CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES, BUTTER VS MARGARINE OR WHAT? - By: Frances Moore

Try experimenting to find which you prefer. Use the same recipe and make several batches of chocolate chip cookies, using a different shortening in each. Test for the taste as well as the appearance and texture. Make each cookie the same size as this will affect how the cookie dough spreads out. Mix one recipe using butter, one for solid shortening, one for butter flavored solid shortening, one for margarine and one a lard recipe; all at room temperature. Check the baked cookies for overall appearance, aroma as well as for taste. Warm cookies have a wonderful flavor but they should also hold that flavor when cooled.

Butter vs margarine is probably the biggest controversy in making chocolate chip cookies. Keep in mind that there is a difference in the water content in various brands of both butter and margarine which could affect the final product. The cookie dough using these two fats is softer than those using the solid shortening. While baking, these cookies will spread a lot and lose their shape. The butter cookies bring out the flavor of the chocolate chips and have an all round better taste than the ones made with the margarine. Butter also makes a softer and chewier cookie.

Years ago lard was used for almost all baking, frying and all round cooking. When pigs were butchered, the fat was rendered into large cans and saved for use in the kitchens. This is still very popular in many countries, especially the South Americans ones. It is delicious used in making pie crusts but does not have the flavor like butter for making chocolate chip cookies and many baked products. Cookies made with a lard recipe will spread more than any other solid shortening, thus loosing the shape.

A solid shortening produces a firm but not dry cookie dough. Chocolate chip cookies made with this shortening will hold its shape better during baking and make a nice appearance when serving on a plate. These cookies have a good taste but are not as good as ones baked with butter. This shortening does nothing for enhancing the flavor of the chocolate chips as butter does. Most seem to think that this fat makes a less palatable cookie than all the other shortenings. Some add that there is a lingering aftertaste.

About the Author

The website http://www.painlesscooking.com is the creation of Frances Peffly Moore, chef and author, with the assistance of daughter, Kelly. It is intended to bring effortless cooking even to the beginner by teaching such basic things as the difference in the various shortenings. http://www.painlesscooking.com/ultimate-chocolate-cake.html

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