IN CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES, SHORTENING DETERMINES FLAVOR AND SHAPE
A good way to find a preference of shortening in chocolate chip cookies is to bake several batches at the same time using different fats. Try two or more of the following shortenings; butter, margarine, lard, solid shortening, butter flavored solid shortening. Keep the recipe identical for each batch and make each cookie the same size. As the cookies bake, notice how much each spreads out and how thin they become. Taste a cookie from each recipe, both while still warm and also when cold. Sip water in between your bites to get an accurate taste. Make notes on the findings which will help decide which fat is preferred.
Many people question which is best to use in chocolate chip cookies; butter vs margarine. This depends on your personal preference of what you like in cookies. Butter produces a chewy and very flavorful cookie. It intensifies the flavor of the chocolate chips. Some think that margarine has a tendency to leave an aftertaste. When mixing the cookie dough, both will be soft to handle. This will vary according to the brands which one chooses to use. Both the butter dough and the margarine dough will spread during baking more so than the solid shortenings.
A noticeably dryer cookie dough is apparent with a lard recipe. During baking as the fat heats up the cookies will spread more than other fats. This fat is great for using in pie dough but does nothing for the flavor or texture of cookies. Many years ago lard use to be a standard fat in all household baking. Because of the controversy over it causing health problems, it has almost been eliminated from the American diet. It is still very commonplace in the kitchens in many other countries.
Try using a solid shortening and a butter flavored solid shortening in chocolate chip cookies. Both produce similar dough but the butter flavored is a little softer. Both fats produce cookies which do not spread as much and are appealing to the eye. The plain solid shortening is good to the taste but does not bring out the flavor of the chocolate chips like butter. Most think the butter flavored shortening is the least tasty of all the fats. Although this has a butter flavor, it does not produce the rich flavor of real butter.
About the Author
Learning the ease of cooking is the purpose of http://www.painlesscooking.com. Teaching such basics as how to know what shortening to use is the intention of Frances Peffly Moore, chef and author and her daughter Kelly.
http://www.painlesscooking.com/chocolate_dessert_recipes.html
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