Can You Substitute Butter for Shortening When Baking? Yes, Here's How
The BHG Test Kitchen shares its best tips for how to substitute butter for shortening when you're in a baking pinch.
Fact checked by Emily Estep
When it's time for a baking therapy session, but you're short of the shortening needed to make the classic peanut butter cookies you're craving, now what? Can you substitute butter for shortening in a pinch? Our Better Homes & Gardens Test Kitchen has tested hundreds of recipes using baking ingredient substitutions like this. Here's what we learned about using butter instead of shortening when baking, and how to do it successfully.
BHG / Ana Cadena
Can You Replace Shortening with Butter?
Yes, you can substitute butter for shortening in your baked goods. You can also use shortening as a substitute for butter in cookies if you want to. These fats and oils add flavor and contribute to baked goods' texture, but they do work a bit differently. Understanding their differences will help you swap them out with each other effectively.
BHG / Ana Cadena
How to Substitute Butter for Shortening
In general, you can use a 1:1 ratio when substituting butter instead of shortening. However, making this substitution may alter the texture of your baked goods a little. Why? Shortening is solid, 100 percent fat. Butter is about 80 percent fat and 20 percent water. This additional liquid may change the consistency of the sweets you bake.
Tips
Test Kitchen Tip: Margarine and buttery spreads contain varying amounts of water, reducing the fat in your recipe. Using margarine as a substitute for shortening or butter may not yield desirable results.
Baking Differences with Butter vs. Shortening
When comparing recipes side by side in our Test Kitchen, here are the main differences we noticed when using butter instead of shortening:
Cookies made with butter or margarine spread a little more than they would when made with shortening.
Cookies made with butter are usually crispier than chewy cookies made with shortening.
The flavor is often richer with butter.
In cakes and breads, the substitution is rarely noticeable when using shortening vs. butter. You shouldn't have any issue when substituting butter for shortening here.
A piecrust made with butter or margarine won't be as flaky as one made with shortening because of the water. If you're a fan of flaky, you may not want to substitute butter for shortening in piecrust. See our tips for making an all-butter piecrust if you're set on using it.
Related: Substituting Oil for Shortening in Cake Recipes
BHG / Ana Cadena
How to Substitute Shortening for Butter
Shortening with a little salt makes an excellent fat substitution if you've run out of butter. Adding the optional salt will give you more of a salted butter result than unsalted butter.
If a recipe calls for:
One cup butter, use one cup shortening plus, if desired, ? tsp. salt
? cup butter, use ? cup shortening plus, if desired, ? tsp. salt
? cup butter, use ? cup shortening plus, if desired, a dash of salt
Tips
Test Kitchen Tip: If you've got open packages of both shortening and butter, you can use a combination of the two in your baking. Just combine to measure the amount called for in your recipe.
Based on our Test Kitchen results, you can substitute butter for shortening, and vice versa, with decent results for most baked goods. So if you're getting a head start on holiday baking with some freezer-friendly cookies, or making a pie from scratch, you can keep calm and bake on even if you run out of shortening or butter.