There are so many dairy-free butter options in stores these days, but which one is best for baking? I had several plant-based butters on hand from our Dairy-Free Hot Buttered Rum trials, so I decided to put them to the ultimate test, in cookies.

I chose a very basic shortbread recipe , since it showcases butter, and has very few variables. My friend Eleanor had dairy butter on hand, so we baked some with butter as the control batch for comparison. I wanted to offer a visual for how the end result spread and browned, and Eleanor was able to judge the taste.

Despite the fact that she eats dairy, my friend Eleanor enjoyed each variety of these cookies. For the most part, I agreed. But I took notes, and put together our more picky responses and comparisons.

NOTE: We used salted varieties for two reasons. We omitted the salt in the recipe. So the tests do take salt into account! If we had tested with unsalted, we would have added salt to the recipe, as written. Eleanor said this dairy-free butter alternative produced the closest taste and texture to the dairy butter version.

It had a similar spread to butter, nearly the same crispiness with a very light chew, and a well-rounded buttery flavor that married the cookie ingredients nicely. Earth Balance Buttery Spread is a good option for mimicking butter, but there was one caveat. Due to its higher water content, these cookies had limited shelf stability.

The chewiness increased a touch and they tasted slightly stale after a few days. The dough was very crumbly, and the hardest to work with, but this equated to very little spread. The cookies were crisp on the outside, but very flaky and a bit biscuit-like. We also thought the flavor lacked butteriness and fell a little flat.

This might be a good option for biscuits or other flaky baked goods. This is by far the most flavorful brand and the cookies had a nice light crispness with the perfect touch of flakiness.

They also spread about the same as the dairy butter version. I loved the very rich, buttery flavor of these cookies.

All varieties of Country Crock are boldly salted and have underlying semi-fragrant oils. They seem to perform quite well, and are buttery. These cookies spread the most, and also baked up a bit more quickly, as you can see by the more golden hue. They had a nice dense crispiness and a notable buttery taste.

Eleanor really liked this version, saying the flavor was very similar to Earth Balance. But she preferred the slight chew of the Earth Balance texture.

If your looking for a crisp finish and light buttery flavor, then this could be a good option. But expect free-form baked goods, like cookies and scones, to spread more and bake faster. And some people, like me, might notice the an after taste.

Eleanor and Tony did not. Note : I only taste-tested the dairy-free butter shortbreads, so my picks are based purely on what I enjoyed. Alisa is the founder of GoDairyFree.

org , Food Editor for Allergic Living magazine, and author of the best-selling dairy-free book, Go Dairy Free: The Guide and Cookbook for Milk Allergies, Lactose Intolerance, and Casein-Free Living , and the new cookbook, Eat Dairy Free: Your Essential Cookbook for Everyday Meals, Snacks, and Sweets.

Alisa is also a professional recipe creator and product ambassador for the natural food industry. Would the Earth Balance sticks work well to make cream-cheese frosting uncooked? The other ingredients are cream cheese, powdered sugar, and vanilla. Nearly 20 yrs ago, it seemed Earth Balance was the only choice I could find for non-dairy butter.

It worked in baking primary use until my son developed a flax oil sensitivity. It took us a while to locate the culprit, but once we eliminated EB, all was well again—except, of course, no commercial butter subs for us. Thank you for sharing your feedback. Please reply ASAP as I want to bake today!

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