Is it better to use melted butter in brownies? (2023)

Is oil or melted butter better for brownies?

In brownies, both butter and oil will offer a moist, tender texture, but only butter will give the dish the aeration needed for rising brownies well. If you use a cake brownie, butter is a better option because it helps rise the batter. For denser, fudge type brownies, oil is permissable.

You can absolutely substitute butter for the vegetable oil. Use the same quantity specified in the directions (for example, if it calls for 1/3 cup of oil, use 5 1/3 tablespoons of butter). Melt it down, then let it cool a bit. You might not ever go back to oil!

Butter and sugar: Melt and mix. Like I said in my cookies post, melting the butter before adding the sugar stops air bubbles from forming and making your brownie fluffy. So don't cream your butter and sugar, gently melt your butter on the stove with your sugar instead.

Melted or liquid butter will thin out your batter, giving you ultra-flat cookies or cakes that are dense and uneven.

In the case of pie dough, cold butter steams in the oven, creating the air pockets that make for flaky layers; melted butter, on the other hand, creates a tender, more shortbread-like crust—buttery and delicious all the same, but firmer and more compact.

How does the Maillard reaction work when browning butter? As butter heats up, the water in the butter evaporates and sugars and amino acids in the butter react to create new flavor compounds and turn from white to brown. Those new flavor compounds are what make browned butter nutty, toasty, and inimitable.

4- Use milk or heavy cream instead of water

When it comes to making brownies fudgy, you want to increase the fat of the brownie batter and that's where the milk or heavy cream comes in to play. If you think about it, adding in water to your brownie mix is boring.

Adding butter or oil increases the fat content of the melted chocolate, making it smoother and easier to work with. Perfectly melted chocolate will be smooth, silky, and have a shiny finish, says KitchenSeer. If your chocolate is too thick or clumpy, you may be able to save it with some room temperature butter.

Melted butter is best suited for drop doughs such as chocolate chip, peanut butter, and sugar cookies, as well as most cookie bars. You can usually adapt recipes that don't originally call for melted butter to use this technique if you're looking for an even fudgier texture.

Achieving a fudgy brownie is all to do with the ratio of fat to flour. A fudgy brownie recipe will use more fat than flour. Generally this is achieved by adding more butter or real chocolate to your brownie recipe. A cakey brownie recipe on the other hand will call for more flour in the ratio of fat to flour.

How does butter affect brownies?

Butter is the more flavorful choice, but it should be noted that butter contains milk solids and lactic acid, which react during leavening (particularly when a chemical leavener like baking powder is added) to aerate the batter, helping it rise. Essentially, this means that butter can help to produce a cakier brownie.

Fat. With any cocoa powder-based brownie recipe, we need quite a bit of fat to prevent the cocoa powder from drying the brownies out and making them crumbly. In looking at what makes box mix brownies so chewy, it appears that the combination of saturated (solid) fats and unsaturated (liquid) fats is the winning answer.

Soft butter creates tenderness and lift. Use it in: cakes and soft cookies. For best results: make sure butter is fully at room temperature. If you're in a hurry, cut butter into tiny pieces and it will quickly soften.

If your recipe simply calls for melted butter, you can take it to the next level on your own. If a recipe calls for one stick of melted butter, you would simply melt that stick to the point of browning it, and proceed with the rest of your recipe as is. There's no need to change the proportions or anything.

When heated to the melting point, however, these crystals are destroyed. They can be reestablished but only if the butter is rapidly chilled. (Returning it to the refrigerator will cool it too slowly and fail to reestablish the tiny crystals.)

Always use room-temperature ingredients unless the recipe calls for cold or melted butter. If the butter is too cold, it won't cream properly with sugar, which can impact the softness and fluffiness of your cake or cookies.

A very small amount of weight might be lost when you melt the butter (especially if you melt it at a pretty high temperature) because a little water will evaporate as the butter melts, but this should not have a measurable impact on the finished recipe.

Butter's natural smoke point is around 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Direct heat over this temperature will result in burnt butter. Whereas, clarified butter can be heated to 450 degrees without risk of burning, making it a more suitable option for searing proteins or making sauces.

Many baking recipes call for "softened" butter, or room temperature butter. The reason for using softened butter is that you want to beat the butter (also called "creaming the butter"), either with sugar or without, and it's very hard to beat a cold stick of butter.

Why This Happened: Melting the butter first means it will mix more easily with the flour making the gluten form more than softened butter. More gluten = more chew. So a melted butter cookie will have a bit more chew. But they will spread more since the butter was already a liquid.

Is melted butter better than oil?

Butter will always provide superior flavor and that melt-in-your-mouth texture. In many recipes, combining the two gives the best of both worlds.

As the team at Betty Crocker explains, you can substitute butter for oil in brownies by using the same measurements. Simply melt the butter down and let it cool slightly before adding it to the mix. Because of butter's taste and texture, it might even improve the recipe.

Baking with oil produces moist and tender baked goods.

Because oil is liquid at room temperature, it produces exceptionally moist baked goods. Butter, on the other hand, is solid at room temp, and therefore baked goods made with it are (arguably) a tad more dry.

Vegetable oil contributes moistness far more reliably, a result of the fact that oil remains liquid at room temperature while butter solidifies. Liquid contributes to the sensation of moistness, and therefore cakes made with oil often present as moister than their butter-based counterparts.

Butter can't withstand higher temperatures the way oil can, due to the milk solids in the spread. If you still want a buttery taste but need to cook something on a high heat, Fiona recommends using oil to fry on a high temperature and adding butter later, at a lower temperature.

Replacing Oil With Butter

Simply melt and cool the butter to room temperature, then continue with your recipe (if the recipe calls for ½ cup oil, use ½ cup melted and cooled butter).

The simple answer is that yes, it is fine to use salted butter in baking.

Or you might be looking for a different flavor or texture in your brownies – olive oil brings an interesting fruity and slightly bitter taste to brownies, which can perfectly complement the sweet chocolatey flavor. Another reason to use olive oil to make brownies is that it is a healthier option than most oil types.

Milk: Add MILK, not water, when your box mix calls for liquid. The milk adds density, fat and, most importantly, extra flavor to your mix. Egg WHITES: Not adding the yolks to the cake makes the cake fluffy and whiter!

Why do bakers prefer to used butter instead of other fat?

It allows for steam and carbon dioxide to be trapped in the batter as it is bakes, which causes your cake to rise. The butter also helps to create a light and tender texture in cake batter. In the all-in-one method, liquid butter and other liquid ingredients are mixed with dry ingredients in a single step.

Making a moist cake starts with the cake mix. If a recipe calls for all-purpose flour, opt for cake flour instead to create a more moist, tender crumb. Additions like sour cream, buttermilk, or applesauce can also infuse moisture and prevent a dry cake.

The reaction of baking soda or baking powder with the liquids in the batter releases carbon dioxide, which forms air bubbles to help your cakes be light and airy. Baking soda and baking powder aren't interchangeable.

When used in cooking, both butter and olive oil help carry the flavors of the food, and warming them accentuates this property. Butter is smooth and creamy, adding a dairy richness that no oil can match. Olive oil provides a unique flavor and aroma. Together, they enhance the flavor of your foods.

Vegetable oil or shortening is your best bet at ensuring your baked goods don't stick to the pan; however, they do little to flavor your recipe. If you use butter, the key is to use it sparingly, preferably along with a nonstick pan.

By mixing oil and butter together, you can increase the smoke point and the flavor. It really is the best of both worlds. The fat in the butter will still burn eventually, but the oil will help to dilute the nasty burnt taste that we absolutely do not want in our food (via Serious Eats).