How to Make Vegan Butter - Regular Vegan Butter - Coconut Oil Base

Thank you for this recipe. I am impressed by what you achieved. This is above all expectations: it has a more buttery quality than any commercial margarine, and I have to congratulate you solemnly, for you really understood butter -- and helped me understand it. You've earned a Breton's infinite respect. As we are known as the pickiest butter lovers among the French, it is not easy to have us satisfied with substitutes.

I gave it a little twist. Before I curdled the milk I blended it with a small amount of NUTRITIONAL YEAST, which has a buttery, umami taste and is often used in vegan recipes to compensate for the absence of cheese. The result was a bit unhappier than planned, because I could not find pure yeast and resorted to a mixture of yeast and wheatgerm instead, so there was an undesirable vegetable taste in it. I am sure it would be very palatable with pure yeast, and for now the idea that the nutrient profile of my butter is improved by the wheatgerm in it makes up for its slightly unpleasant taste. Well, actually, it does not, for I am no superfood freak. Anyway, if your aim is to come close to real butter, use nutritional yeast, but no wheatgerm. Do not use curcuma either: the vegetable taste may be ascribable to that pinch of curcuma I sprinkled on my curdled milk for the sake of colour.

Now I have a project, which is to find a replacement for the coconut oil. I will make some special butter for technical purposes. Before you condemn my zeal, please read through! I know it will not be easy to swallow that I consider having recourse to refined SHEA BUTTER but here are some reasons:
1) coconut oil is costly and my aim is not only to avoid using unethically sourced products, but also to reduce the cost of food;
2) coconut oil has a very low melting point, even lower than spreadable butter, and even in its solid state it is quite soft, so I am afraid this vegan butter will not be fit for making puff pastry;
3) for all I know, and I know little, so I am not completely sure of this, coconut oil has a better nutrient profile than shea butter and is less harmful (one may infer it from the resemblance between shea butter and palm oil). That said, I do not make so much of a point of using healthy ingredients, as of using "ethically cleaner" ones. Ethically sourced refined shea butter can be found easily. I thought of using a blend of regular oil and refined cocoa butter but the latter is rare, expensive and its origin is often untraceable.
The final product may have a more distinct flavour and a less pleasant texture, but I will not use it as a spread. It should be suitable for baking.

I'm so excited to make some of these as I'm so inlove with baking and cooking at the moment. Can you cook on stove top with these butter like regular butter? As we all know baking is not the only place butter is used. Like me I usually use them as for making rouxs, bechamel, making scrambled eggs(not for me but for my family), making holandaise sauce. Have you tried using this butter for anything else other than baking or on toast? Thanks.

When followed as written the recipe works perfectly. Tastes buttery (and since I've only been non-dairy for 3 days, I have a good memory of what that should be like). I found a good butter mold on Amazon and doubled the recipe to fill it. Currently chilling--but I may have licked the spatula for a taste test.

As a science based person I really appreciated the background here. To those who have difficulty finding stuff locally--that's what Amazon is for. Even though my local organic store (Sprouts) had refined coconut oil AND coconut vinegar--I ordered online as well. You can get more than a pound and a half (54 0z) of Nutiva Refined Coconut oil for around $17, and the vinegar for around $6. I also got some palm oil as well (since most commercial products I find contain both coconut and palm oil) I hope the environment will forgive me. I also ruined the first 2 batches. I didn't have refined coconut oil on hand so I used unrefined---big mistake--I hoped everything else would mask the coconut flavor--it doesn't. Don't go there! second mistake: I used exactly the blue silicone molds that were in the picture..they had been in the freezer unused for a couple of years and imparted a terrible freezer taste to the butter that penetrated well into it. I could at least get a sense of the flavor though and found that the 1/2 apple cider and 1/2 coconut vinegar was still too much apple cider vinegar for me. Today I made it without apple cider vinegar---It's great!
Other points---I sometimes make homemade soy milk--it's easy---I found that homemade curdles MUCH better than commercial.
While I like both tumeric and saffron (both mentioned by other readers) I didn't want it in my butter---BUT using 1/2 of the oil being palm oil--it comes out a pale golden.
My usual go to vegan butter had been earth balance---no need--this is quick and easy, and especially good for baking

This was my first attempt at making vegan butter. I subbed rice milk (don't use soy), using rice milk powder, reconstituted. It worked well. For color, I added about 1/8 tsp. of turmeric (which couldn't hurt, you know). I might reduce the salt some next time (I love sweet butter.) Or, I'll try making it into an herb butter.

There's a 'gummy' quality to the butter (not in mouth feel, but on the spreader.) Is this the lecithin (sunflower) or the xanthan gum?

I buy "Melt", and it's very similar in taste. Melt has no gums (or milk, for that matter.) Just wondering if one could duplicate this at home.

Thank you for this recipe!

You give some great alternatives in emulsifier, is there an alternative to the Coconut Oil, which is really expensive where I live.

thanks

Obviously, coconut oil is white, and that isn't a problem. But I enjoy the look of pale yellow in my butter. I added a small amount of saffron to the soy milk for a few min before I added the vinegar. It gave this very nice vegan butter the light yellow butter of dairy butter. Also, Saffron adds an undertone of a gentle hay like flavor which reminds me of fresh cow's milk.

My only difficulty was that the lecithin granules did not break down - what do you suggest?

Otherwise this tastes good, spreads well and was quite easy to make.

TO THOSE USING ALMOND/FLAX MILK AND THEN RATING THE RECIPE 3 STARS...it's not the recipe's fault. This will NOT work with anything other than soy milk, because the soy milk is high in protein and that's what makes the curdling happen. Please try again with soy milk and you will have greater success. Per cup of soy milk has 6-8g of protein while almond only has 1. I made this with great success!

I was so excited to make this butter I got all the ingredients except the soy milk. I used Almond milk. It did NOT curdle, but I went ahead and continued to make the butter. It really smelled like vinegar when I poured it into the molds. It is now in the fridge and we will see if it is any good. I am kind of afraid to try it since it smells so strong of vinegar. lol Please tell me how I can get the vinegar smell to go away for the next batch....
I also see that you are not too quick to answer anyone commenting on your blog, which is not cool. Please answer these nice people who have complimented you left and right and have questions... Thank you for this recipe and your scientific explanations they are very appreciated.

Wondering if you had ever tried flax milk? I find it has greater viscosity and thickening properties, sours pretty well and tastes great... I only use the original or unsweetened for my applications, as the vanilla has a bit too much sugar...

Darn... I was so excited about vegan butter... But my dairy and egg- allergic son is also allergic to nuts and soy... So that eliminates this as an option. Man! I was getting so excited :(

I generally need to stay very strict on the fats for health reasons, but this is a great option for those rare exceptions and freezes nicely! Curious if you have ever tried using konjac powder (glucomannan) as an emulsifier...its a natural, dehydrated konjac root ingredient used to make those cool zero calorie"miracle noodles" from Japan. (shirataki). I have been playing with a bag of this stuff, a fine white powder, and it is awesome and amazing in all kinds of applications! Blended into liquid it acts like a thickener without having to heat it, like cornstarch, though warming it makes it dissolve quicker. It has so many useful and unusual properties and applications I have yet to even scratch the surface! It has many health benefits to boot and needs to be better known! I may have to try it if you haven't, the next time I need to make butter. Thanks!

great recipe! I'm only giving it a 4/5 for now because my butter was a fail- I experimented with flax seed milk... curdled just a tiny bit!!!! lol. Going to try again tomorrow with almond milk. I don't have soy milk. Could you possibly include pictures of the curdled milk above or offer suggestions to improve the butter if I want to use something like almond milk? I made the whole thing but it literally has no flavor. I'm inclined to think it's because of the type of milk I used. Also, I don't have a food processor, I have a blender. Do you know how long I should blend for? (I have a blend tec). Recipe shows promise for me and I'm excited to try it again.

I think I'll use my flop batch tomorrow in a baking recipe and try again.

I made this recipe with coconut virgin oil, guar gum and rice vinegar. That's what I had at the time. I realized the really important step is the emulsifying process: because of the Gum gets sticky so fast, you must run the blender or food processor as quickly as you can. I blended it for more than 2 min. I think longer is better. It's a really good amount of liquid and gets hard in minutes. For the question to Julia, yes. You can use lemon juice for it, it works as the same: both they are acids.

Thank you so much for your recipe!!

Hi, is it possible to use this butter to make browned butter, like with real butter? I have read that stuff like Earth Balance does not create the same flavor as real butter if browned, so I'm curious if this recipe would. Thanks!

I used psyllium husk powder and all apple cider vinegar for this recipe. It came out great! I made it in a Magic Bullet (for those who wonder about food processor capabilities) and poured the mixture into a smaller rubber ice tray. The smaller cubes are better for me to comply to serving sizes for other recipes. I did go a bit out of my way to get the lecithin and the psyllium husks, but they were both inexpensive and this recipe only requires a tiny amount (make many batches).

Overall, I think the recipe is great, this was my first time making my own butter, but it will not be my last! I will say that the taste was closer to Earth Balance margerine, but not exactly like butter. Next time I will experiment with coconut vinegar for a slightly different flavor.

I was SO excited about this recipe. I've seen this one and similar ones all over the blogosphere, and I was super into it. I got sunflower lecithin and refined coconut oil (ingredients I don't usually have, although virgin coconut oil is typically in my cupboards), followed the recipe as written, measured carefully, got the ingredients to the temperature described, and I got a yucky, broken emulsion. I really don't understand what I did wrong here, or if there's a missing piece of information that everyone else understood. Maybe the ambient temperature in my house is too cool? Or by processing for three minutes instead of two minutes, I did something wrong? Do I need to use my larger, more powerful food processor? Would I be better off whisking, slowly adding in the oil as one does with other emulsions? Has anyone else had this problem?

To all vegans out there. I am not sure if this is something you know about or not. When you purchase your "Non-dairy" milk substitutes you may want to look at the container more closely. If you look at the Kosher certification of the product I have not found a company that makes soy milk with out it saying OU with a D next to it on the container. That means that the soy milk was produced in a factory that also produces dairy products and that there is enough evidence for the Rabbis' to say that this product may contain a large enough quantity of dairy that it can not be eaten with meat. The Rabbis are very strict about this. Dairy and Meat can NOT be mixed together. So if you really want to stay away from dairy then I would look for a product that does not have a D next to the certification. So far the only one I found that is dairy free is Shoprite Almond Milk.

Thank you for this fantastic recipe! I couldn't believe how easy and impressive the results were. This stuff is BETTER than butter. It melted beautifully on a piece of toast and tastes great.

I used all apple cider vinegar, canola for the oil, and for the milk I used homemade quinoa milk I had on hand (it curdled perfectly).

I doubled the recipe so I had some extra sticks to share with friends, and they also were amazed at how good it is.

Thanks again for doing all of the research for this. I really enjoyed learning what was behind each step or ingredient.

I really appreciate all the work that went into this recipe, the trial and error and research. I made this recipe a while back, and while it was almost perfect, my only complaint was that it had a salad dressing/mayo like taste. Granted, I used olive oil, so that probably contributed to that taste. But the vinegar taste was very strong too. I'm wondering if I used a more innocuous oil, is there a more mild vinegar I could use?

THANK YOU for this recipe, and also for explaining why/how these ingredients work together. As a vegan I have used Earth Balance 'butter', but have decided to stop using products that contain palm oil. So there really wasn't any other option. So glad I found this recipe. I followed it exactly -- using sunflower lecithin and all apple cider vinegar - and it's PERFECT. My husband even made the comment that it has the perfect aftertaste. It's summertime so my kitchen is warm as a default - which meant my coconut oil was already in liquid state to begin with. I think it may have been a little too warm, even, since once blended everything was very liquidy. But like I said - came out perfect. I will be making a bigger batch of this next time!

Question, does this butter melt like normal butter? like could I use it in a recipe requiring melted butter?

Hello, I am really excited to try this recipe, but where I live apple cider vinegar and liquid lethicin are not available. I only have a really primitive food processor so granules aren't an option... Does anyone know if lemon juice would be a suitable substitute for the vinegar and if lecithin powder could be used in the same dosage as the liquid? Thanks very much for this recipe!

I have made this recipe several times now and it is great. I've recommended this recipe to others. However, I was also thinking it would be cool to know of a way to make this without a food processor or blender, if there are people who want to make a Vegan Palm-Oil Free Butter but don't have that equipment.

I am just a starting vegetarian. Omg this recipe is so close to butter I couldn't believe it. If I keep finding recipes like this I won't have any problem.

Hello,

I have a question: in my country we are already used to low fat butters (around sixty percent fat). What would you recommend doing in this recipe to obtain a low (or lower) fat butter?
Thanks in advance, looking forward for some feedback.

What a fabulous article! You are a scientific magician! Cannot wait to try this.

Made this today for use in an alfredo-style sauce. Just...I haven't had butter in seven years. I can't describe my reaction as anything other than "ecstatic". My partner, who is a low-fat, whole foods vegan (while I am, as well, I still enjoy making things that confuse omnivores, and occasionally, consuming them), was thoroughly deterred by the texture and flavor, confirming for me that this recipe is spot-on ;)

A note to others attempting this recipe: it is THOROUGHLY worth it to invest in a digital kitchen scale, if only because it's a pain in the tail to try and get the refined coconut oil out of the jar, then pack it into a measuring cup, and THEN scrape it all out again (thanks for the weight-based measurement, by the way; very helpful). Let's not forget effectively cleaning solidified oil from said cup-measure. You can get a decent one for between $15 and $25 at your local department/grocery store (I go to Fred Meyer, e.g.). And if, like me, you have a secondary kitchen hobby like micro-batch beer brewing, that scale absolutely will see other uses.

Thank you for giving butter back to me.

Hi Mattie

I really liked reading how to make vegan butter is it possible to have the other ingredients
in grams other than the coconut oil as this already has it grams.

Cheers