Replace Your Regular Cooking Oil With This For Moist, Airy Bakes

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It's any baker's nightmare: hours spent portioning out ingredients, sifting flour, carefully comprising your dough or batter, and finally baking in the oven — only to be left with a finished product that's as dense as a brick and about as appetizing as one. There are several reasons your bake isn't as light and fluffy as you want it. Maybe all-purpose flour was to blame for a dense loaf of bread, or you made a mistake with the butter for your cake, like overwhipping it in the mixer. The culprit that might be lower on your list of suspects, however, is the type of cooking oil you're using. To achieve bakes that are airy without lacking in moisture, consider switching to algae oil.

Cooking oil made from algae is an environmentally friendly innovation that could one day topple canola or vegetable oils, at least according to the professional chefs who have embraced it. Algae oil is extracted from fermented microalgae, and the manufacturing process used to make it expends almost 50% less carbon emissions and 10% less land and water than canola oil production. The first bottles of algae oil available for purchase hit the market in 2015. At around $22 per 14 ounces, it's not what we'd call budget-friendly, but if you decide to get your hands on some, you'll be amazed at how it can improve your baking process with its neutral taste and the magic of its super high smoke point.

Using algae oil is an amazing way to unlock extra airy, extra moist, and extra delicious bakes. Most people don't think of algae when they think of baking a cake, but there's some simple science at play here. Some oils and fats, like butter, have a low smoke point. An oil's smoke point is the temperature at which it begins to break down and start to smoke. Butter's smoke point is around 350 degrees Fahrenheit, whereas algae oil can withstand a temperature of 535 degrees Fahrenheit. This makes it a cooking oil with an even higher smoke point than avocado oil, and perfect for the high temperatures often used in baking.

Nearly ⅕ of butter is water, and a portion of that water evaporates when it's baked. Replacing at least some of the butter in a bake with oil means more fat remains in the batter or dough. And, since algae oil has one of the highest smoke points around, it can create and retain air bubbles that help baked goods rise. This results in more airy, tender bakes. Bakers also praise algae oil's neutral flavor. One Reddit user noted that they didn't realize how much impact olive oil had on the taste of baked goods until the barely detectable buttery notes of algae oil let their true flavors shine. The future of baking is here, and it's algae.