Holiday Baking with Olive Oil skipping Butter

Baking a Better Holiday: a Primer On Baking w/ Olive Oil – and Skipping Butter

Posted on December 9, 2011

A topic we find gets lots of interest: how to use extra virgin olive oil in baking, including how to substitute it for butter in a recipe. Olive oil is lower in saturated fat than butter. Plus, it adds a good, nuanced flavor. So we asked baking gurus for tips and suggestions on using olive oil as part of our Baking a Better Holiday focus this month. Below is a Q&A.

Photo courtesy of www.artisanbreadinfive.com

How can I substitute olive oil in a baking recipe that calls for butter, like a cake?  

“Olive oil can replace butter and margarine in almost all baked goods,” says Sarah House, recipe specialist for Bob’s Red Mill Natural Foods, the Oregon provider of high-quality flours and other natural foods. “I use a 3:4 ratio – 3 parts olive oil is equal to 4 parts butter.”

In other words: If a baking recipe calls for a stick of butter (8 tablespoons), for example, use 6 tablespoons of olive oil. (Click here to see a conversion table.)

Are there times when I should avoid using extra virgin olive oil in a baking recipe that calls for butter?

Yes. “The only time olive oil is not an acceptable substitute for solid fats is in recipes that require a lot of creaming of the butter and sugar (super light and fluffy cakes), or when the fat needs to stay solid, as in a frosting,” House says.

Can I substitute extra virgin olive oil in a baking recipe that calls for a different oil, like canola or vegetable oils?

Why not! Extra virgin olive oil tastes better than “neutral oils” like canola and vegetable oil.  “Any dessert that’s already made with some kind of vegetable oil is a candidate for trying,” award-winning cookbook author and dessert guruAlice Medrich says.

We’ve found you can substitute olive oil for other oils on a one-for-one basis. If a recipe, say, calls for half a cup of vegetable oil, use the same amount of extra virgin olive oil. We’ve done this with carrot and chocolate cakes.

Can I use any type of olive oil in baking?

Not if you want to improve the flavor of your baked good. Use a quality olive oil that tastes good. “Only use an olive oil that you enjoy eating on salads, as a bread dip etc.,” Matthew Kadey, a registered dietitian, recipe developer, and magazine writer whose work has appeared in EatingWell and Men’s Health, says. “If you don’t particularly like the taste of a highly processed olive oil, why sully your baking with it. As the old saw goes: ‘Never cook with a wine you wouldn’t want to drink.’”

What’s so bad about using any olive oil off the grocery shelf?

Ask House, of Bob’s Red Mill. She initially tried using an “inexpensive, off-the-shelf extra virgin olive oil” while developing a recipe for olive oil spelt cake with caramelized apples. (Click here to see the recipe for the cake.)

“Wow, was it obvious that I had used low-quality oil.  The flavor of the oil overpowered the rest of the cake and left a noticeable aftertaste,” House explains.  “When I baked the cake a second time using the California Olive Ranch extra virgin olive oil, the final product was so much better.  There was a lighter, more fragrant olive oil flavor that melded nicely with the nuttiness of the spelt and the warmth of cinnamon and the texture was lighter, almost velvety.”

Bon appétit,

Your friends at California Olive Ranch

Follow us on Twitter: MemphisFoodGuy

Olive Oil Spelt Cake w/ Caramelized Apples

Baking a Better Holiday: Olive Oil Spelt Cake w/ Caramelized Apples

Posted on December 2, 2011

We’ll be baking cakes, breads, and other goodies during the holidays using extra virgin olive oil. A good olive oil adds a fabulous, nuanced flavor to baked goods. Plus, it’s lower in saturated fat than butter. We’re sharing our passion for baking and olive oil this month with the baking gurus at Bob’s Red Mill Natural Foods. They’ve created the fabulous cake featured here: an Olive Oil Spelt Cake with Caramelized Apples.“Extra virgin olive oil produces light and moist baked goods with rich olive oil background notes while letting the accompanying flavors shine through,” says Bob’s Red Mill recipe specialist Sarah House, who developed this multi-grain cake. (Click here to see the recipe for this cake.)

The recipe is part of “Baking a Better Holiday.” Stay tuned here and to our Facebook page for baking tips and recipes featuring extra virgin olive oil – instead of butter. We’ll be featuring recipes from professional bakers, and talented food bloggers.

For this recipe, Sarah told us she wanted to make this cake “as whole grain as possible.”

“Everyone’s go-to whole grain flour seems to be wheat,” she added. “So I decided to use something structurally similar but perhaps not as well known to most bakers.  Spelt has a great mildly nutty flavor.”

Sarah also noted many quick breads contain nuts.  “I wanted to accentuate the nutty flavor of spelt and thought it would be fun to replace nuts with cooked spelt berries,” she said.  “The substitution worked out great, adding a lovely light chew to the cake and increasing the whole grain content for extra nutrition.”

Sarah said the use of olive oil helps to “lighten the otherwise dense and heavy whole grain flours.”

What’s the importance of using an extra virgin olive oil that actually tastes good – in other words, not just any ordinary olive oil. We’ll let Sarah explain. She initially tested the recipe using what she called an “inexpensive, off-the-shelf” olive oil.

“Wow, was it obvious that I had used low-quality oil,” Sarah added.  “The flavor of the oil overpowered the rest of the cake and left a noticeable aftertaste.”

Sarah had much better results using one of our oils. “There was a lighter, more fragrant olive oil flavor that melded nicely with the nuttiness of the spelt and the warmth of cinnamon,” she said. “And the texture was lighter, almost velvety.”

Bon appétit,

Your friends at California Olive Ranch

Follow us on Twitter: MemphisFoodGuy

Holiday Baking Recipes using Olive Oil

Baking a Better Holiday: A Trove of Baking Recipes Using Olive Oil – No Butter!

Posted on December 6, 2011

We challenged some talented food bloggers to create baking recipes using our extra virgin olive oil and flour from our friends at Bob’s Red Mill Natural Foods. We were blown away by the high-quality recipes they delivered — everything from almond cranberry chocolate chip quick bread to a spicy and moist gingerbread cake just in time for the holidays.

The recipes, which we’ll be featuring here, are part of our “Baking a Better Holiday” focus this month on using extra virgin olive oil instead of butter in baking.  (Click here to see a table for how to substitute olive oil for butter.) A good extra virgin olive oil delivers wonderful flavor in baked goods and helps ensure they are light and moist. (Click here to see more recipes and baking tips in our December eNewsletter.)

Below is our first batch of blogger recipes. Stay tuned for more later this month, including gluten-free recipes. In the meantime, cruise over to our Facebook page where you can win great prizes by posting your ideas for combining our oil with a fine product from Bob’s Red Mill.

Spicy and Moist Gingerbread Cake“Full of the flavors of the holidays, this gingerbread will bring back memories of your childhood delights,” Jane Evans Bonacci, the talent behind the excellent blog The Heritage Cook, says. She says don’t be intimidated with all the spices in the recipe. “They balance well against the molasses, ginger and olive oil.” Bonacci also says the cake “improves with time. So make it a day or two in advance if you like.” (Click here to see the recipe.)

Almond Cranberry Chocolate Chip Quick Bread“Using almond flour in quick breads provides flavor, but more importantly, a supportive crumb structure,” Marnely Rodriguez , who writes the great blog Cooking with Books, says. “Living in New England, fresh cranberries were an obvious addition to cut the sweet buttery taste and add some tartness.” That buttery taste, by the way, comes from her use of our Artois Ranch Mild & Buttery extra virgin olive oil. We’re confident you can also get great results using our Arbequina or Everyday oils, too. (Click here to see the recipe.)

Iced Sweet Potato and Orange-Spice Loaf

“When I was deciding on a recipe, I knew I wanted to use sweet potatoes and orange zest  to make a loaf cake that was flavorful without being too greasy, too crumbly or too dry,” Lori Twitchell writes in her beautiful blog, Lemons and Lavender. She perfected this loaf, featured in the photo at the top of the blog, after four versions. Twitchell says the cake has gotten two thumbs up from “very discriminating taste testers.” We’re not surprised. “I’ve created something that has the indulgence of a holiday sweet loaf but with a healthier twist,” she adds. (Click here to see the recipe.)

Olive Oil Walnut BrowniesDeeba Rajpal, the creative force behind the gorgeous blog Passionate About Baking, whipped up these brownies after sampling them at a New Delhi hotel. She asked the chef for the recipe and promptly went home to bake them herself, making some changes and overcoming a power outage that knocked her oven out of commission temporarily. “The texture was fabulous,” she writes. “BIG HIT with the kids too.” (Click here to see the recipe for olive oil walnut brownies.)

Bon appétit,

Your friends at California Olive Ranch

Follow us on Twitter: MemphisFoodGuy