of the dish.

It is no secret but olive oil dramatically reduces the levels of cholesterol and saturated fat content in desserts. It creates lighter-tasting and more refined baked goods that allows the flavour of the other ingredients to come through. What’s more, olive oil contains vitamin E, which helps to maintain freshness and create moist baked goods (cakes, biscuits and muffins).

Another useful tip is to use olive oil when preparing a baking pan before adding dough to prevent sticking. Simply brush/spray the oil onto your bowl, baking tin, baking sheet, spring-form pan and place the dough and let it rest.

To help you understand how you can substitute olive oil in baking or other cooking recipes, use the chart below to replace the quantity of butter in a recipe to the required quantity of olive oil. This chart is more useful for baking recipes where exact quantities are important.

Substituting olive oil for butter is a key ingredient in improving health and helping dietary requirements, including veganism, lowering cholesterol and removing saturated fats, so why not check out our healthy recipes for inspiration at https://www.azada.co.uk/healthy-recipes/.

AZADA has a wonderful selection of organic, premium olive oils and gourmet patés, which are available globally. We use ethical, environmental and sustainable certifications to ensure that all of the ingredients used in our products support these active organisations, including the European Vegetarian Union (EVU), the European Union Organic certification, the European Union-Eco-regulation (Verordnung) and charitable organisations such as Tree-Nation and 1% for the Planet.

For further information check out our website (https://www.azada.co.uk/) or contact Anisha, anisha@azada.es