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

I was wondering if nutritional yeast could be used to act as part of the salt or add flavor as part of the curdled soy milk? I don't normally work with these products, but I am still a bit curious.

Thank you. This has been so helpful. I am from south Africa and we don't have any great vegan butters to bake with. Which of the butter recipes would be best for a buttercream icing and my nemesis Swiss meringue buttercream.

Two easy hacks to take the flavor from great to OMG!!
1 Use a protein shake blender bottle. Eliminates the scrape down each time you add stuff, and make it easy pouring to mold. 2 Double recipe sub cocoa butter for half the coconut oil. REALLY make the taste zing! Thanks for your recipe

This 'butter' is wonderful! Used to Irish and French butter before we became vegan, we were always slightly sad when eating other butter substitutes that we'd never taste that lovely flavour again but no - with your butter we're the happiest vegans possible, thank you for sharing your knowledge and your recipe!

Love this butter! Delicious taste, nicely buttery, easy to make and palm oil free (unlike most store bought stuff). I used only apple cider vinegar and didn't notice any 'vinegary' taste. So far I used it on bread, in mashed potatoes and baked vegan croissants - works great! I've tried it with different unsweetened soy milk and it worked best with alpro brand. Thank you for the recipe!

Hi! So far so good with this stuff. Has anyone tried browning this stuff? Does it work? I guess it would be whatever proteins from the soy milk, yeah?

Thank you very much for this wonderful recipe and all the explanations. I tried the butter-produktion today, and the result looks very well, and the flavor is perfect!!!. As I was sceptical about vinegar, I used 1/4 teaspoon nigari salt for curdling soy milk (as used from making tofu at home). You can buy nigari salt in macrobiotic stores.
Really love it!!!

I just made this and we all LOVE it !!! The best part is that it is cruelty free !! The dairy industry is so savage.

Thank you so much for all the work you've put into this, Mattie! I really appreciate learning about the science of baking.

I'm curious, what are your thoughts about "Nina's Game Changing Vegan Butter with Aquafaba"? Have you compared this recipe to hers? From what I gather, the difference will have something to do with warm-temperature stability and flavor profile? I'm really looking for an ideal butter for laminated pastry.

Also, have you tried using a flavored coconut oil such as Nutiva's Organic Buttery Coconut Oil as a base for your butter? It appears to be a refined coconut oil, with the addition of "vegan buttery flavor". According to their website, "Our vegan buttery flavor in our Buttery Coconut Oil is made from pure certified organic non-GMO plants including sunflower, coconut, and mint."

As a side note, Miyoko's also produces a (cultured) vegan butter. I'm curious if you've tried it? Her recipe for home-made butter was published in a review, and includes some interesting notes about a "really hard butter" variation to use for pastry. You can find it here: http://anunrefinedvegan.com/2015/07/27/the-homemade-vegan-pantry/

Dear brian,
Read the recipe again, you're inaccurate............

Butter is made from heavy cream, you're right about that. But heavy cream is only 36-40% milk fat, not 78%. Do more research.

I've made this butter a couple times and I love the taste, but I've had a few issues when I bake with it. First off I did, I followed the recipe as written, using liquid sunflower Lecithin, all apple cider vinegar because I couldn't find coconut vinegar and xanthum gum.
The mixture looks curdled after I blend it. I've let it blend for 2 minutes or longer. Maybe I'm over mixing it?
The first time I baked with it I made a pie crust. The crust actually tasted great but it was left with many small holes in the top crust. I didn't think much of it but when I made chocolate cut-out cookies with the butter, the cookies spread a lot and had many small holes, just like the pie crust. I'm wondering what could be causing this. It's like something is melting through the baked goods. Maybe there are chunks of coconut oil that are not properly mixed into the butter?
I would love some help!

After i discovered that the Vegan butter i was buying at the grocery contained Palm Oil i set about looking for the perfect recipe for my own homemade version. This is it !! This is the third recipe i have tried. I used the psyllium husk because that is what i had on hand. And i added a tiny sprinkle of tumeric to give it a yellow color. It looks, tastes and melts just like the real thing. Best of all no baby cows were murdered :-) And no habitats stolen from Orangutans !! Enjoy !!

Hi
I haven't made this recipe yet but will it melt quickly at room temperature or when it is left on the bench in a hot climate?

I made this butter 10 weeks ago for the first time. I followed the step and the final product did not look appealing. However, I put it in the fridge not expecting much. I could not be any more surprised. The butter was amazing; my husbands and daughters were so impressed. The second time, I used a pestle and mortar to grind the soy lecithin granules to a powder form, added 2 tablespoons of aquafaba and a pinch of turmeric for colour and it turned an amazing butter into a very creamy and special butter. I love it! I have had great success with using this butter for vegan croissants, cakes, cookies, brownies, brioche, wholemeal bread and the latest frying French toast. I have quadrupled the recipe and it still amazing. The most amazing part is that the butter is ready straight from the fridge but leave it 5 minutes outside and it is really nice. Your information before the recipe is excellent. Thank you so much for your generosity!

Love love the article about vegan butter, excellent job on explaining how all the ingredients works.

I am also greatful for Keith comment about it's final result of the butter and the fry 'issue'.

Will return with a feedback as soon as I make a bach.

Thank you!

Unfortunately sauteing with your butter recipe ends up in unwanted clumps due to xantham gum being fried at high temperatures. Perhaps you could use something that melts. You are right about the acidic taste. The vinegar flavor ruins the butter experience if you were to spread it on bread to be eaten directly. Lemon juice has the same effect. Moreover, I did try organic coconut oil which resulted in the best flavor. But, as I am sure everyone knows, organic oil is extremely expensive. It is also interesting to note that this butter for some reason will collect mold rather quickly if not used soon enough. Freezing only retards the mold growth.

How long do you hold your butter before using? Have you tried other neutral tasting acids with or without success?

The bottom line for me is I cannot fry in many cases with this butter but it is great for baking and it is good for spread if consumed before it molds.

Anyone have any experience storing at room temperature? I'd really like to still use my nice butter bell!! Lol!

I've only just whizzed this up, but OMG. I used all apple cider vinegar and xanthan gum as I was worried how the lecithin granules would break down. I added some turmeric for colour and I've tasted it from the bowl and it is amazing! So easy and fast. I won't be buying the $10 store brand anymore! I can't wait for it to solidify, but in the meantime I scraped the extra out of the bowl and it's gone straight on a cracker and was everything I had hoped it would be! Thank you!!!!

I converted this recipe to grams for those interested.
69.13g soymilk
2.47g acv
2.47g coconut vinegar
2.25g salt
140.79g refined coconut oil
13.63g liquid oil
4.54g liquid soy lecithin
0.75g xanthan gum

And percentages:
29.29% soymilk
1.05% apple cider vinegar
1.05% coconut vinegar
0.95% salt
59.65% refined coconut oil
5.77% neutral liquid oil
1.92% liquid soy lecithin
0.32% xanthan gum

I'm not vegan, but have friends who are & a young nephew who is allergic to just about everything.

I made a non-soy version of this twice so far. This made my day! I baked a vegan red velvet cake last night using my homemade vegan butter. I've never been happier! Hubby couldn't tell the difference between my usual red velvet cake & my vegan one!

I used my Ninja processor to mix everything together. Then I poured it in a silicone butter keep & slice I found. Eureka! The "butter" was the perfect weight. Recipe made sticks (0.25 lb).

I used Barlean's butter flavored coconut oil. This tastes just like the real thing. I'm going to make a spread for my mother-in-law who is vegan as well.

Thank you so much! I can't wait to try some of your other recipes!

So I've made this twice now and the results were awesomeish. I say "awesomeish" as my endeavor with this was hilariously funny. So the first time I made this, I had no idea that liquid lecithin (sunflower) was so messy! I made it but noticed there was still some lecithin not mixed in. I pretty much made a hot mess and just dumped it in the mold. The husband also ordered silicone loaf molds instead of butter or ice molds so each cavity holds the equivalent of 4 sticks of butter. Feeling determined, I still used the butter to make a batch of cookies. I pretty much copied a nonvegan recipe and the results were amazing even though my butter didn't look that great!
Learning from my mistakes and feeling more determined, I made the recipe again. I accidentally did a whole tablespoon of lecithin instead of a teaspoon so I ended up tripling the recipe. Learning from my mistake, I mixed the lecithin into the curdled soy milk directly. This time the results were beautiful and not nearly as messy. As I was pouring my butter into my loaf pans I then made the realization I forgot the salt! it was still great though and I really appreciate your amazing effort plus the science involved in it. I just recently got involved in baking so this is awesome! Do you have any advice on making a sweet cream butter? I might add a little turmeric to get the yellow in there as someone recommended. Thank you so much! I was a Nucoa user for years before this!

Thank you for this wonderful recipe! I have made this twice already with coconut milk, apple cider vinegar, and soy lecithin granules. It has come out delicious every single time. I can't wait to make it on the butter mold I just ordered (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01LZLDDH4/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1).

My liquid lecithin won't be here til next week but just wanted to add that you can get a gallon sized tub of coconut oil on amazon for 25 usd. Up until now I've just used butter flavored coconut oil so I'm really excited. Will review next week

Can I substitute in Palm Oil? J/k: couldn't find any store margarines without palm oil. Even the poorly named "Earth Balance." Thanks!

I've made this twice and it's amazing! My husband thought he would only want melted earth balance on his popcorn so I did 75% this recipe to 25% earth balance and he loved it! Also did the same with mashed potatoes! TY so much ???

Thank you so much for this recipe! I make and sell baked goods. I wanted to make my own vegan butter, as the store closest to me doesn't carry it and I thought it may be cheaper to make. To be honest, I thought it'd be fun to say I made the vegan butter myself as well :) I used the vegan butter in a chocolate frosting and it turned out amazing! I even like this frosting more than the non-vegan ones. I wish I could post a photo here. It was so light and fluffy. Even after 4 days , the frosting was still holding it's shape and very tasty! As for a few people on here mentioning a strong vinegar smell... I didn't get that. Are you sure that you put the right amount of vinegar in?

This recipe is fantastic!!! I absolutely love the product. I can't imagine it tasting any more like butter without being butter.

The recipe seems to be quite robust, because in spite of a couple issues I had, it turned out great. I used all apple cider vinegar since I couldn't find coconut vinegar. Also, my soy lecithin granules hardly dissolved at all - so I ran my food processor twice as long as the recipe suggested, and then ended up straining out the rest of the granules. But it still worked well.

Thank you as well for the brilliant write up. It's so nice to understand the science behind the recipe.

I just made this and by the look of it it should pretty damn great! I have a request though. It took me a while to convert everything to metric (grams and ml) and I'm still not certain I got everything right.

It would be beyond helpful if you could add the measurements in metric, or at least respond to this comment or email me, anything really, but I would really, really appreciate it. Thank you so much!

Clara

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.