The Best Plant-Based Butters

And the ones to avoid

It’s one of the most prolific ingredients in baking, so it only makes sense we do a spotlight. Vegan & plant-based butter has come a long way since I first started using them in 2015. Some of the OG’s are still in heavy rotation for me, but some newer brands are quickly becoming my favorites. Let’s take a look!

Different butters for different use cases

Every brand takes a different approach. Most plant-based butters are a mixture of oils. These oils usually come from nuts, seeds, or beans. The base matters a lot, because all of these different ingredients have different make-ups of fat, protein, and other important components.

Reach for the sticks

In baking, it’s important that we use sticks of butter, not spreadable butter that’s sold in tubs. They’re formulated differently, and the spreadable version contains ingredients that keep it soft, and also usually has a higher water content.

Right off the bat, my favorites…

Earth Balance

Probably the most reputable name in plant-based butter; and for good reason. In fact, I started using this butter before I went vegan, and I know a lot of folks who have done the same. It’s a great all-arounder for all kinds of baked goods. The only thing I wouldn’t use it for is lamination – especially for a delicate layered pastry like croissants.

Violife

My current go-to. It’s newer, but it’s got a huge leg-up on the others: it browns. A lot of vegan butters don’t brown. In regular butter, it’s the milk fat solids that turn brown. Plant-based butter, as you can imagine, doesn’t contain these milk fats. Violife is the butter that browns most consistently for me.

Country Crock Plant-Based

Another good all-arounder. I’ve used it for everything from layered buttermilk biscuits, to cookies, to cakes. It seems to sub pretty consistently 1:1 for regular butter, and it hasn’t failed me yet. I specifically use the Olive Oil variant.

…aaand my least favorites

Miyokos

This butter is fine if you’re in a pinch, however it’s expensive, and it imparts a taste I almost always notice. It’s never been a consistent product for me, even when making my brown butter chocolate chip cookies (my most consistent recipe).

ForA

I can’t find this company any longer, so I’m assuming they’ve gone under or were bought by another company. But it was worth mentioning – I hated the flavor of this butter, and it didn’t seem to brown very well for me.

Honorable mention

Flora

I’ve never tried Flora – it’s not available in stores in the US from what I’ve seen. However, a lot of folks seem to use it and love it, so try it out if you see it, and let me know what you think!

Tourlami

Another one I haven’t tried yet, as it’s brand new. It’s only available through restaurant distributors at the time of writing this, but I’m itching to try it! It was founded by a professional baker with over 12 years experience in non-vegan bakeries, which is promising!