Thursday, November 6, 2014

Vegan Butter - Toast Topper #49

I was always a sucker for butter. Real, semi-salted, cultured pats melting into a freshly toasted bagel or hot biscuit, the rich body and texture a stick lends to shortbread cookies and brioche, the undeniable flavour it lends to scampi and the simplest pasta at dinner. These days, butter's become less and less popular in my circle of acquaintances, since whether for allergies, intolerances, health issues or ethical dilemmas dairy is more or less back to being the "bad guy". It's not like the storebought alternative margarines are excessively healthy either - they are still fat, after all, and the processing is occasionally more dubious than the ingredients themselves. I wanted to see if I could find a less processed (and more importantly, more affordable) version that I could do at home, thus making only what I need and not shelling out 2-3 times the price of a block of butter for hydrogenated (or not) oils.

Vegan Butter

I found my answer on Vegan Baking, where Mattie combined soy milk, coconut oil, lecithin and a little magic to create a great-tasting, cholesterol (and animal) free "stick" ideal for baking or softening for morning toast. I added a dash of butter flavouring for extra oomph, and was thrilled with the results - not exactly like dairy butter, but boy was it close! It even fooled the mixture of butter-holics and die-hard vegans I served it to - they thought I had snuck in the real deal! Who knows, one day, I might even serve it to this list of vegan celebrities.

Shared with Gluten Free Fridays and Gluten Free Wednesdays

Vegan Butter
Adapted from Vegan Baking
Makes 1 cup, 48 tsp (215g)
5 tbsp unsweetened plain soy milk
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
½ tsp Kosher salt
130 g refined (flavourless) coconut oil
1 tbsp canola oil
½ tsp butter flavouring
1 tbsp soy lecithin granules
¼ tsp guar gum
  1. Mix soy milk, vinegar and salt in a cup and let stand 10 minutes.
  2. Heat the coconut and canola oils just until barely liquid (you need them to be as close to room temperature as possible).
  3. Add to a food processor along with the soy milk mixture, butter flavour, soy lecithin and guar gum.
  4. Process for 4 minutes, scraping down the sides halfway through.
  5. Pour the mixture into a mould and place it in the freezer for 1 hour.
  6. Store it in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks or in the freezer for up to 1 year.
Amount Per Serving
Calories: 27.3
Total Fat: 3.1 g
Cholesterol: 0.0 mg
Sodium: 12.2 mg
Total Carbs: 0.0 g
Dietary Fiber: 0.0 g
Protein: 0.0 g

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