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Butter vs. Shortening?
Butter vs. Shortening?
I visit a farmer’s market at least once a week. On one particular visit I had an argument with a vendor over her homemade cookies. She offered a sample which I happily accepted. She went on tell me the ingredients of her cookie and its nutritional merits. I then asked if it was an all butter cookie. She answered no, that it was a shortening cookie made with zero trans fat shortening. This made my blood boil. I told her that I wished I would have know before I tasted the cookie. A debate followed and before you judge as another food snob let me tell you why…
My maternal great-grandparents were farmers in the Azores islands of Portugal. If you’ve never head of the Azores check them out. They’re a gorgeous subtropical archipelago of islands in the middle of the Atlantic ocean between Lisbon and New York City. There are 9 islands which were settled by the Portuguese in the 15th century. They are extremely rural and charming. My great-grandparents immigrated in the early 1900‘s and they continued to farm after they arrived in the Northern California foothills. My family still raises cows, grows fruit and fresh herbs are never far from reach. This time of year (winter) our family shares its satsuma mandarins with family friends and other local farmers who in turn share things like persimmons, butternut squash, grapefruit and Meyer lemons. Eating local is something I grew up doing and going to the farmer’s market every week with family is something I look forward to.
I also believe in trying to buy organic food when ever possible. A few years ago my grandmother was diagnosed with breast cancer. She decided to forgo chemotherapy and instead she did an all natural detox and ate only organic foods. The whole family learned a lot from her experience and I’m happy to say the cancer has not returned.
Being a Portuguese family we have a deep love for baking and devouring baked goods. Every holiday is an amazing excuse to indulge. Also, my mother has been making wedding cakes my whole life. This has instilled a deep love of cake in everybody. The tradition of baking Portuguese sweet bread or massa sovada as we call it was passed on to me and my interest in baking grew. As I started to do my own research and baking exploration I gravitated to ingredients and recipes that were as all natural and organic as possible. Pastries such as pies, cookies and cakes are all made with some kind of fat. Butter, lard, oil or shortening are the most commonly used. I experimented and baked with all of them but never shortening. My mother used shortening for pie crusts as many people of her generation do. My grandmother and aunts taught me shortening would prevent cookies from spreading and even some of my mother’s pre-bought cake icings were made with shortening to hold better shape and resist melting. I just wasn’t convinced so I did some research into what exactly shortening is and is it safe to eat.
Shortening is traditionally made by partially hydrogenating vegetable oils into a semi-solid state which can then be used as a cheaper and longer lasting substitute for natural animal fats such as butter or lard. However, the process produces trans fats which we’ve all heard can lead to a myriad of adverse health effects. I understand the desire to use shortening, it inhibits the formation of gluten which helps produce tender pie crusts, fluffy biscuits and cakes. It’s cheaper and creates baked goods that will have a longer shelf life. You can even buy butter flavored shortening since the unflavored doesn’t have a strong flavor but things that are artificially flavored are never a healthy choice. Why would you use something artificially flavored like butter when you could just use butter? Butter tastes amazing on it’s own I can’t say the same for shortening or margarine. I’ve tasted shortening biscuits that while fluffy, left a plastic like film in my mouth and had less flavor than a butter biscuit.
You can buys many shortenings today which print they have zero grams of trans fat or even organic shortenings which means that organic oils were used to make the shortening. After some research I found out that “On July 11, 2003, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a regulation requiring manufacturers to list trans fat on the Nutrition Facts panel of foods and some dietary supplements.The new labeling rule became mandatory across the board, even for companies that petitioned for extensions, on January 1, 2008. However, unlike in many other countries, trans fat levels of less than 0.5 grams per serving can be listed as 0 grams trans fat on the food label.” (see article) So even if it is marked zero trans fat it probably still contains some.This is what I tried to explain to the cookie lady but she wasn’t having it.
This information combined with the desire to honor my great-grandparents and all those before them who cooked without processed foods but with the natural ingredients around them. So I encourage you to choose a natural fat in your baking instead of shortening. I have been making wonderfully flaky and tasty pie crusts for years without shortening. I’ve made cookies, other pastries and cake icings with all butter and they have not suffered.
Here are two tips for baking with butter:
Chill your dough thoroughly which will help it hold it’s shape not only for pie dough but when you roll out and cut cookies.
If you want a chewy cookie do not over bake if anything I like to under bake them.
For more cooking, nutrition and health articles visit JeremiahBills.com
About the Author
Jeremiah Bills an internet entrepreneur who mentors and helps others start and grow their own virtual home businesses. He also enjoys writing about health, nutrition and fitness to inspire others to live a balanced and healthy life. Before starting his online business he’s been a professional flutist. Eventually he partnered up with some of the most sought after marketing gurus in the Internet Marketing/Direct Selling Industry and joined a community of thousands of entrepreneurs that offer the most cutting edge education and training. He lives in Northern California.
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