Best vegan butter for baking and spreading

All Flora’s products are vegan and certified by The Vegan Society, and we think its salted plant b+tter is hard to fault – from how beautifully it melts to the buttery feel and flavour. It comes in block form, with salted and unsalted (£1, Ocado.com) options, as well as a plant b+tter spreadable, which comes in a tub. Made from natural ingredients, such as coconut, rapeseed and sunflower oil, it’s free from artificial flavours, colourings, preservatives, and palm oil.

We had very little trouble spreading it over bread but it’s certainly harder to work with than a spread. What we really love is how it melts completely – we’ll admit to drenching our toast in it. It has a nice flavour, so it works well melted over jacket potatoes, and it’s also good for baking, which we proved with a delicious, moist cake.

Although more expensive than the other butter alternatives on our list, this option from Mouse’s Favourite is excellent. First and foremost, it’s utterly delicious on its own, and perhaps at its best when slathered on a slice of bread. There’s a rich and full flavour that’s a little bit salty, and, if you like cultured butter, you’ll love that it has a slight tang to the taste.

It’s made primarily with cashew milk and fair trade coconut oil, both of which are organic. When chilled, it’s still malleable enough to spread over bread, once it reached room temperature though, our knife simply glided through it. It didn’t melt down completely and disappear into our toast, but it did form a lovely creamy consistency and added a nice flavour when softened and mashed into jacket potatoes or melted over vegetables. As far as baking goes, it was mixed into a batch of lemon and poppy seed muffins, which turned out delicious and golden brown.

This olive oil-based spread from dairy-free brand Pure is a simple, light and healthy option, as it’s made with 75 per cent less saturated fat than butter. Registered with the Vegan Society, and made without artificial flavours and colours, gluten, lactose and nuts, it’s pale in colour and has a mild, pleasant taste, which is unsalted. If you like a knob of salted butter melted over your toast, this isn’t the one for you. But if you want something smooth, light and fresh, this is a must.

As it’s a spread, it glides seamlessly over bread straight out of the fridge, so it’s a convenient choice if you need something you can use for speedy sandwich-making. Despite being on the lighter side, it’s billed as being suitable for baking and cooking, too, making it really versatile. We used it to whip up a delicious sponge for what turned out to be one of our best vegan chocolate cakes yet.

When it comes to vegan butter for baking, you need to know about Stork. Having been around for more than 100 years, Stork has become a staple for bakers, as the fat content is meant to be perfect for it. Sure enough, our cupcakes came out looking golden and tasting delicious. We also whipped up a decadent chocolate cake that was perfectly moist, not stodgy, which isn’t always a given with vegan-friendly sponges.

While it hasn’t always been a dairy-free option (it contained buttermilk in the past), a recipe change means Stork is now vegan-friendly and certified by the Vegan Society. The ingredients include a mix of rapeseed, palm and sunflower oil, and it has a golden yellow hue to it, with a consistency that means it’s easy to spoon the right amount out of the tub. It’s gluten-free and contains less saturated fat than dairy butter.

Vegan-friendly and ‘free from’ brand Violife covers an extensive range of dairy alternatives, from dairy-free Greek white cheese to vegan camembert. When it comes to butter, there’s a block and a spread, but if it’s a firm, buttery option with a little more versatility you’re after, opt for the block. It’s light in colour, with a lovely creaminess, and the slightly salted flavour is great.

While it isn’t as easy to work with as a spread, we found it was easy enough to spread over bread. It’s suitable for cooking and baking, too – it worked well when whipped into a roux for a creamy vegan-cheese sauce, and went into a batch of soft and delicious chunky chocolate chip cookies. As it’s a ‘free from’ pick, it doesn’t contain any allergens, nuts, or preservatives, either. This is also another vegan butter that melts beautifully, transforming into a golden liquid on our toast.

The Violife viospread (£2.15, Ocado.com) could be a better choice if you want something lighter, as it falls between a butter block and a spreading consistency, with an almost cream cheese-like taste to it, which we quite enjoyed but may not be to everyone’s taste.

This decadent truffle-infused cultured butter from I Am Nut OK packs a flavourful punch. Umami-rich and moreish, its flavour makes it a convenient little jar to have in the fridge when you want to introduce a little luxury into plant-based meals.

We’ve slathered it on toast, whipped it into creamy mashed potato, and mixed it into a pasta sauce – we’ve even added it to a portion of chips. Made mainly with cashew nuts, along with coconut and rapeseed oil (and truffle oil, of course), it’s palm-oil-free, with a texture and consistency that spreads surprisingly easily, even when it comes to buttering bread, and melts in the mouth.

We were torn between choosing plant-based brand Naturli’s organic vegan block or the vegan spreadable (£4.25, Sainsburys.co.uk), as both impressed in terms of taste, but the block just pipped the spread to the post. If you would prefer a spread, the vegan spreadable has a great flavour and melts seamlessly, but very quickly, so it can be a bit slippery. It tends to melt quite quickly at room temperature too, which is worth keeping in mind if you want to keep it on the breakfast table while you eat.

As for the organic vegan block, it’s very buttery with a lovely flavour. It’s palm oil-free and made with shea oil, coconut oil and rapeseed oil. While you can’t tell from the taste, there’s also almond, carrot juice and lemon juice listed within the ingredients. We found it melts very nicely when spread over toast, and it’s billed as being ideal for baking and cooking, too – we used it to help create a buttery batch of golden-brown cookies.