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Margarine can be a difficulty. Most brands of margarine contain either whey or one or more caseinates. This is serious due to the fact that margarine is an ingredient in many "non dairy" recipes (including in the cookbook sold on this site). Depending on where you live, and how hard you look, margarines that are actually non dairy are available... but just in case you cannot find one, here are a few things to experiment with:
 Applesauce!
Did you know that both applesauce and applebutter make excellent margarine substitutes in many baking recipes? Applesauce or applebutter can be used to replace three quarters of the margarine called for in a recipe and the remaining quarter can be replaced directly with plain-old shortening! Just add the Applesauce with the liquid ingredients of your recipe and the shortening with the ingredients where the recipe called for margarine. Using Applesauce also allows you to reduce the amount of refined sugar in your recipes. It is inexpensive and can be found in any grocery store. Give it a try!
Bannanas!
Bannanas are another great margarine substitute! You can substitute measure for measure. This works best for desert recipes, but I've used bannanas as a margarine substitute with surprizing success in breads as well.
Shortening Mixtures
Shortening by itself can be used as a margarine substitute, but I've had mixed luck. When margarine is called for in a recipe, it is the solid fats that the recipe needs. Shotening is a solid fat just like margarine is, but I've come to the conclusion that if shortening is used, the amount should be reduced by something close to ten percent. I've also experimented with increasing sugar or eggs in a recipe to make up the difference and can say that the results are almost always favorable. If you are making cookies or bread, throw an extra pinch of salt in with your shortening.
Some people might miss the "butter flavor" when margarine or butter are replaced in a recipe. You can make up for this with imitation butter flavor found with the extracts in your grocery store. Please read the label before trying this. I've seen several brands of "imitation butter flavor" that contained casein and/or whey.
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