Vegan block butter
Plant-based fat sold in a block to be used like butter — and whether it behaves like butter depends almost entirely on how much water it carries.
Also called vegan butter (INTERNATIONAL); dairy free butter (INTERNATIONAL); plant butter (US); vegan butter substitute for baking (INTERNATIONAL); dairy free butter replacement for baking (INTERNATIONAL); vegan margarine (INTERNATIONAL); baking block (UK)
Vegan block butters are emulsions of plant oils and water, formulated to be solid at room temperature and to be used where dairy butter would be. Whether they succeed depends on two properties the packet rarely states plainly.
The first is FAT CONTENT, and therefore water content. Dairy butter is roughly four-fifths fat. Products sold as spreads are often substantially wetter, and a wetter block in a shortcrust or a laminated dough introduces water where the method depends on there being little — the pastry toughens because the extra water develops gluten. Blocks sold specifically for baking are usually formulated near butter’s fat level for exactly this reason, and tubs sold for spreading are usually not.
The second is MELTING BEHAVIOUR. Butter’s plasticity — solid but deformable across a useful temperature range — is what creaming and lamination exploit. Plant fats built largely from coconut or palm stearin tend to have a sharper transition: firmer when cold and abruptly soft when warm, with a narrower window in between. Creaming and rubbing in are more sensitive to this than melted-fat methods are.
What generally does transfer well is anything where the fat is melted or where the method is forgiving: brownies, many muffins, oil-style cakes. What transfers least well is lamination, where the fat must remain a coherent sheet through repeated rolling.
BakeHQ makes no claim that any particular product is good, and no claim about health in either direction.
What changes if it is left out
Where the method needs a solid plastic fat — creaming, rubbing in, lamination — a liquid oil is not a substitute and removes the mechanism rather than changing the result. Where the fat is melted anyway, oil substitutes well and often keeps the crumb softer for longer.
Follows from the solid-fat mechanisms recorded on creaming, rubbing in and lamination, and from the butter-versus-oil comparison, each of which carries its own support.
RecordedFollows from evidence recorded elsewhere on BakeHQ
Why the block-versus-tub distinction matters more than the brand
The commonest disappointment with vegan pastry is not the absence of dairy. It is water.
A spreadable tub is formulated to be soft straight from the fridge, and one of the ways to achieve that is to carry more water and less fat. Used in a shortcrust, that water hydrates the flour and develops gluten in a pastry whose entire method is arranged to prevent exactly that — so the pastry comes out tough, and the cause is invisible.
The fat percentage is usually on the packet, and it is the single most useful number on it. Something near dairy butter’s level will behave much more like butter than a softer spread from the same brand will.
Related
What it does
Gluten inhibition
A fat is a fat for this purpose: it coats flour particles and restrains gluten. This is the function that transfers most reliably from dairy butter.
Aeration
Creaming works if the fat is plastic at the temperature it is beaten at. Plant fats built on coconut or palm stearin have a narrower plastic window than butter, so this transfers less reliably than shortening does.
Hydration
THE SAME RULING AS BUTTER, and for the same reason. These are water-in-oil emulsions and some carry considerably more water than butter — which causes real pastry failures — but nothing is ever hydrated with a block of fat.
Can stand in for
Butter— for shortening, if the fat content is close to butter’s — and not for lamination
Transfers well in melted-fat methods and in creaming when the block is a baking block rather than a spreadable tub. A wetter spread introduces water into a shortcrust and toughens it, which is the commonest vegan pastry failure and one the packet does not warn about. Lamination is the least transferable, because the fat must stay a coherent sheet through repeated rolling.
Compared in
Vegan block butter vs margarine
One side of the comparison.