Breadmaking and some mathematics today!
Many Bread Maker recipes assume you are working with butter, but if you are using a dairy-free spread in place of butter then the proportions of fat and water in the spread will not be the same as for butter.
You will need more spread than butter and less water than specified in the recipe.
So here is a formula to calculate the adjusted quantities of fat and water to be added to the dairy-free bread ingredients.
Start by looking at the descriptions on the sides of the butter and dairy-free spread packs.
These give the amount of fat per 100g. Common values are:
Butter, fat 82g – denote this by the symbol, BuFat, to be used in the formula below
Spread, fat 55g – denote this by the symbol, SpFat
The bread recipe will specify a quantity of butter and water to be added to the mixture.
Common values for a medium size loaf are:
Butter, 15g
Water, 280mL – denote this by the symbol, W
We now have all the information we require to calculate the quantities of Spread and Water that need to be added to the non-dairy bread mixture.
In the formula below, * will indicate multiplication, and / will indicate division
Quantity of Spread = Butter * BuFat / SpFat
(22g using the values above)
--
Quantity of Water = W + Butter - Spread
(273 mL using the values above)The table below gives the quantities of Water and Spread to be added to typical loaves
If the amount of fat listed on the side of the packs of butter or spread are different, then the formula will need to be recalculated to give the required quantities.
Medium 400g Loaf, 15g butter, 280mL water :
Replace with 22g spread, 273mL water
Large 500g Loaf, 25g butter, 350mL water :
Replace with 37g spread, 337mL water
Extra Large 600g Loaf, 25g butter, 400mL water :
Replace with 37g spread, 387mL waterPhoto above shows one I made using the formula
