Coconut Butter substitute

Best substitute

Homemade Coconut Butter From Shredded Coconut

About 4 cups unsweetened shredded coconut makes 1 cup butter

Best for raw desserts

Close match

Identical to the jarred product because it is the jarred product. Blend dry unsweetened shredded or desiccated coconut, scraping down, until it goes from crumbs to a thick warm cream.

Other coconut butter substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

2Creamed Coconut Block
Close match
Use the same amount
Sold in a hard block or carton in the world-foods aisle, especially for Caribbean and South Asian cooking.
What changes
Same ingredient, same single-ingredient label, just pressed into a firmer brick.
Best for
curries, stews, sauces, raw desserts, coconut rice
It is drier and harder than jarred coconut butter, so stand the sealed packet in hot water for a few minutes or grate it before use. In a sauce it dissolves into the liquid the same way. This is the cheapest way to buy coconut butter by a wide margin.
3Coconut Oil Whisked With Coconut Flour
Different texture
3 parts melted coconut oil to 1 part coconut flour, by weight
A reasonable rebuild of the real thing: you are adding back the fibre that coconut oil lacks.
What changes
It sets firm and tastes properly of coconut.
Best for
fat bombs, raw bars, chocolate coatings, frostings
Noticeably grainier on the tongue than real coconut butter, and less sweet, since coconut flour is defatted and comparatively bland. Let it sit ten minutes after whisking so the flour hydrates, then whisk again before it sets.
4Coconut Oil Alone
Taste and texture differ
Use the same amount only where it is purely the fat
Works when the recipe uses coconut butter as a melting, setting fat, such as a chocolate shell or a fat bomb.
What changes
The result is greasier on the tongue, runnier when warm, and snappier and harder when chilled, because there is no fibre to soften the set.
Best for
chocolate coatings, fat bombs, greasing, melting into sauces
You lose the sweet, slightly chewy coconut body entirely, so anything where coconut butter was the flavour, a coconut butter frosting or a spread on toast, will taste thin and oily. Do not use it in a recipe where the coconut butter is providing bulk.
5Almond Butter or Cashew Butter
Different taste
Use the same amount
Mechanically an excellent match: same thickness, same spreadability, same behaviour in a raw bar or a bliss ball, and it firms up in the fridge.
What changes
Best for
raw bars, bliss balls, spreads, smoothies, frostings
It will taste of almond or cashew, not coconut. In a mixed raw dessert nobody will mind. In something named for coconut it becomes a different dessert. Cashew butter is the more neutral of the two and the closer visual match.
6Thick Coconut Cream
Different texture
Not a reliable swap
Worth naming only so you do not waste ingredients on it.
What changes
Coconut cream is largely water with emulsified fat, so it will not set, will not spread and will not hold a bar together.
Best for
curries, soups, smoothies
It is a fine substitute in exactly one situation: a hot sauce or curry where the coconut butter was going to be diluted anyway. Use the thick spooned-off top of a chilled can, roughly 1.5 times the weight of coconut butter, and expect a thinner sauce. For anything that must set solid, this simply does not work.

What is Coconut Butter?

Coconut Butter is Coconut butter, also sold as coconut manna, creamed coconut or coconut concentrate, is whole dried coconut flesh ground into a thick paste, so it contains the coconut's fibre as well as its fat and sets solid at room temperature.

Cooking tips

Warm the whole jar in a bowl of hot water and stir it from the bottom before you measure. If you scoop the loose oil off the top, everything underneath dries into a chalky brick you will never scoop again.
Never melt it over direct heat or in a long microwave burst. The coconut fibre scorches and turns bitter well before the fat gets hot. Gentle warm water or ten-second microwave pulses with a stir between each.
Do not fry in it. Coconut oil handles a hot pan, coconut butter does not, because the solids brown and then burn. Anywhere a recipe says to sear or shallow-fry, use coconut oil instead.
In a hot curry or soup, add it near the end and off a hard boil. Whisked in gently it thickens and enriches the sauce; boiled hard it can go slightly grainy.
Coconut manna is simply a brand name for coconut butter, and coconut concentrate is another. All three are the same single-ingredient product, so shop on price rather than on label.

Frequently asked questions

Is coconut butter the same as coconut oil?

No, and this is the most common mix-up. Coconut oil is only the extracted fat: clear when melted, pure white when solid, no fibre, no sweetness. Coconut butter is the entire dried coconut flesh ground up, so it contains the fibre, a little natural sugar and a mild sweetness alongside the fat. Coconut oil melts to a thin liquid, coconut butter melts to a thick pourable cream. Swapping one for the other changes the texture of the finished dish significantly.

Can I use coconut cream instead of coconut butter?

Only in hot liquid applications like a curry or a soup, and even there the sauce comes out thinner. Coconut cream is mostly water, so anything that needs to set, spread or hold together, raw bars, fat bombs, frostings, chocolate shells, will fail outright. If that is your recipe, make your own coconut butter from shredded coconut instead.

Can I really make coconut butter at home?

Yes, and it is one of the easiest kitchen substitutions there is. Put unsweetened shredded coconut in a food processor and run it, scraping the sides down every few minutes. It goes through crumbs, then a thick paste, then suddenly turns to a warm running cream, usually somewhere between eight and fifteen minutes depending on your machine. Add nothing at all. About four cups of shredded coconut gives you a cup of butter.

Can I leave coconut butter out of a recipe?

It depends what it is doing. In a smoothie or a curry, where it is enrichment, you can skip it and simply have a lighter result. In a raw dessert, fat bomb or no-bake bar, it is the ingredient holding everything together and setting it firm, so leaving it out gives you a loose crumbly mess. Substitute in that case rather than omit.

Is coconut manna the same as coconut butter?

Yes. Coconut manna is a brand name for coconut butter, as is coconut concentrate. Creamed coconut, sold in a hard block or carton, is the same product too, usually much cheaper because it is marketed for curries rather than for health food shelves.

Related substitutes

More nuts & seeds substitutes

Coconut Butter substitute

Other coconut butter substitutes

2Creamed Coconut Block

3Coconut Oil Whisked With Coconut Flour

4Coconut Oil Alone

5Almond Butter or Cashew Butter

6Thick Coconut Cream