Plant Butter Cookie Baking?

   I recently learned about plant butter to replace butter when you are dealing with gerd or acid reflux-which has been a real struggle for me since April.

  I mixed up cut out cookie dough and since my favorite is gingerbread just made that one for me and not the sugar cut out dough.

  It stayed softer than normal in the frig-so was a bit of a challenge to roll out. My Mom had suggested many years ago to dust the board and cutters with powdered sugar and not flour-as more flour makes the cookies tough. So doing that rolling out and cutting the shapes worked well.

  My cookies are really delicious but they did not hold their shapes at all during baking.  I am not supposed to eat any sugar either but I made mine with organic free trade sugars-those are so full of flavors, I am just not into splenda or those keto sweeteners at all. I rarely eat sugar these days so went with the real sugars

  My question is have any of you baked cookies with the plant butter-and had this same issue of them spreading out-a lot??   

  

  The bison and gingerbread man turned out the best-perhaps because the dough came right out of the frig. 

Below the lady gingerbread did not fair so well  These are just for me being gluten free as well. I will need to freeze these so I don't eat too many smiles

This was "bugging" me so I asked online here is what it said

Plant butter can cause cut-out cookies to spread more than dairy butter primarily due to differences in fat content, water content, and a lower melting point. 

Key Factors

• Lower Melting Point: Plant-based fats often have a lower melting point than the saturated fat found in dairy butter. This means the plant butter melts faster in the oven, causing the cookie dough to spread rapidly before the flour and other structural ingredients have a chance to set.
• Higher Water Content: Many plant butters and margarines contain more water and less fat than traditional dairy butter, which is typically around 80-85% fat. This extra moisture turns into steam during baking, contributing to increased spreading.
• Different Emulsifiers/Stabilizers: The specific blend of oils and emulsifiers in plant butter may not trap air as effectively during the creaming process as dairy butter does. Air pockets are crucial for providing structure and lift, which helps the cookies hold their shape. A lack of sufficient structure leads to a flatter, more spread-out cookie. 

How to Mitigate Spreading

To help control the spread when using plant butter in cut-out cookie recipes, consider the following tips:

• Use the Right Product: Use a high-quality plant-based butter that comes in sticks (which generally have a higher fat content) rather than a tub of spread (which often has more water). Look for a product with a fat content close to regular butter (around 80%).
• Ensure Proper Temperature: Make sure the plant butter is at cool room temperature, not overly soft or warm, before mixing. Room temperature butter should be pliable but still cool to the touch.
• Chill the Dough: Chilling the cookie dough before baking is a critical step. This firms up the fat, which slows the rate at which the cookies spread in the oven.
• Adjust the Flour: You might need to add a small amount of extra flour to the dough to adjust the wet-to-dry ratio and provide more structure.