When You Can (and Can’t) Replace Butter With Mayonnaise in Baking
Of all the suspicious ingredients that can be added to cake batter, mayonnaise is definitely at the top of the list. Known for garnishing meat sandwiches and turning everything from eggs to jelly into a “salad”, mayonnaise doesn’t seem like a common brownie ingredient, but here we are . Yes, baking with a ball of mayonnaise can enhance your baked goods and also replace eggs and fats in a recipe. Sometimes. But before ordering this 16-liter can of Hellmann’s from Costco as an all-in-one oil replacement, you need to understand what the oil does in the recipe and why (and when) it can’t be changed so easily.
When can mayonnaise replace butter in baking?
Mayonnaise at its simplest is a silky emulsion of eggs, acid (like vinegar or lemon) and oil. When you take it apart, you will understand why it makes perfect sense in baking. Its ingredients make it an ideal butter substitute, its thick and creamy texture is similar to that of softened butter, and because it already has eggs in it, mayonnaise exhibits some egg-binding ability when cooked.
Mayonnaise works best as a substitute for butter in batters and batters when butter isn’t a stellar flavor, when they get their structure from somewhere else (like flour), and when butter isn’t doing something incredibly important (more on this). later). . Cake dough , brownie dough , cookie dough, and dinner rolls can work with the richness that mayonnaise has to offer. Mayonnaise will do its job and give the finished dish a lot of moisture and juiciness.
When not to use mayonnaise instead of butter in a recipe
There are some desserts that just need butter. Nothing else will work. This is because oil plays several important roles in many recipes. Butter not only aids in creating emulsified batters, but can help trap air and carbon dioxide, provide structure, improve texture, extend shelf life, add water, impart an attractive golden brown color and, of course, impart appetizing flavor and aroma. . (Learn more about the science of butter in this blog post from my alma mater, Institute of Culinary Education.)
Set out a jar of mayonnaise and use a good quality stick for recipes that use oil for flavor, texture, or to provide a textural response in the oven. In shortbread cookies – and many other high-butter cookies – it performs all three functions. The taste, texture, and texture of shortbread are all great, and if any of them don’t work, then you’ll have to answer many frustrated shortbread fanatics.
Mayonnaise should also not be used for butter in Viennese dishes . If you happen to be rolling out the dough at home and you don’t have half a pound of butter left, drop the rolling pin and grab some more because mayonnaise won’t save you. The same is true for Danish pastry and puff pastry. The oil provides the necessary reaction in recipes where the oil is manipulated to create layers in the dough. Butter always contains a percentage of water , and when butter melts in the oven, the water evaporates. As it evaporates, it leaves an air pocket covered in oil in its path. Multiply these air pockets hundreds of times and a croissant, palmyra or cheese stick will expand to about three times its previous size. Sorry, mayonnaise, but you can handle butter there.
Similarly, butter should be used for puff pastry crusts, puff pastry, or anything else with the word “puff” in the name. The oil penetrates the flour of this shortcrust pastry and prevents the flour from absorbing too much water. The oil seals in some of the flour and prevents too much gluten from building up in the dough, keeping the texture short. This, combined with lots of little butter pockets, makes the puff pastry flaky. Mayonnaise is not a saturated fat that can be manipulated like butter. Instead of creating pockets, the mayonnaise will simply blend into the dough.
For those new to mayonnaise desserts, stick to recipes that explicitly include mayonnaise in the recipe, or stick to a 1:1 replacement ratio for cake batter. If you’re worried that your cookies will taste like a ham sandwich, don’t worry; the flavor of the mayonnaise will spread among the many other ingredients and become even softer after baking.
Mayonnaise Cookie Recipe That Really Works
The following recipe actually uses light mayonnaise (I know, I really pushed the boundaries this time with questionable ingredients) to replace butter, eggs, and salt in the walnut and chocolate chip cookies, but you can also use heavy mayonnaise. I gave some of these cookies to my boyfriend, but knowing my job, he asked me what was the “thing” with them. When I told him they were made from mayonnaise, I saw his panic synapses begin to fire. He tried one and quickly relaxed, pleasantly stunned. (Honestly, it’s the same.) This cookie recipe can’t be as good as it is, and I would never believe I’d tell people that mayonnaise chocolate chip cookies are quick, easy, and delicious. But here we are.
Cookies with pieces of chocolate and walnuts on mayonnaise
Makes 1 dozen cookies.
Ingredients:
- ¼ cup light mayonnaise (I used Hellmann’s )
- ¼ cup + 2 tablespoons white sugar
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ cup flour
- ¼ teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- pinch of cinnamon
- ⅓ cup chopped walnuts
- ¼ cup chopped dark chocolate
Preheat oven to 350°F. Baking line with parchment paper.
In a small bowl, mix dry ingredients. In a separate small bowl, mix mayonnaise and sugar until smooth. Add vanilla.
Pour the dry ingredients into the sugar-mayonnaise mixture and mix until almost smooth. Add chopped walnuts and chocolate. Mix until combined.
Place in a heap the size of a tablespoon on a baking sheet. Bake 15 minutes at 350°F. Refrigerate and enjoy the most delicious mayonnaise cookies you have ever tasted. This recipe can be doubled if desired.