Best Oil for Baking, According to a Registered Dietitian

For most everyday baking, a neutral oil like avocado, canola, soybean (vegetable) or light olive oil works best. These oils won’t compete with your recipe’s flavor and hold up fine at typical baking temperatures (325–375°F). Reach for melted coconut oil when you want a hint of richness or need a dairy-free butter swap, and save extra virgin olive oil for recipes where you actually want its flavor to come through, like olive oil cake. Vegetable oil and canola oil are usually interchangeable 1:1 in a recipe.

When I first started testing recipes professionally more than 20 years ago, I had A LOT to learn.

Sure, I was a more savvy baker than your average 23-year-old. My grandmother made sure of that with her years of teaching me the difference between a dry measuring cup and a liquid measuring cup; understanding the difference between baking soda and baking powder; and so on.

But one thing I didn’t learn until later in my career is how important choosing the right ingredients for baking could be, including knowing the best oil for baking.

If you’ve been around this blog and my podcast for any length of time, you no doubt know that my happy space is always in a moment dusted with flour as I’m measuring, mixing, and baking up goodies for my family.

And while part of the joy in baking is simply in the act of connecting art and science, I certainly don’t want to spend my time baking goodies that turn out dry, crumbly, and/or have an “off taste” for my taste testers.

Oils like soybean oil (often labeled as vegetable oil) and canola oil do an amazing job of keeping baked goods moist without imparting a lot of flavors. Unlike butter, these oils tend to make baked goods lighter in texture and moister, as well. (Butter has a beautiful flavor, though.)

Comparison Oils For Baking

Smoke points vary by brand and refinement level. Treat these as general ranges, not exact cutoffs.

Best oil for gluten-free baking

Gluten-free flour blends tend to produce a drier crumb than wheat flour, since there’s no gluten network to trap moisture. A neutral oil like avocado or canola oil helps counteract that. Oil coats the flour particles and keeps gluten-free baked goods moist longer than butter does, since butter is only about 80% fat (the rest is water and milk solids) while oil is 100% fat. If a gluten-free recipe calls for melted butter, you can often sub in an equal amount of neutral oil for a moister result.

Best oil for lower-sugar baking

When you cut back on sugar, you lose some of the moisture and tenderness sugar normally provides in a recipe, and oil can help pick up that slack. A neutral oil keeps the crumb from tasting dry or “diet,” which is one of the biggest complaints people have about lower-sugar baked goods. Canola or light olive oil works well in my lower-sugar recipes for exactly this reason.

Best oil for dairy-free baking

Refined coconut oil (solid at room temperature, melts like butter) is the closest 1:1 swap for butter in recipes that need that solid-fat structure, like pie crust or biscuits. For recipes that just call for melted butter or “oil,” a neutral oil like canola or avocado oil is the simpler swap — no melting or flavor consideration required.

FAQs About Baking With Oil

Can I substitute vegetable oil for canola oil? Yes — vegetable oil and canola oil are both neutral in flavor with similar smoke points, and they can be swapped 1:1 in almost any baking recipe. You won’t notice a difference in taste or texture.

Is canola oil good for baking? Yes. Canola oil is one of the most reliable oils for baking — it’s neutral in flavor so it won’t compete with the other ingredients, and its smoke point (400–475°F) is well above the temperatures most baked goods are made at (325–375°F).

What’s the healthiest oil for baking? There’s no single “healthiest” oil. It depends on what you’re optimizing for. Avocado and olive oil are higher in monounsaturated fat, which is generally considered heart-healthy. Canola oil is also relatively low in saturated fat and works well for everyday baking. Coconut oil is higher in saturated fat (and has a stronger flavor), so I use it more selectively rather than as a default. As a dietitian, my honest take: the oil you choose for one recipe isn’t going to make or break your overall diet — consistency across your whole eating pattern matters far more than any single ingredient swap.

Can I use olive oil instead of vegetable oil in baking? Yes, with one consideration: regular vegetable oil and canola oil are neutral, while extra virgin olive oil has a distinct fruity, peppery flavor that will come through in the final product. If you want the swap to be flavor-neutral, use a light or refined olive oil instead of extra virgin.

What oil is best for cakes? A neutral oil — canola, avocado, or light olive oil — is usually the best choice for cakes, since it produces a moist, tender crumb without adding its own flavor. Save extra virgin olive oil for recipes specifically designed around its flavor, like an olive oil cake.

Is baking with oil healthful?

You may have heard that seed oils like soybean, canola, and vegetable oil are “bad” because they’re high in omega-6 fatty acids. This claim has gotten a lot of attention online, but the science is more nuanced than the headlines suggest. Some newer research, including a large Cochrane review, actually found that replacing saturated fat with omega-6-rich oils reduced cardiovascular risk rather than increasing inflammation. The idea that omega-6 fats are automatically harmful isn’t well supported by the current evidence.

That said, most of us do eat a diet that’s heavier on omega-6 and lighter on omega-3s than is ideal. So it’s worth thinking about your overall balance, not just the oil in one recipe. A drizzle of canola oil in your banana bread isn’t the thing to worry about; getting more omega-3s in generally (fatty fish, walnuts, flaxseed, and even EPA/DHA supplements) is a more useful place to put your attention.

If you’d simply rather bake with olive oil, butter, or coconut oil, there’s nothing wrong with that either. It comes down to preference and what you’re going for in the recipe. Butter does tend to yield a slightly drier baked good than oil, but it more than makes up for it in flavor. And contrary to what a lot of us grew up hearing, butter isn’t the dietary villain it was once made out to be.

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Hi, I’m Regan — a registered dietitian, professional recipe developer, and the creator of This Baking Life.

I bake with less sugar and smarter carbs in mind (though you’ll find plenty of full-sugar favorites here too!), so you can enjoy a real dessert without overthinking every bite.

If you make this recipe, tag me @ReganJonesRDN so I can see what you’re baking!

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Dietitian Insight: 

The oil you bake with once in a while isn't going to make or break your health. The honest answer is that any of these oils fit into a balanced diet just fine. Choose based on flavor and what the recipe calls for, and save the bigger-picture thinking for your overall eating pattern, not one ingredient in one recipe.