Butter is a key ingredient used in baking for several reasons. It can add moisture, flavor, texture, and help recipes spread and rise properly. Understanding the properties and purpose of butter in baking can help bakers get the most out of this versatile ingredient.
What is Butter?
Butter is a dairy product made from churning cream, the fatty portion of milk. It contains at least 80% milkfat. The milkfat is emulsified with water and milk solids in butter. This gives it a semi-solid state that is malleable at room temperature.
Butter gets its signature yellow color from beta-carotene found in grass-fed cows’ milk. It has a rich, creamy flavor and aroma. Butter contains about 717 calories per 100 grams. It gets most of its calories from fat.
There are several types of butter including:
- Salted vs. unsalted
- Cultured/European-style
- Whipped
- Clarified
- Ghee (clarified butter that has caramelized milk solids)
In baking, regular unsalted butter is most commonly used. The lack of salt allows the baker to control the exact amount of salt added to the recipe.
Why Use Butter in Baking?
Butter serves several purposes in baking recipes:
Adds Moisture
The water in butter keeps baked goods from drying out too quickly. Things like cookies, pie crusts, and cakes benefit from the moisture that butter contributes.
Improves Texture
Butter’s fat content gives baked goods a tender, flaky texture. Pie crusts get their flakiness from solid bits of fat coated in flour. Butter’s softness allows it to coat flour thoroughly and keep gluten chains from forming long, tough strands.
Helps With Leavening
Air pockets get trapped inside butter’s fat molecules. As butter melts during baking, steam expands to help batters and doughs rise. The tiny air bubbles give baked goods a light and fluffy interior crumb.
Enhances Flavor
Butter has a rich, creamy flavor that comes through distinctly in baked goods. The milk solids in butter also undergo browning reactions like caramelization during baking to produce even more complex nutty, buttery notes.
Promotes Spreading
Butter’s lubricating properties prevent baked goods from sticking to pans or to each other. The milk solids brown and keep edges from getting too crispy. Butter helps cookies spread out instead of staying in a small mounded shape.
Encourages Browning
The milk proteins and sugars present in butter participate in browning reactions during baking. This gives exterior crusts a nice golden color on things like cornbread, pie, cookies, and cakes.
Shortens Gluten Strands
Kneading develops long gluten strands that can make baked goods tough. The fat molecules in butter coat flour particles and prevent extensive gluten development. This results in more tender baked goods.
Types of Baked Goods That Use Butter
Butter is used in a wide variety of baked goods. Some examples include:
Cookies
Butter is the go-to fat for most cookie recipes. It gives cookies a soft and chewy texture. Butter’s flavor comes through distinctly in things like shortbread and butter cookies. The moisture in butter also prevents excessive spread in cookie dough.
Cakes
Butter contributes moisture, texture, flavor, and leavening to cakes. Variations in butter amounts and creaming techniques can produce different crumb structures. Butter is essential for rich pound cakes. It also helps yellow cakes achieve a tender crumb and golden surface.
Pie Crusts
The flakiness of pie crust is due to butter distributing throughout the dough. Pie dough is handled carefully to keep those solid bits of fat intact. When baked, the butter creates air pockets that give crust its characteristic flaky layers.
Biscuits
Butter is cut into dry ingredients for biscuits before liquid is added. This coats the flour and keeps gluten development to a minimum. The result is a tender, flaky biscuit texture. Butter also enhances biscuits’ flavor.
Pastry
The rich, tender quality of pastries like croissants, danishes, puff pastry, and brioche comes from high butter content. When layered, the butter creates pockets of steam leavening amid flaky layers. Butter gives these pastries a melt-in-your-mouth quality.
Muffins
Butter is creamed with sugar to coat the flour in muffin batters. It gives muffins a fine, tender crumb. The moisture in butter keeps muffins from drying out during baking. Butter also adds flavor.
Quick Breads
Butter is used for moisture, tenderness, and flavor in quick breads like banana bread, zucchini bread, and pumpkin bread. Since quick breads use chemical leavening, creaming butter is not as critical. But it still improves texture and taste.
Scones
Butter is cut into dry ingredients for scones to keep gluten development down. It bakes into flaky scones with great buttery flavor. The moisture in butter also prevents scones from drying out.
| Baked Good | Butter’s Purpose |
|---|---|
| Cookies | Soft, chewy texture. Enhanced flavor. Controlled spread. |
| Cakes | Moisture, tenderness, leavening, flavor, browning. |
| Pie Crusts | Flakiness, flavor. |
| Biscuits | Tenderness, flakiness, flavor. |
| Pastries | Flakiness, moisture, richness. |
| Muffins | Tenderness, moisture, flavor. |
| Quick Breads | Moisture, tenderness, flavor. |
| Scones | Tenderness, flakiness, moisture. |
Butter Functionality
Butter performs different functions in baking depending on how it is incorporated into the recipe. This includes:
Creaming
Beating butter with sugar aerates the fat molecules and coats them around flour particles. This is essential for cakes. Properly creamed butter gives cakes lift and a fine, even crumb.
Cutting In
Cutting cold butter into flour using a pastry cutter or fork creates flaky biscuits, scones, and pie crusts. The chunks of butter separate into layers during baking.
Laminating
Laminating refers to layering butter within dough then folding and rolling it out repeatedly. This creates ultra flaky pastries like croissants and puff pastry with distinct sheets of butter between pastry layers.
Melting
Melting solid butter into a hot liquid like cream allows it to coat starch molecules and thicken sauces with ease. Butter also emulsifies with liquids to create smooth mixtures.
| Method | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Creaming | Aeration, coating flour, lift in cakes. |
| Cutting In | Flaky biscuits, scones, pie crusts. |
| Laminating | Flaky croissants, puff pastry. |
| Melting | Sauces, emulsions. |
Factors That Affect Butter Functionality
Several factors impact how butter behaves in baking applications:
Butter Temperature
Butter needs to be cool for creaming. Warm, softened butter won’t whip enough air into batters. Cold butter is also cut into dry ingredients for tenderness. Hot butter can be used to melt into sauces or as a laminating fat.
Butter Freshness
Old butter has more visible water separation and won’t cream as efficiently. Fresh butter with a firm consistency works best for creaming and laminating uses.
Butter Salt Content
Salt affects the softness of butter. Unsalted butter is often firmer than salted. For baking, unsalted is preferred so the baker can control saltiness. But salted butter can be substituted equally.
Butter Fat Content
Higher fat European-style or cultured butters perform best in laminated doughs. Lower fat butter can leak out of doughs, preventing the formation of distinct layers. Standard 80% butterfat content is suitable for most uses.
Mixing Method
Overmixing butter can cause it to soften excessively and coat flour unevenly. Undermixing prevents adequate distribution in dough. Following recipe instructions is key.
| Factor | Impact on Butter Functionality |
|---|---|
| Temperature | Affects aeration, layering, melting. |
| Freshness | Old butter won’t cream properly. |
| Salt Content | Affects softness, flavor. |
| Fat Content | Higher fat suits laminating better. |
| Mixing Method | Over/undermixing impairs distribution. |
Substituting Butter in Baking
There are several possible substitutes for butter in baking:
Oils
Oils like canola, vegetable, or olive oil can mimic butter’s moistening effects. But they lack butter’s fat crystals that create flaky textures and won’t provide the same flavor. Oil-based cakes may be denser.
Margarine
Margarine has a similar fat content to butter. So it can be creamed and used for spreading like butter. However, the flavor is not the same. Margarine contains more water than butter.
Shortening
Shortening like Crisco has a high fat content which makes it a suitable creaming fat for cakes. But it does not impart butter’s dairy flavors. Pie dough made with shortening may not be as flaky.
Coconut oil
Solid at room temperature, coconut oil can mimic some of butter’s properties in baking. But it will add a subtle coconut flavor, which may not always be desirable.
Dairy-free butter
New vegan butter alternatives aim to replicate butter’s taste, functionality and nutrition profile. Brands like Miyoko’s Creamery and Melt Organic work well in place of butter in many baking uses.
| Butter Substitute | Notes |
|---|---|
| Oil | Adds moisture, but no flakiness or flavor. |
| Margarine | Similar fat content, but different flavor. |
| Shortening | Useful for creaming, but no flavor. |
| Coconut oil | Mimics some properties, but adds coconut flavor. |
| Vegan butter | Aims to replicate butter’s attributes. |
When substituting, be aware that non-dairy fats have different melting points that may impact baking performance. Some tweaks to temperature or other ingredients may be needed.
Key Takeaways
Butter is invaluable in baking due to its ability to:
- Keep baked goods tender, moist, and flaky
- Contribute rich flavor and aroma
- Help batters spread, rise, and brown properly
- Create both hearty, crispy exteriors and light, airy interiors
- Enable the creation of delicate, melt-in-your-mouth pastries
Understanding the unique properties of butter in baked goods allows bakers to use it to optimal effect. Adjusting the amount, incorporating technique, and type of butter used gives flexibility in achieving desired texture and taste.
While vegetable-based substitutes can mimic some of butter’s effects, nothing quite matches real dairy butter for delivering flawless results across the wide range of baking applications from cookies to cakes to croissants. When a recipe calls for butter, use the real thing and let its moisture, flavor-enhancing fat crystals, and creaming abilities go to work. With butter as part of the equation, it’s hard to go wrong in baking.