Can You Use Dairy-Free Butter For Homemade Soft Pretzels?

"Buttery" is certainly a word you associate with fresh, soft-baked pretzels. However, if you're vegan or follow a dairy-free diet, you'll have to leave out the butter component to create a pretzel that fits your dietary needs — or do you? Even without traditional butter, it's actually possible, and surprisingly easy, to create a delicious, buttery, soft-baked pretzel. 

According to recipe developer Miriam Hahn, replacing butter with dairy-free butter in her soft-baked pretzel recipe is completely fine. If you follow a one-to-one replacement, there won't be any changes to the texture, and the buttery flavor will still be present. There are a few tips to follow when baking with vegan butter. You should still soften it before using it, but only take the amount needed for the recipe out so you don't permanently alter the texture of the rest of the container. Also, make sure to stir it often as you melt it to keep it from overheating. 

There are many options for dairy-free butter, and each uses a different blend of dairy-free milk, oil, coconut, and sometimes nuts. When it comes to baking, the one ingredient you should look for in vegan butter on the label is oil. It should be listed as the first ingredient, and the product should contain a high percentage of oil, around 78%-79%, to work well in baking. In Tasting Table's ranking of 12 vegan butters, Miyoko's Creamery European Style Plant Milk Butter and Good&Gather Plant-Based Buttery Sticks came out as front runners, and both would function well for this recipe. 

It might be tempting to use cooking oils (like olive oil) in place of butter in a soft-baked pretzel recipe, but be aware that most cannot be used as a direct, one-to-one replacement. If you would like to use pure oil instead of butter or dairy-free butter for your pretzels, look for recipes that explicitly call for this. If you would like to experiment with a butter and oil swap, a rule of thumb to follow for baking is for every 1 cup of butter, replace with ¾ cup of oil. However, if using coconut oil, it can be used as a one-to-one replacement for butter.