Will Olive Oil Work Instead of Butter in Cookies and Cakes?

Clear Answer

Yes, olive oil works instead of butter in most cakes, muffins, and quick breads, and only partly in cookies. Use about 3/4 the amount (3/4 cup oil for 1 cup butter) and swap freely wherever melted butter is called for. Recipes that cream softened butter, like most cookies, will spread more and turn chewier.

Why the 3/4 ratio instead of cup for cup

Butter is not pure fat. American butter is about 80% fat, roughly 16 to 18% water, and a little milk protein. Olive oil is 100% fat. If you pour in a full cup of oil where a cup of butter was, you've added about 20% more fat than the recipe was designed around, and the result tends to bake up greasy and heavy.

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Cutting the oil to 3/4 brings the fat back in line. The missing water makes less difference than you'd think in a cake batter, but if a cake seems a touch dry, add 1 to 2 tablespoons of milk per cup of butter replaced.

If you weigh ingredients, it's even simpler: one stick of butter is 113 grams, and about 85 to 90 grams of olive oil replaces it.

Where olive oil works well, and where it doesn't

The deciding question is what the butter was doing in the recipe. Fat in baking does three different jobs: it tenderizes, it carries flavor, and (when solid) it traps air or creates layers. Oil does the first two fine. It can't do the third, because it's liquid at room temperature.

• Cakes made with melted butter or oil already (olive oil cake, many chocolate cakes, carrot cake, snack cakes): swap with no worries. You may like the result better.
• Muffins and quick breads (banana bread, zucchini bread, corn muffins): excellent swap. Oil keeps them moist for days.
• Brownies made with melted butter: works well, with a fudgier, slightly denser texture.
• Creamed butter cakes (classic yellow layer cake, pound cake): workable but different. The crumb gets tighter and less fluffy because you lose the air that creaming whips in.
• Drop cookies (chocolate chip, oatmeal, sugar): workable with adjustments. Expect thinner, chewier cookies.
• Shortbread, pie crust, biscuits, scones, croissants: don't. These depend on solid butter, and oil gives you something sandy, greasy or flat.

What happens to cookies made with olive oil

Most cookie recipes start by creaming softened butter and sugar together for 2 to 3 minutes. That beating forces tiny air pockets into the solid fat, and those pockets expand in the oven to give cookies lift. Oil can't hold air that way, so the dough comes out looser and softer.

In practice, olive oil cookies spread wider and bake up flatter, with chewy centers and crisp, lacy edges. Some people prefer them. If you want them closer to the original, a few small changes help a lot:

1. Use 3/4 the oil.
2. Whisk the oil, sugars and eggs hard for about 1 minute, until the mixture looks lighter and slightly thick. This builds some structure in place of creaming.
3. Add 1 to 2 extra tablespoons of flour per cup of butter replaced to firm up the dough.
4. Chill the dough for at least 30 minutes, or up to overnight. Cold dough spreads less, and the flour has time to hydrate.
5. Scoop and bake on a cool sheet at the temperature the recipe calls for, usually 350 to 375°F, and check 1 to 2 minutes early. Oil-based cookies can brown faster at the edges.

Chocolate chip and oatmeal cookies handle the swap best because chocolate, brown sugar and oats stand up to olive oil's flavor. Plain sugar cookies and shortbread show the difference most, since butter is the main thing you taste.

Cakes are the easy win

Oil coats flour proteins more completely than butter does, which limits gluten development and gives a tender, moist crumb. Because oil stays liquid at room temperature, an oil cake also feels softer straight from the counter and stays moist for 3 to 4 days, while a butter cake firms up and starts to taste dry by day two.

The tradeoff is lift and flavor. Butter cakes made by creaming rise a bit higher and taste richer and more "bakery." Oil cakes are denser in a pleasant, plush way.

For a creamed recipe like a yellow cake, switch the mixing method:

1. Whisk the eggs and sugar together for 2 to 3 minutes, until pale and thick (a stand mixer or hand mixer helps).
2. Stream in the olive oil while whisking, so it emulsifies into the eggs.
3. Add any milk, buttermilk or yogurt.
4. Fold in the dry ingredients just until no streaks remain.

Beating the eggs and sugar gives back much of the air you lost by skipping creaming. Bake at the same temperature, and start checking about 5 minutes before the recipe's earliest time, since oil cakes can finish sooner. A toothpick in the center should come out with a few moist crumbs.

Will the cake taste like olive oil?

It depends on the oil. A strong, peppery extra virgin oil will come through clearly, especially in a plain vanilla cake. A mild or "light" olive oil (light refers to flavor and color, not calories) is close to neutral and almost disappears.

Taste a spoonful before you bake. If it's harsh or bitter on its own, it'll be noticeable in the finished cake. If it's rancid (smells like crayons or stale nuts), throw it out, because baking won't hide that.

Flavors that pair well with olive oil include lemon, orange, almond, chocolate, pistachio, honey, berries and warm spices. Vanilla works too, but a plain vanilla cake leaves the oil flavor most exposed.

Does olive oil change baking time or temperature?

Not much. Keep the oven temperature the same as the recipe. The heat of a home oven (325 to 375°F for most cakes and cookies) is nowhere near enough to cause problems, since the batter itself never gets much above 210°F inside.

What does change is browning. Butter contains milk solids that brown and help give cakes and cookies their golden color. Oil has none, so olive oil bakes can look a little paler on top even when they're fully done. Go by a toothpick test, a springy center, or set edges on cookies, rather than color alone.

Is olive oil healthier than butter for baking?

Olive oil is mostly monounsaturated fat and contains little saturated fat, while butter is around 63% saturated fat. Swapping butter for olive oil lowers the saturated fat in the finished bake, which is the main reason people do it.

Calories go down slightly when you use the 3/4 ratio, simply because there's less fat. A tablespoon of olive oil has about 120 calories versus about 100 for butter, but replacing 1 cup of butter (about 1,630 calories) with 3/4 cup oil (about 1,430 calories) saves roughly 200 calories across the whole recipe. Spread over a dozen muffins, that's a small difference, and the sugar and flour are still there. If the recipe comes from Australia or the UK, check whether it uses a metric cup, which runs a little larger than a US cup.

It's also dairy free, which makes it a handy swap for anyone avoiding milk. Check the rest of the recipe for milk, buttermilk or chocolate with dairy.

Can you replace only part of the butter with olive oil?

Yes, and it's often the best compromise. Swapping half the butter for oil keeps some of the butter flavor and creaming structure while adding moisture and shelf life.

For a half swap in 1 cup of butter, use 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter plus 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Cream the softened butter with the sugar as usual, then beat the oil in slowly at the end, before adding eggs. Salted or unsalted both work; just trim the salt for salted butter. This works especially well in:

• Chocolate chip cookies, where you keep the buttery flavor but get chewier centers
• Pound cake, for a moister slice that stays soft longer
• Coffee cake, where the streusel can stay all butter and the cake portion gets the oil

For streusel, crumb toppings, pie crust or biscuits, keep the butter. Those need solid fat to form clumps or layers, and oil will make a greasy paste.

Quick fixes when a swap goes wrong

Any recipe that already melts its butter is a safe swap at 3/4 the amount. Creamed cakes and drop cookies work with the mixing and chilling tweaks. Leave flaky and crumbly things to butter. Most baking swaps work the same way: match the fat's job in the recipe before you match the amount.

Olive oil in a cake, from whisking to pan

Whisking oil into eggs and sugar is a hand motion that is easier to copy than to describe. Chef John at Food Wishes shows how the batter should look when it comes together.

Italian Olive Oil Cake - How to Make the Easiest Cake Ever
By Food Wishes on YouTube. Their method may vary a little from ours. Watch on YouTube