Super Simple Coconut Ghee

I didn’t know that coconut ghee was a thing until earlier this year. I’ve made it for over 3 years. If you have a dairy sensitivity, not a full-blown allergy, it’s a good way to cut back on butter while not depriving yourself of the flavor. 🙂

One pound of butter makes 13 ounces of ghee

I do half ghee and half coconut oil but the ratios are completely up to you. I only use pastured butter and organic coconut oil. Always use the best quality ingredients that you can manage.

Gotchas

If you use salted butter and want salted ghee, you’ll have to add pinch of salt to your mixture. The salt settles out into the whey when making the ghee.

I’m a firm believer in “Work smarter, not harder”. Use low heat. The key to making ghee is patience. Plus, burning a whole pound of expensive pastured butter is an expensive life lesson I can do without.

How to Make the Ghee

I slowly melt down my butter. When it’s completely melted and the whey has settled to the bottom, I put it in the refrigerator. Yep, you heard me. Let it completely harden in the fridge for an hour or so.

The benefit  become crystal clear once you poke a hole in the hardened butter fat. The whey remains liquid under the ghee. It’s so simple to pour it off at that point. You can also rinse the solidified butter off in the sink, if you really want to make sure you got all the whey off. You now have ghee without fussing with spooning out the butter and trying to minimize the whey contamination in the final product.

I discovered this trick by accident a couple of years ago. I had to stop mid-process for some reason so I put the pan in the fridge. When I came back and poked a hole in the solidified ghee, I discovered the whey. Serendipity!

Turning the Ghee into Coconut Ghee

Once I’ve eliminated the whey, it’s back on the stove to melt the ghee and add in the coconut oil and just a pinch of salt, if you like. I just eyeball it. If you want to be exact, one pound of butter makes 13 ounces of ghee. Assuming you started with a pound of butter, just add 13 ounces of coconut oil for a 1:1 ratio.

Once the ghee and the oil are melted and combined. Pour into small containers, label, and refrigerate. I keep mine in the refrigerator only because I’m paranoid about mold. Refrigerated coconut ghee does harden due to the coconut oil. It’s probably safe to keep small amounts on the counter in a covered container. Follow your own family’s needs.

One tablespoon of the coconut ghee weighs 14 grams

Substituting Coconut Ghee for Butter

If you’re measuring for a recipe, remember that one tablespoon of the coconut ghee weighs 14 grams. You can follow my measurement conversion chart to figure out how much you need by weight.

Coconut ghee is a 1:1 substitution for butter in any recipe except when baking, since butter is almost 19% water (13 oz ghee + 3 oz watery whey = 16 oz butter). Recipes that call for cutting butter into the flour, like pie crusts and biscuits, are counting on the water in the butter to provide steam and create the flaky layers.

This recipe was featured on Wildcrafting Wednesday!

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