Substitutes for Vegetable Oil

Can you make brownies with olive oil? So you're ready to make a batch of brownies and realize that you're out of vegetable oil, one of the main ingredients in brownie mix. And to make matters worse, perhaps you were just at the store and forgot to buy vegetable oil. Now what?

You could always wait until you go to the store again, or you can improvise if you really can't wait or don't want to wait. This was our dilemma a few days ago... I bought two boxes of brownie mix a couple of weeks ago, because my 13-year-old really wanted to make them.

When I bought the brownie mix I thought that I had some vegetable oil at home. He went to make a batch the other day and low-and-behold there's no vegetable oil. Surprise, surprise! I'm like, you've gotta be kidding me...

I look around the cabinet and spot a bottle of extra virgin olive oil. So I hit "Google" to see if you can make brownies with olive oil and I find disagreement amongst the opinions of others regarding this matter. Some saying that you can use olive oil but that it tastes different and others saying don't use it, so we gave it a try...

So can you make brownies with olive oil?

The verdict is in...you can make brownies with olive oil. Yes, they taste a little "different." But it's not a bad kind of different. It's just "different." They still taste good, but just...different. They're still soft and chewy, and still have flavor, and I could still probably eat an entire tin if I really wanted to (but thanks to good self-control, I won't do that), but it's just a different taste. Yeah, so we get the point...it's different. Would I do it again? If I had to I would, but I think I'd still prefer to use vegetable oil...

Other Substitutes for Vegetable Oil Include:

Butter: If you're going to use butter instead of vegetable oil for your brownie mix, you'll need 1 cup of butter to 3/4 cup of vegetable oil and the butter has to be softened. Not liquified - just softened.
Applesauce: Use the same amount of applesauce as your recipe calls for vegetable oil. For example, if the recipe calls for 1/2 cup of vegetable oil, use 1/2 cup of applesauce.
Fruit Puree: As with applesauce, it's the same thing. Use the same amount of fruit puree as you would use of vegetable oil.
Yogurt: When substituting vegetable oil with yogurt, you're going to use the same amount of yogurt as you would use of vegetable oil. Greek yogurt is a great healthy substitute for vegetable oil.