Baking with Coconut Oil

[kitchenwitch]

Lately I've been experimenting with substituting out some of the butter in my recipes. I was so excited to try coconut oil because I use it already for a lot of my cooking and I love the flavour it gives. I decided to try it out with a simple brownie recipe and it turned out horrible!

The brownies seemed to melt, for lack of a better word, and flatten out instead of rising. When it came out of the oven I could tell it wasn't right, but I left it out to cool anyway. When I came back it had hardened and cemented itself to the bottom of the pan.

I tried out a cookie recipe as well and the same thing happened, the dough spread out and flattened in the oven so that my whole baking sheet was one big, crispy cookie.

I'm pretty sure coconut oil has a lower melting point then butter, so maybe that has something to do with it. Have you had any luck baking with coconut oil?

 

[Morning Glory]

Lately I've been experimenting with substituting out some of the butter in my recipes. I was so excited to try coconut oil because I use it already for a lot of my cooking and I love the flavour it gives. I decided to try it out with a simple brownie recipe and it turned out horrible!

The brownies seemed to melt, for lack of a better word, and flatten out instead of rising. When it came out of the oven I could tell it wasn't right, but I left it out to cool anyway. When I came back it had hardened and cemented itself to the bottom of the pan.

I tried out a cookie recipe as well and the same thing happened, the dough spread out and flattened in the oven so that my whole baking sheet was one big, crispy cookie.

I'm pretty sure coconut oil has a lower melting point then butter, so maybe that has something to do with it. Have you had any luck baking with coconut oil?

Well, this website seems to be quite confident about using it: https://www.lucybee.co/coconut-oil-recipes/coconut-oil-for-baking/ It does say to reduce the fat in recipe by a quarter and also to reduce the sugar.

 

[Elvisish]

I have used coconut oil when making mug cakes and brownies, and they've turned out fine. But I've never tried it on a proper sized cake or a tray of brownies. Did you melt the coconut oil first and then add it, or just add it like butter? Might have something to do with it, or if you did melt it first, it could be just the wrong amount?

 

[kitchenwitch]

I have used coconut oil when making mug cakes and brownies, and they've turned out fine. But I've never tried it on a proper sized cake or a tray of brownies. Did you melt the coconut oil first and then add it, or just add it like butter? Might have something to do with it, or if you did melt it first, it could be just the wrong amount?

I honestly didn't even think of melting it first, that's a really good point! I'll try that and tweak my ratios a bit and see how it turns out