7 Vegetable Oil Substitutes All Bakers Should Have In Their Arsenal

Vegetable oil is a pantry staple that's as crucial to savory dishes as it is to desserts. And you'll find it in baked goods like cakes, muffins, quick breads, and cookies, enriching every recipe with a moist, tender, and soft texture. But if you don't have vegetable oil or simply want to experiment with alternatives, we've consulted Jessie Sheehan, baker, recipe developer, and cookbook author of "Snackable Bakes," to help you find the best substitutes.

Many of her suggestions are staples most of us have in our pantries and refrigerators. The list of vegetable oil substitutes includes butter, olive and coconut oil, Greek yogurt, vegetable shortening, mayonnaise, avocado, and applesauce. While butter, olive and coconut oil, and vegetable shortening are well-established dessert ingredients, Greek yogurt, mayonnaise, avocado, and applesauce are more nuanced. With the help of Chef Sheehan, we'll cover each substitute in more detail. We'll get to the bottom of swapping ratios, effects on texture and flavor, and the best dessert recipe each substitute is suited for.

While we're listing Jessie Sheehan's oil substitutes in no particular order, butter was certainly the first substitute she mentioned. "Melted butter is one of the best substitutes because it behaves similarly to vegetable oil and therefore you can consistently substitute it with no issues," she said.

Both butter and oil bring a moist, bouncy texture to cakes and baked goods. If you want to split hairs, vegetable oil is pure fat, while butter contains a small fraction of water. So, baking with vegetable oil guarantees the moistest results, while baked goods made with butter are more prone to drying out. That said, the flavor butter brings to any dessert is an automatic upgrade. Butter contains a dairy richness that's as delicious as it is versatile; desserts made with butter just have that je ne sais quoi that you can't put into words. Many dessert recipes often call for both butter and vegetable oil to get the moisture from the oil, with the flavor boost from the butter.

Plus, you can enrich the taste of butter even more by browning it. We have many recipes with the brown butter upgrade, like these brown butter chocolate chip cookies and brown butter banana bread. If you're not sure how to brown butter, you can check out our article on how to make it.

Nearly 60% of people use olive oil the most when cooking, according to our recent poll. Swapping vegetable oil for olive oil can upgrade your cakes with complementary flavors. Coconut oil brings a nuttiness of its own to the mix. They both fall under the category of vegetable oils, offering a pure fat that you can swap in a one-to-one ratio with vegetable oil. Jessie Sheehan is a proponent of both. "Coconut oil is also a great substitute ... as is olive oil, which will add a distinct flavor if you are using an extra virgin olive oil — but if you use a neutral olive oil, it will not," she explained.

It's also worth noting that extra virgin olive oil has a lower smoke point than regular olive oil, thus making it a very good vegetable oil substitute. There are, of course, many recipes that revolve around olive oil, such as this 1-bowl dark chocolate olive oil cake and this olive oil cake with packed pears and rosemary cream.

Unrefined coconut oil brings a more coconutty taste than refined coconut oil, but in many instances, that can be an advantage. This Vivanaturals unrefined, cold-pressed coconut oil would complement the flavors in our orangey carrot cake. You could also swap it in for vegetable oil in this pineapple coconut poke cake for an extra punch of coconut flavor.

With a much higher protein content than fat, Greek yogurt still manages to be a great vegetable oil substitute. Not only does the acidity in Greek yogurt provide a bright and tangy flavor, but it also reacts with leavening agents like baking soda or baking powder to help baked goods rise. As per the ideal desserts for the swap, Jessie Sheehan told Tasting Table that Greek yogurt "works well as a substitute for oil in brownies, some cakes and muffins."  For instance, you can use Greek yogurt in a simple honey cake. It's also the secret ingredient for more flavorful biscuits.

Greek yogurt is exceptionally thick and comes in different fat contents from no-fat to 2% and up to full fat or 5% fat. "Depending on the recipe, you might be able to use full-fat greek yogurt (use a little more yogurt than the amount of oil called for)." In fact, full-fat Greek yogurt is optimal because you're replacing an ingredient that is pure fat. The more fat the yogurt has, the richer the flavor, and the better protected the crumb is from drying out in the oven. We like Fage 5% fat Greek yogurt, though you could also try fruit or vanilla-flavored varieties to add depth of flavor.

Vegetable shortening is more often used as a dairy-free butter substitute than a vegetable oil substitute. Since butter is Jessie Sheehan's preferred oil substitute, vegetable shortening might be the second best option. You can substitute it in an easy one-to-one swap, just like butter and olive oil. It's also a completely flavorless fat, famous for imparting a flaky texture to biscuits and pie crusts and a decadently crumbly consistency to cakes. That said, if you want to bring flavor to the mix, you can always blend vegetable shortening and butter to get the best of both worlds.

There are four types of shortening to choose from, each with specific benefits to certain dessert recipes. For example, this solid shortening from Crisco is best for a flakey pie crust and will also work for baking soft cookies, causing them to rise more and become even chewier than with vegetable oil or butter. While there might not be oil in it, cake shortening does wonders for frosting by making it extra fluffy and light. Of course, all-purpose shortening will work for cakes, crusts, and even frying oil.

Mayonnaise isn't just a beloved condiment to blend into salad dressings and spread over sandwiches, but it's also the staple that'll bring moisture and tenderness to baked goods. A standard mayonnaise recipe or bottle of this classic Hellman's consists of eggs and oil as the suppliers of fat. So, in a sense, mayo contains the ingredient you're trying to substitute. Plus, since there's a bunch of eggs already in mayo, you might be able to use it as a substitute for both vegetable oil and eggs. The duo of oil and eggs in mayo will not only ensure a moist and tender crumb but it'll also help with leavening.

Jessie Sheehan told us that "mayo works in cakes," and there's a famously rich Texas cake that features an entire cup of it! It's a simple one-to-one swap to substitute oil with mayonnaise. For egg and oil substitute,  use three tablespoons of mayo per egg and a one-to-one swap for the oil. You should also consider using mayo in your next batch of muffins. Since the Texas mayo cake is a chocolate cake, you can try adding it to these death by chocolate muffins, for instance. But the slight tang of mayo would also work well in blueberry muffins or cranberry orange muffins.

With a versatile, neutral flavor and an indulgent, creamy texture, avocados are suited for more than guacamole and avocado crema. They'll blend seamlessly into batters, bolstering their texture with the same decadent richness. Plus, it's a great plant-based alternative to butter, yogurt, and mayonnaise. You can also use avocados in place of eggs in some recipes.

We recommend using avocado oil for baking, but actual avocados are a cheaper alternative that's just as effective. The fat in avocados is more conducive to dense, moist desserts. Consequently, Jessie Sheehan told us that avocados and applesauce can be used in brownies — for one, we have our own avocado brownie recipe for you to try out. We even recommend adding an avocado or two to your brownie mix.

As a solid, non-meltable ingredient, avocados will take more processing than the rest of the oil alternatives. You also want to ensure that you're mashing avocados as much as possible to get an even blend of fat throughout your batter. A blender like this Magic Bullet blender will do the trick. Most brownie recipes call for two overripe avocados as an oil swap. The riper the avocado, the more safeguarded a brownie recipe will be from drying out as it bakes.

Applesauce is perhaps the most unexpected oil substitute of all because it's completely fat-free. It can reduce the fat content of your baked goods without sacrificing texture or moisture. In fact, applesauce will bring even more moisture to whatever batter you add it to. You can substitute vegetable oil with the same proportion of applesauce in the baked good recipe in question. If you still want the flavor that fat instills, you can use a half-and-half substitute of applesauce and butter for the vegetable oil in your baked good. You can also pair applesauce with vegan butter for a plant-based baked good; we ranked Miyoko's plant milk butter as the best of our list of vegan butters. Jessie Sheehan thinks brownies are ideal for the applesauce swap.

Since applesauce is sweet, you should opt for an unsweetened variant to avoid making your dessert too sweet. In a pinch, applesauce will work as an egg substitute as well. But since it doesn't contain any leavening properties, you can expect a denser dessert. Consequently, brownies are best to experiment with as they're famous for a dense, gooey texture. A denser cake will also be amenable to the swap. You could try substituting half a cup of applesauce for the half a cup of oil in this recipe for salted caramel apple upside-down cake.