Benefits of baking with butter
- Butter has its own pleasant taste that enhances the flavor of other ingredients.
- Butter is the fat that melts closest to body temperature, so you are least likely to experience a greasy feeling when it melts in your mouth.
Temperature
Understanding how temperature affects butter is the key to consistent results in the kitchen. Fats, like butter, react physically to slight changes in temperature, which can have unintended consequences. It is important to know these properties when working with butter.
- Butter has a low melting point close to 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit
- “Softened” generally refers to butter at room temperature, which is normally about 65-70 degrees Fahrenheit
- Butter that is too warm will mix into the dough, and make it impossible to create flaky consistencies as you’d prefer for danish or croissants
- Butter that is too cold will prevent it from blending with the flour, which may be your intention in some instances (like cookie dough), and it can also make it too firm to be easily worked into the flour
Unsalted versus Salted Butter
It’s all comes down to one factor. Do you need to be able to repeat the recipe precisely, or are you okay with varying results?
Unsalted butter has many benefits:
- The amount of salt in butter varies widely between manufactures, which can change your results
- Using unsalted butter allows you to measure exactly how much salt you add to a recipe
Fat Content
Legally, for butter to be called “butter” it must have 80% butterfat and 20% water. Premium butters tend to have around 86% butterfat and are partially cultured, or fermented to give them an even richer taste. Anything with less than 80% butterfat has to be called a spread (this would include margarine and other soft tub butters).
Butter Alternatives
Margarine - does not perform as well as butter and it lacks butter’s flavor and pleasant texture. Some margarine will leave an unpleasant aftertaste in the finished product. For example, cookies may taste “fishy” when done.
Shortening – commonly known as Crisco, shortening is 100% fat, made from partially hydrogenated vegetable oil (often soy) or animal fat. Shortening has a higher melting point, so cookies often call for it because the dough will rise and set before it melts (thereby preventing spreading). However, completely replacing your butter with shortening will cause the taste to suffer (since butter adds flavor).
Unsaturated oils – canola, vegetable, olive, and other oils are generally healthier, but are hard to work with particularly with respect to cookies. Oils are 100% liquid fats that come from vegetable, seeds, or nuts. Cookie dough made with oil tends to be soft and difficult to handle. It has a lower melting point, which can produce flat greasy cookies.
Get more baking tips at Aloha Spirit Bakery.
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