March 21st, 2010 @ 9:50 pm
I know – this seems like a pretty random post but I was intrigued when a colleague recently told me that his wife makes her own spreadable butter. He said it’s healthier than butter and tastes better than the other spreads. I checked it out online and there are all kinds of posts on different sites from people who make soft butter. Most people do it for the cost savings (which is definitely a bonus) but I was more interested in the fact that people say it tastes like butter but it’s better for you. I also checked out the Land OLakes soft butter spread and saw that it’s essentially a blend of canola oil, butter and water – similar to the “recipes” I’d seen.
So the other day I made it for the first time. It’s incredibly easy, and I have to say it tastes just like butter (which I LOVE). All you need to do is mix equal parts of softened butter with canola oil in a food processor (or you could probably use a mixer as well). Other recipes say you could do 2 parts butter, 1 part canola oil and 1 part water. I haven’t tried the version with water yet, but I will try that next. But this worked really well – I just put it in a clean Earth Balance spread tub that I had saved. It’s really soft – almost liquid- when you first make it. But no worries – once you put it in the fridge it firms up. But the great thing is that it stays soft enough to spread. It does get very soft if it’s left out – but you just can pop in back in the fridge to firm it up again.
I’m thinking you could also bake with this since I know you can substitute oil for butter in a lot of recipes anyway? I’ll be trying that out, too!
So it’s nothing exciting, for sure, but I thought it was pretty cool (and yummy!). Let me know if you try it!
