Why bake with butter?

Because butter rules and is so very delightfully buttery?

My sister uses butter in cookie dough, rather than Crisco. She feels better when she eats the dough, knowing it’s not Crisco, it’s butter.

For me it’s because of the taste. I’m interested in ‘satisfyingly fatty’ though.

Mostly I think it is habit and tradition. Recipes that have been handed down usually have butter. Maybe because 100 years ago butter was more accessible? Not sure. Somehow I think from local farms you could get butter easier than corn oil or other veg oils. Lard (people still use lard for pie crusts also) would also be more accessible. Just a guess.

I use margarine in most cookies and cakes. Some cakes and brownies I use oil, usually corn oil, and sometimes I cut the oil in half and use apple sauce. I do use butter most of the time for icing, I think the flavor is much better.

I think most people feel butter is “real” or preferred for baking, simply because they are under the impression it is a better, meaning higher end, ingredient. Crisco is looked diwn on, and now with all the press on hydrogenated and saturated fats Crisco and margarine or looked down upon. I have bad genes for cholesterol and I know for a fact my cholesterol is much lower eating margarine over butter, but I digress.

Also, oil would not work well in pie crusts, you need the fat to be solid to get the flakiness.

For the reasons you mentioned – most people seem to prefer the taste and texture of goods baked with butter. I don’t remember the last time I substituted with an oil, but margarine contains water, so it changes the ratio of ingredients and a cookie, for example, would spread out and not be cakey enough for my liking.

Everything in moderation. I’ve found no better substitute for butter.

don’t make me get all Paula Deen on your ass now. ;)

@sarahtalkpretty Stick margarine does not change the ratios.

@JLeslie well, why not? It contains water, doesn’t it?

@JLeslie I bake cookies quite a bit. If I ever substitute butter with margarine, the cookies end up flat. Cookies make with butter usually end up thicker (as long as you don’t let the butter get too soft).

@JLeslie It’s not a matter of tradition for me. I simply prefer butter. I like butter. It is one of my vices, one of my pleasures, and life with butter is better than life without butter in my opinion. Butter tastes better to me and I get better results when I use butter for the things I use it for. I’m a butter person and that’s that. Ya’ll will get my butter when you tear it from my cold, dead hands.

@sarahtalkpretty The smallest amount. Butter comes in different fat percentages, has some liquid parts. Ever try Danish butter, now that is butter. I assume it has a higher fat content than American. Butter in America is about 85% fat I think, the rest is liquids.

@lillycoyote Sure, I was not purposely leaving out that many people prefer the taste of butter. I should have mentioned it. Some margarines and other butter substitutes ate just awful. I grew up on margarine and still mostly use margarine, and I cannot stand when something tastes like fake butter. Can’t explain it. Kind of like the popcorn butter flavor in baked goods. Blech.

Oh, they use that fake tasting stuff a lot on bread for sandwiches in fast food type places, really really disgusting. I am pissed anything is put on the bread to begin with.

Butter just seems more real, somehow.

See, there is the “real” I was talking about. Thanks @Nullo.

I agree with butter just seeming more “real”. Crisco makes me gag just looking at it, no way I could put it in my baked goods. But also, for example, with cookies, you want to beat the butter into the sugars and make it that nice thick “whipped” consistency, you don’t get that if you use oils. I think the taste is the best possible and….it’s BUTTER. God, I want to eat it by the stick (the thought of it is more appealing than doing the actual thing.) And if I’m making a cake, I don’t really care that butter makes it fattier or whatever. It’s already bad for me….just enjoy it and go the real route, that’s my train of thought anyway.

@deni The butter does not really make it fattier, it most likely will give it more saturated fat compared to liquid oil and definitely more cholesterol (oil does not have any cholesterol) but the calories will be the same or extremely close, and the total fat will bebthe same or extremely close. So, it just depends which thing you worry about if you worry.

PLEASE could you come over and visit with some of these!! amazing!

@JLeslie Better just to not worry at all then!

@deni For me it is a worry because I have very high cholesterol when I don’t watch what I eat and people on both sides of my family have heart disease, and many die very young. But, some people eat whatever cholesterol they want and never have a problem.

Fats contribute four qualities to baked goods:

Shortness- Fats interfere with the tendency of gluten in the flour to form a tough network of protein strands, so it makes the baked product crumble better in the mouth (a dough that crumbles easily is called “short”). Any fat will do this just as well.

Structure- Fats can affect the physical structure of the dough. @deni mentioned one common way: beating semi-solid fats with sugar is a common way of getting air into a dough or batter, where it lightens the structure of the dough. Another structural contribution is flakiness; when a semi-solid fat is not blended completely in the dough, so that some lumps of fat remain, these will create a stratified structure when the dough is rolled out. This creates the flakiness we value in some doughs. This can be exaggerated spectacularly by actually enveloping the fat in the dough and rolling and folding it multiple times to create puff pastry. For all of these purposes, the fat has to be in a semi-solid state. That means butter, or vegetable shortening (Crisco), or margarine. Oil won’t do it.

Mouth feel- This applies mostly to cake batters. The more fat a batter contains, the moister it will feel in the mouth. But there’s a trade-off: the extra fat will also tend to break down egg foams (beaten eggs or egg whites), so high-fat batters will tend to be denser. Oil actually does this best, since it doesn’t try to solidify at room temperatures like butter or shortening do (this makes the cake feel dry until your body heat melts the fat). This is why things like carrot cake use a whole lot of oil.

Flavor- Here, butter is the hands-down winner. But there’s butter and then there’s butter. Frankly, most American butters are insipid. Most European butters are made from richer-tasting cream. Some french butters are so exceptional that their provenance is legally protected. Butters of that quality, in a recipe that highlights butter (like pound cake or shortbread), make a tremendous difference. Americans really don’t know what they’re missing out on with our piss poor butter. You can actually find french butter in some upscale markets; when I’m making a pastry I really care about, I’ll spring for the good stuff.

@thorninmud Have your tried Lurpak butter? I think it is very good and easily found in many supermarkets in the US.

@JLeslie I’ve seen it but never tried it. I’ll give it a whirl.

Let me know what you think.

Sigh. I don’t think any of you get it. Ah, oh well.

Also, Crisco, is disgusting. I would never buy it or bake it with.

@La_chica_gomela Don’t get what?