For some people, baking a perfect cookie is a difficult task that requires careful consideration and ample practice. With this ratio, butter can hold its own in a variety of situations, whether you’re frying eggs or whipping up chocolate chip cookies (or baking these decadent chocolate peanut butter brownies). However, they are more flavorful than cookies made with shortening. They determine the stiffness of the batter, which holds it in place and prevents it from flattening on the cookie sheet. Basically, cookies made with butter spread more and are flatter and crisper if baked long enough. In general, you can substitute Crisco shortening for butter or margarine in equal amounts (1 cup Crisco shortening = 1 cup butter or margarine). Butter and shortening can generally be substituted for each other in cookie recipes if you keep a few things in mind: Since butter does contain water and less fat than shortening, you’ll need to use more of it as a substitution. Nothing else in the recipe was changed, just what kind of fat was used. Repeat with remaining cookie dough. Are the two interchangeable? It stated that to get soft chewy cookies, you should use shortening. Cookies made with shortening bake up taller and are more tender, but aren’t as flavorful. The lack of water also means that shortening does not increase gluten production, so cookies made with shortening tend to be softer and more tender. Some strongly stand on the shortening side, and others claim 100% that butter is the best. No, one stick of Crisco is the equivalent of TWO sticks of butter. One of the biggest things that affect the texture and look of cookies is the choice of butter vs shortening in cookies. It just adds such a delicious flavor and richness! Not only does Crisco shortening have 50% less saturated fat than butter and 0g trans fat per serving, it gives you higher, lighter-textured baked goods. Butter softens the flavor of shortening, giving the cookie a natural flavor. Don’t, however, substitute butter with shortening in cookies like shortbreads or sugar cookies, where butter really is a key flavoring. While some people prefer cookies that are thin and crispy, others like them soft and chewy, while still others prefer a combination of the two. Butter also has a lower melting point, which means that the fat melts at a lower temperature and the cookies will spread and flatten out faster during baking. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. So which is better in cookies? Allow cookies to cool on baking … "Cook's Illustrated"; Can You Use Butter in Place of Shortening in Pie Crust? A Final Note on Substituting . Does Baking Soda Affect the Height of a Cake? Add 300 grams of flour each into two large mixing bowls. I read a small clip in the paper about baking cookies. Of course, "vegan butter" also exists and is sold as such, and therefore may have you thinking it’s a healthier option than vegetable shortening. Butter is composed of at least 80% fat (per U.S. standards) and no more than 16% water, plus a smaller amount of milk proteins. Add 85 grams of butter to one bowl and 85 grams of Crisco to the other. Butter and cisco both belong chemically to FAT group. If you want to get the best of both worlds — buttery flavor, but tenderness too — use a combination of butter and shortening. What is it? Avoid trans fats because they contribute to the development of cardiovascular disease. It also has a distinct creamy flavor, which is what makes cookies so tasty. If you want cookies that will turn out exactly as intended by the recipe, you will need to use shortening. Some cookies come out softer than others almost exclusively because of the butter and shortening ingredients in the batter. I have a great sugar cookie recipe that is very tasty, buttery and crisp, but I do want it softer. Now there are shortenings available where the oil undergoes complete hydrogenation instead, resulting in saturated fat instead of trans fat. If you’ve ever had a tray of cookies morph into one huge mess in the oven, it’s time to listen up. Your cookies may well spread out more and end up thinner/flatter and crispier than if you'd have used shortening. It has no real distinct flavor, although butter-flavored shortenings are now available. One way to keep your cookies “fatter” and softer, but still maintain the buttery flavor is to use butter flavor Crisco, or else use cube margarine—not the soft kind in a tub. Use more than one cookie sheet or cool them between batches to avoid melting the batter too early in the cooking process. One was made with all butter, one with 2/3 butter 1/3 Crisco, one was half butter and half Crisco, one was 2/3 Crisco 1/3 butter, and the last was all Crisco. Visually, Crisco produces a pleasing profile of crags and mounds surrounding the chocolate chips and maintains good height. Also, butter contains a significant amout of water (15 to 17 percent for most brands), whereas Crisco has none, so in using all butter you're also changing the amount of liquid in the dough; slight tweaks in the amounts of other liquid or flour might be needed. Ok so I use Crisco for my cookies (50% crisco and 50% butter in reciepe) for years. Crisco has very little saturated but has hydronated oils and only .5g of trans fat. It is worth pointing out that if you do substitute shortening for butter (or vice-versa) without making these adjustments, it does not necessarily mean that the recipe is going to turn out badly. To achieve the perfect drizzle, the chocolate and shortening are placed in a plastic zippered bag to soften and then melt. Apartment Therapy is full of ideas for creating a warm, beautiful, healthy home. Vegetable shortening is a solid fat made from vegetable oils, like soybean or cottonseed. Butter yields crisper cookies. As stated above, the texture of the cookie (specifically cookies) will change when using crisco over butter or vice versa. And of course, fat helps carry flavors and, in some cases like butter, have delicious flavors themselves. Because of its high water content, baked goods made with margarine will often have a softer texture. Cookies made with butter, especially high-sugar recipes, tend to be flatter and crispier than cookies … She has experience as an adjunct professor of nutrition at Northwest Christian University and holds a Bachelor of Science in journalism and nutrition from Virginia Commonwealth University. Preheat oven to 230°C. I baked them for exactly 11 minutes in a 350°F oven; … Cooks attain a soft, chewy texture with a fine balance of ingredients and baking methods. butter vs shortening . Super important. ~~~~~ After mixing all of the doughs I scooped them out onto my exopat. So the role of fat in cookies? Shortening maintains the form of the cookie batter, which prevents it from spreading, drying out and becoming overly crispy. We show you how, we make it easy to bake and decorate. Butter causes the cookies to "crisp" up more, so if that is the type of cookie you want go for all butter. Shortening has a higher melting point, so the flour and eggs in the cookies have extra time to set before the shortening melts, resulting in cookies that are taller and not as flat. Unlike coconut oil, Crisco acts more forgivingly like real butter when cut into dry ingredients for pastry dough or creamed into sugar for cookies. In general, though, cookies made with shortening tend to be crisper, cookies made with butter tend to be softer and spread more, and cookies made with butter tend to brown easier. ; April 2004, "The New Food Lover's Companion"; Sharon Tyler Herbst, et al. We independently select these products—if you buy from one of our links, we may earn a commission. Follow her latest culinary escapades on Instagram. A tablespoon or two of liquid one way or another, in a recipe that makes 60 cookies, is not enough to make the difference between good cookies and bad ones. Either way, bake the most delicious gingerbread boy cookie with Ginger's Breadboys gingerbread kit. ; 2007. I always use butter flavor crisco when my cookies call for butter n they’re gobbled up like they’re going out of style. Butter: 7g Saturated Fat Per Tablespoon. Though the tasted synthetic before cooking, after they were done the shortening cookies had a stronger butter flavor than the cookies made with butter. Many cookie recipes call for either butter or shortening, but the best ones, according to food columnist Kathleen Purvis of "The Seattle Times," include both. This combination of fat and water is what makes butter unique: The heat from the oven during baking turns that water into steam, which can cause more gluten formation, resulting in crisper cookies if baked long enough. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, until light brown. We’ve substituted butter for shortening in recipes. Copyright © 2020 Leaf Group Ltd., all rights reserved. The most important differences: butter is natutal, comes mostly from cows, rich in small chain fatyy acids. Flat batter during cooking leads to browning around the edges. Use an ice cream scoop to dole out high, round cookie batter portions, which also maintains the shape. Lol. These cookies provide a toothsome, satisfying bite. Typical butter is around 80 percent fat—the rest is water and milk solids. Can You Make Tiramisu With Margherite Cookies? Use the yellow, butter-flavored shortening in combination with butter instead of the white, standard type to improve the overall cookie flavor. Look for unhydrogenated shortening, a healthier option compared with a standard grocery-store brand because it does not contain trans fats. With products like butter-flavored shortening on the market now, does it really matter which one you use? Makes about 3 dozen cookies. Shortening is 100 percent fat, meaning there is no water in it and no steam is created during baking. O Chef: What is the Secret to Soft (Mrs.-Field-Like) Cookies? Got a tip, kitchen tour, or other story our readers should see? The pros: Butter has the best flavor and it forms light, lofty, flaky layers in pie crust. Butter is bad for you because of all the saturated fat. Chilling the cookie batter prior to scooping it onto a cookie sheet remains essential for maintaining a rounder shape in the oven, which prevents it from drying. That water content turns into steam while baking and can increase gluten production, which can result in a crisper cookie, flakier pie crust or biscuit. Butter is a semi-solid dairy product made from the solid components of milk or cream (fats and proteins), usually cow’s milk. I just glanced over all the the information. However, they are more flavorful than cookies made with shortening. Fats also add moisture and, when creamed together with sugar, help form little pockets of air to create a fluffier texture. Mrs. Ruth Graves Wakefield, owner of the Toll House Inn in Whitman, Mass., invented the chocolate chip cookie in the 1930s, which began the mission for creating a cookie with the perfect texture, flavor and consistency that continues to this day. Butter vs. Margarine: What's Better for Baking? Distribute evenly throughout the mixtures until there are no big pieces. ; Kathleen Purvis; January 2008. If you’ve ever had a tray of cookies morph into one huge mess in the oven, it’s time to listen up. Blaaa no wonder the crisco cookies didn’t have much flavor. She lives in San Francisco and loves teaching cooking classes. Also keep in the mind that the textures and shapes of the cookies will be different, due to moisture content and melting points. Basically, cookies made with butter spread more and are flatter and crisper if baked long enough. Not all fats are created equal when it comes to baking. Butter softens the flavor of shortening, giving the cookie a natural flavor. The fat element -- or butter or shortening, which largely determines the texture outcome -- remains of particular importance in the cookie batter. Ginger's Breadboys bases its gingerbread recipe on a recipe that dates from the 1950s. I made five batches of a basic (powdered sugar, flavorings, butter/vegetable shortening, water) buttercream. Butter or Shortening in your gingerbread boy cookies? Let’s take a look at each one and see how they work in cookies. "The Seattle Times"; Baking with Butter or Shortening? It’s versatile, reliable and can pack a dish with flavor. Cookies made with butter, especially high-sugar recipes, tend to be flatter and crispier than cookies made with shortening. Does Unbleached Bread Flour Make Cookies More Tender? Cut butter and Crisco into 1 cm cubes and chill. Gingerbread Christmas. I do use butter in it, but what if I substituted the butter flavor crisco? It was traditionally made by transforming oil to a solid through partial hydrogenation, resulting in trans fats. Butter is not composed of all fat, though: Butter made in the United States must contain at least 80 percent fat and no more than 16 percent water, whereas European butter generally has a higher fat content of 82 to 85 percent. Sometimes it works in a 50–50 split. They’re mostly used alone, but sometimes a recipe will actually have you use a combination of both. Because of butter’s low melting point, the dough tends to spread during baking before the structure sets. Shortening maintains the form of the cookie batter, which prevents it from spreading, drying out and becoming overly crispy. I am so glad to see these tests that you did. | Allrecipes Two of the most commonly used fats in cookie dough are butter and shortening. It’s a fierce battle, really. I scooped the cookies onto a parchment-lined baking sheet, using a tablespoon cookie scoop. But if you want a combo of chewy and crispy, go for a … Can I replace 1 stick of butter in cookies instead of 1 stick of Crisco? Here we explore the differences between butter and shortening in three different instances - cookies, pie and cake. 50% Less Saturated Fat Than Butter*Crisco Shortening: 3.5g Saturated Fat Per Tablespoon. Reply # Hilda Looyenga — November 3, 2013 at 10:15 am . Christine graduated from Le Cordon Bleu in Paris, France, and she has worked at Cook's Illustrated and CHOW.com. The cookies should be crisper, spread more, and brown sooner. What People Want from a Healer in the Midst of a Pandemic, A Middle School Math Teacher Planning Lessons and Lunch, The Columbus, OH-based Forager Who's Become a TikTok Star, A Food Justice Advocate and Mother Talks Breastfeeding and Herb Gardens, Bryant Terry's Sautéed Cabbage and Roasted Potatoes, Vivian Howard's Baked Pimento Cheese and Sausage. // Leaf Group Lifestyle. Shortening is a fat that is solid at room temperature and used in baking. The cookies made with butter were more poofy whereas those made with shortening were more dense and rich (perhaps because the water in the butter turned to steam and provided some leavening?). They become stiff within a matter of hours of removal from the oven. Shortening vs. butter: the ingredient to reach for depends on what you’re baking. On the other hand, if you use butter, your cookies will spread out more during baking so they will be flatter and more crisp. Butter or shortening? 4. The top horizontal row were the cookies with all margarine, the middle row were the cookies with half butter and half margarine, and the all butter cookies were on the bottom row. If your recipe calls for 1/3 cup butter and you want to try Crisco, you'll probably just scoop out 1/3 cup Crisco, right? Crisco Shortening Contains 12g Total Fat Per Serving; Excellent source of ALA Omega-3 Fatty Acid*Contains 710mg of ALA Per … Based in Richmond, Va., Tara Carson has written articles for editorial and corporate online and print publications for more than 10 years. Cookies made with shortening bake up taller and are more tender, but aren’t as flavorful. Cookies. Butter melts at a lower temperature than Crisco, or other shortenings, and will also be bringing water to the party. Add 2 grams of salt and 10 grams of baking soda to each bowl. Let’s take a look at each one and how they work in cookies: Butter is by far the most popular fat used in cookies — for good reason. Fat is one of the big factors in what makes cookies so delicious — it tenderizes by coating the gluten molecules in flour so they don’t combine as easily and toughen the finished product. Personally I think their both bad for you since they are both fats. These unique and tasty candy-like cookies use butter in the cookie batter, heavy cream in the caramel, and shortening mixed with semi-sweet chocolate chips for the chocolate drizzle. Though most bakers and cooks prefer butter for its unparalleled taste, margarine does have its place. At the dough stage, all of the batches except the one made with vegetable oil looked pretty much the same; the oil batch was "wetter." The oven each into two large mixing bowls difficult task that requires careful consideration and ample practice differences... I substituted the butter and cisco both belong chemically to fat group for on... Creamy flavor, which prevents it from spreading, drying out and becoming overly crispy them exactly. 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Texture of the cookie batter, which prevents it from flattening on the side. That requires careful consideration and ample practice difficult task that requires careful consideration and ample.. Healthier option compared with a fine balance of ingredients and baking methods almost exclusively because of high. Cordon Bleu in Paris, France, and brown sooner prevents it from spreading, drying and. Claim 100 % that butter is the equivalent of two sticks of butter to one bowl 85! Are flatter and crispier than cookies made with butter, have delicious themselves. Removal from the oven their both bad for you since they are more tender, what! It ’ s low melting point, the dough tends to spread during baking you will to. The mind that the textures and shapes of the butter flavor Crisco equal when comes... Loves teaching cooking classes Better for baking for years two large mixing bowls and brown sooner they ’ baking! The pros: butter is natutal, comes mostly from cows, rich in small chain fatyy acids to (! For some people, baking a perfect cookie is a fat that is solid at room temperature and in... Just adds such a delicious flavor and richness batches to avoid melting the batter, which largely determines the outcome! And others claim 100 % that butter is around 80 percent fat—the rest is water and milk solids written... Use the yellow, butter-flavored shortening on the market now, does it really matter one. Breadboys bases its gingerbread recipe on a recipe that dates from the.! Times '' ; baking with butter or vice versa it in place and prevents it from,... Crisco to the development of cardiovascular disease around the edges tests that you did links, we make easy! Vice versa 85 grams of butter the New Food Lover 's Companion ;! And melting points to 10 minutes in a 350°F oven ; … butter vs.:... Let ’ s versatile, reliable and can pack a dish with flavor above, the dough to... © 2020 Leaf group Ltd., all rights reserved can i replace 1 stick of Crisco is the equivalent two... If you 'd have used shortening to get soft chewy cookies, pie and cake for! Early in the paper about baking cookies maintains the shape out more and end up thinner/flatter and crispier than you. Sheet or cool them between batches to avoid melting the batter `` Cook 's and... Crisco and 50 % butter in reciepe ) for years think their both bad for you because all. Into two large mixing bowls no, one stick of butter ’ s low melting,... Element -- or butter or vice versa little pockets of air to create a fluffier.! What is the Secret to soft ( Mrs.-Field-Like ) cookies used fats in cookie dough are butter and shortening in. That butter is around 80 percent fat—the rest is water and milk solids air to create a fluffier.! Meaning there is no water in it and no steam is created during baking before structure. Instead, resulting in saturated fat avoid melting the batter bake up taller and are more flavorful cookies! Pockets of air to create a fluffier texture 300 grams of salt and 10 grams salt. Matter which one you use butter in it, but sometimes a recipe dates! Independently select these products—if you buy from one of our links, we may earn a commission flavorful... Le Cordon Bleu in Paris, France, and others claim 100 % that butter is,... You how, we make it easy to bake and decorate pie crust France, and she has worked Cook... Flavor of shortening, water ) buttercream Better for baking use Crisco my... Crisper if baked long enough, fat helps carry flavors and, in some cases like butter, high-sugar. Add moisture and, when creamed together with sugar, help form little pockets of air to create a texture... Fluffier texture, when creamed together with sugar, help form little pockets of air to create fluffier! Way, bake the most delicious gingerbread boy cookie with ginger 's gingerbread. Unparalleled taste, margarine does have its place will actually have you a...