What to use instead of unsalted butter
It depends entirely on what it's doing in the dish. Here's the job, what else does it, and what to skip.
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Solid fat creamed with sugar to hold air
Butter is plastic at room temperature, so sugar crystals cut into it and trap air pockets that expand in the oven and give the cookie its rise and crumb.
Salted butterRan out
1:1, and reduce the salt in the recipe by 1/4 tsp per stick
Nothing at all if you adjust the salt. Brands vary, so taste the dough.
Plant butter in stick formDairy-free
1:1 by weight, then chill the dough 30 min before baking
Softer at room temperature and it melts sooner in the oven, so cookies spread wider and flatter unless the dough is cold going in.
ShorteningDairy-free
1:1 by weight
Holds more air and contains no water, so there is no steam and much less spread. Cookies stay tall and pale and taste of nothing but sugar.
GheeRan out
3/4 cup ghee + 2 tbsp water per 1 cup butter
Pure fat with the water and milk solids removed, hence the added water. Nuttier, and it creams less well, so the cookie is denser.
What doesn't work: Oil, at the same weight. Liquid fat cannot hold an air pocket, so creaming does literally nothing and the sugar just dissolves into it. A sugar cookie made with oil bakes flat, greasy and dense.
Cold solid fat cut into flour for flake
Pieces of cold fat stay separate in the dough, melt in the oven and leave layers behind, and the water in butter turns to steam and pushes those layers apart.
LardRan out
1:1 by weight
Flakier than butter because the crystal structure is coarser. Savoury, and there is no browning from milk solids.
ShorteningDairy-free
1:1 by weight
Very tender and easy to handle since it stays firm at warm temperatures. No steam, so less flake, and it coats the palate waxily.
Plant butter in stick formPlant-based
1:1 by weight, kept in the freezer until the moment it goes in
Works if it stays cold. It softens faster than butter, so the window between cut-in and smeared is short.
Frozen coconut oilPlant-based
1:1 by weight, grated frozen into the flour
Brittle rather than plastic, so it shatters into shards instead of flattening into sheets. Firm and slightly waxy once cooled.
What doesn't work: Soft tub margarine or a spread. It is whipped with water and often under 60 percent fat, so it smears through the flour instead of staying in pieces. Rugelach made with it come out tough, greasy and completely flat.
Melted fat that sets a no-bake mixture solid
Butter is firm at room temperature and liquid at body temperature, so it holds the cookie together in the tin and still melts in the mouth.
Coconut oilPlant-based
1:1 by weight
Sets harder and snaps rather than yielding, and it melts on your fingers faster than butter does. Refined coconut oil tastes neutral, virgin does not.
Plant butterPlant-based
1:1 by weight
Sets to about the same firmness. No milk solids, so there is no browning and none of the toasted flavour in a no-bake cookie.
GheeRan out
3/4 the weight
Already browned, so the mixture tastes nuttier straight away. No water in it, so the set is firmer and slightly greasier.
What doesn't work: Olive or any neutral liquid oil in a no-bake cookie. What holds the cookie together is fat crystallising as it cools, and oil stays liquid at fridge temperature, so the mixture never firms up and you are left with wet oats in a tin.