Make Your Own Soy-Free Soft Butter Spread

In my post How To Turn One Stick Of Butter Into Two, I explained how to make extended butter. This extended butter should not be confused with soft butter spread. Extended butter is made by thoroughly combining equal parts of butter and water and will be the same texture and consistency of the butter you started with. The extended butter will be as firm as regular butter and will not be any easier to spread straight out of the refrigerator.

However, if you want to make an easily spreadable extended butter, just substitute oil for some or all of the water. I usually choose a mild-flavored olive oil, but any healthy oil will do. Using a hand mixer, thoroughly mix the oil and butter until neither one is separately identifiable. You will end up with a soft spreadable extended butter that will stay soft even when it is refrigerated.

Butter extended with oil will, of course, contain more fat and calories than the original butter and water method, but it is a good substitute for the commercial soft butter spreads. It’s also great for those of us with soy allergies, because it contains only soy-free butter and oil.

Written by Shirley | Filed Under Frugality & Nutrition series, Household Hints & General Information, Living with a Soy Allergy, Simple Living, Voluntary Simplicity

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Comments

Comment by Colleen:

Thanks for the tip! I will have to try this, since soy doesn’t agree with me either.

Comment by Becky:

Have you tried extending butter and then freezing it? Just wondering if it will last in the freezer this way. I typically buy butter on sale and freeze the sticks until I need them – if these freezes well, it will cut my butter costs in half even on sale! :o) Thanks for the tips!

Comment by Shirley:

Becky, I only make up one stick of butter at a time, so I haven’t tried freezing it. I don’t know how the oil would react to freezing… but since this butter takes only a few seconds to “make”, you could just freeze the sticks of butter like you do now and then make up a batch of butter spread when you need it. That way you could still buy the butter on sale. That’s what I do.

Comment by Liz:

I really like this idea for making it easy to spread. I use real butter for all cooking and baking for the taste, but I want the easy to spread stuff for rolls and such. Thanks for sharing this! It’s next on my to-try list.

Comment by Robert:

G’day Shirley,

Just wanted to let you know, I’ve tried a couple of variations of this and found that a water & olive oil, with more water than oil, was my favorite, but they all worked as “advertised”.

Thank you for the GREAT idea!

Robert & Kathleen

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