BUTTER, MARGARINE, OR SHORTENING
Most people don’t have a clue what makes a cookie crumble. People love to eat them, but all too often their ideas about why one cookie is crisp and another is dry are pretty half-baked. `All cookies begin with dough with the exception of macaroons, meringues, madelines, unbaked cookies or cake-like cookies. They begin with batters.
Understanding how each ingredient affects the dough is the first defense against cookie catastrophes. It is also the best guarantee that your cookies will emerge like a county fair winner.
Butter, margarine, unsalted butter, solid shortening or lard is generally called for in a cookie recipe. Usually they are interchangeable but each produces slightly different results. Butter improves a cookie’s flavor, and margarine improves its texture. Solid shortening creates soft, spongy cookies that stay soft for a long time but have little taste. Lard creates flaky, slightly dry-texture cookies. Butter cookies tend to burn easier and have a crisper texture. If they are baked at too high a temperature they will develop a greasy film on the bottom.
Many cookies have a combination of both butter and margarine which produces the best of both worlds. Margarine makes the cookie hold its shape, and butter gives it that distinctive flavor.
Most recipes tell you to cream the butter, margarine or shortening. This softens it and beats in air so that the cookie is lighter and fluffier.
There is a danger of overbeating, however — especially in warm, humid weather. If the fat becomes too warm and soft, the dough loses its airiness and becomes greasy. The baked cookies are flat and flabby.
To avoid overbeating, the fat should be chilled before beginning to mix the dough. Chilling the dough before the cookies are formed and baked also helps them retain their shape.
Avoid baking with shipped or diet margarine and whipped butter because they contain a high amount of water. Never substitute liquid fat for solid fat. It just doesn’t work!!!
Part one of 6
Watch for next tip!Gogi