when making pastry... what is shortening?

Question

Can I use butter?

Answer 1

shortening is like lard, but instead of being made from animals, it is made from plants, like vegetable oil. The difference butter and shortening can make are this; butter makes better pie crust and breads, but can harden faster. Like i made chocolate chip cookies last night and used butter and today they are hard. If I had used shortening they would be softer. Also things made with shortening do not go bad, like those made with dairy.

Answer 2

In regards to using butter or not, it really depends on the recipe.

See, Butter contains about 30% liquid to 70% fat. Shortening? Pure fat.

So, if you have a recipe that says to use 1 stick of shortening, but also, say, a cup of milk, what you would have to do is reduce that cup of liquid by about 30% and increase the butter by about 30%. This is made much easier when using weights instead of volume cups.

So, you would use 1 1/3 stick of butter, and about 2/3 to 3/4 cup milk to make it all even out.

This should apply to margarine as well, though not the tub type - this has a different structure.

I would only recommend this to very experienced pastry cooks, however.

I would stick with the recipe as it says. Or, find a different recipe that calls for butter instead of shortening.

Answer 3

Shortening is refered to Crisco. Yes you can use butter if you like. The results might be slightly different. Crisco does help keep your food product moist. It is in the baking isle sold in canisters or in stick form.

Answer 4

yes you can interchange them but... shortening makes things more tender. but there are a lot of transfats in it ... not good for your heart. shortening is veg lard that solid at room temp.

Answer 5

Crisco is good, but I prefer lard. It makes a flakier crust.

Answer 6

no better use crisco