Nigella Lawson's Advice For Swapping Oil With Butter In Muffins

As a longtime proponent of cooking muffins with butter, I was gratified to discover that a celebrity chef concurs, at least on the concept. Granted, my proclivity had thus far been restricted to buttering the muffin tins before baking, which bathes the muffin exteriors in subtle, warm buttery flavor. Now, armed with new insight from chef Nigella Lawson, I'm prepared to take things next-level. Get ready, fellow muffin- and butter-lovers: Things are about to get hot and heavy inside our ovens. 

Lawson's approach to butter-infused muffins differs from my own; hers is much more transformative and involves an actual ingredient swap. According to the Nigella website, in answer to a reader's question, it's perfectly legit to replace oil with butter when creating the actual muffin batter. She notes that most muffin recipes are quite forgiving, and that butter instead of oil potentially results in better flavor for muffins.  

With Lawson's approach, it's possible to do an even swap of about ⅓ cup oil for the same amount of melted butter. However, the muffins may be on the dry side and potentially get stale more quickly. That's because butter has a lower fat content than oil, according to Lawson, meaning you may need to make slight alterations to other liquids and fats in the recipe. "Butter is approximately 75% fat (the remainder being water and milk solids)," the website states, "so to switch butter for oil you need to increase the amount of butter used, but reduce slightly the other liquids (such as milk) used in the recipe."

As always, Nigella Lawson isn't shy about switching up ingredients in standard dishes or recipes, ranging from alternative methods for making gnocchi to unexpected ingredients in cauliflower curry. This butter swap for muffins is more straightforward, but it does involve some measurement calculations. It's important to note that using butter in place of oil requires melting the butter first and letting it cool only slightly. This facilitates more equivalency in the ingredients' texture and consistency. Lawson recommends using roughly 30% more melted butter than oil called for in the recipe. But you'll still need to reduce any other liquid ingredients.

In the example cited on the Nigella website, which originally calls for about ⅓ cup oil (now replaced by the melted butter), you would also decrease other liquids by roughly 1.5 ounces, give or take per recipe, per the specific liquid ingredient, or per preference for muffin consistency. The key is to experiment with your favorite muffin recipe to find the perfect substitution balance for your own muffin nirvana.

It may help to use a muffin recipe that does actually include other liquids, ones that you can easily decrease without having to add water. That's because, according to Lawson, "Switching butter for oil will work less well if the recipe has no other liquids added as the water introduced with the butter can toughen the glutens in the flour and the resulting cake will have a slightly different texture to one used with oil."