I was about to order some margarine from the supermarket the other day as part of my weekly shop, when I hesitated as I really don’t like buying margarine with it’s long list of processed ingredients.  I grew up eating margarine instead of butter due to it’s healthier image, but have been unenthused by it’s processed nature for quite a while.  I decided to take a break from the shopping and googled recipes for margarine.  I was surprised at the results which indicated it was quite easy to make homemade margarine.

One recipe used solidified coconut oil, which I could not get hold of in the supermarket, so I decided to try that out another time.

Another recipe for olive oil spread was so simple, I was amazed. See below for my version:

Ingredients and equipment:

I tried it out and the next day sure enough, I had an olive oil spread!  It was fairly bland however.  It melted the second I put it on my toast and I did wonder why I hadn’t just put olive oil directly on my toast. 

This experiment made me realise margarine can just consist of solidified oil and a variety of combinations of oils can be used.  I am now going to start experimenting with oil mixes and with flavouring those oils with herbs and will report back on my progress.  

I’m already thinking that maybe I don’t need margarine at all and could just use oil instead.  To keep costs down I could base those oil mixes on cheaper oils and only use the expensive ones sparingly for added flavour and health benefits.

Later that day I followed a recipe for a crumble topped bar and wherever the recipe called for margarine I substituted it with olive oil.  It was delicious and I couldn’t tell the difference.  I have also used olive oil in a cookie recipe before which worked well.

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