shortening
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What is shortening in cooking?
In cooking, shortening refers to fats and oils that add a crisp and crumbly texture to baked goods and increase the plasticity of doughs. Common shortenings include butter, lard, vegetable oils, processed shortenings, and margarine.
Shortenings weaken and lubricate the structure of baked products to produce tenderness. The proportion of shortening varies, with breads and rolls containing 1β2%, cakes 10β20%, and pie crusts over 30%. While increasing shortening makes products more tender, too much can cause cakes to fall. Commercial shortenings may have added ingredients, such as antioxidants that retard rancidity and emulsifiers to improve the shortening effect.
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How is shortening different from butter or oil?
Shortening, butter, and oil are all fats used in baking, but they differ in origin and composition. Shortening is typically processed vegetable oils, while butter is a dairy product. Oils are 100% fat and liquid at room temperature, while shortening is solid and smooth. Butter has a sweet flavor and aroma, but it's more perishable and costly. The proportion of shortening affects tenderness, with breads/rolls at 1β2%, cakes at 10β20%, and pie crusts over 30%.
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What types of foods are commonly made with shortening?
Shortening is used in many doughs and batters to create a tender, crumbly texture in baked goods. It increases the plasticity, or workability, of doughs.
Foods commonly made with shortening:
* Breads and rolls
* Cakes
* Pastries
* Pie crusts
* Cookies and crackersThe proportion of shortening varies, with breads and rolls containing around 1β2%, cakes containing 10β20%, and pie crusts containing over 30%. The type of shortening used also affects the final product. For example, firm fats produce flaky pastry, while oils yield more compact pastry.
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Why do bakers use shortening in recipes?
Bakers use shortening in recipes to give baked goods a tender, crumbly texture and to make doughs more workable. Shortenings have a tenderizing effect on the finished product, aid in the manipulation of doughs, modify the mouthfeel or texture, add flavor, and round off harsh notes from spices.
The proportion of shortening varies depending on the product. Breads and rolls usually have only 1β2%, cakes have 10β20%, and pie crusts contain over 30%. Commercial shortenings may also have added ingredients such as antioxidants to prevent rancidity and emulsifiers to improve the shortening effect. They may also include artificial colors and flavors that simulate butter.
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How does shortening affect the texture of baked goods?
Shortening, including fats and oils from animals or vegetables, is a key ingredient in baked goods. It makes the texture of these products crumbly and crisp and makes doughs more workable.
Different types of shortening affect texture in different ways. Solid fats yield flaky pastries, while oils create more compact ones. The amount of shortening also matters; more shortening increases tenderness, but too much can make cakes collapse.
Commercial shortenings often have additives like emulsifiers, which improve their shortening effect, and antioxidants, which prevent spoiling. Some also include artificial colors and flavors that mimic butter.
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What are some health considerations when using shortening?
When using shortening, it's important to consider the potential health implications, mainly related to trans fats and saturated fats. Shortening often contains trans fats, which have been linked to an increased risk of heart disease and type II diabetes. Trans fats can raise levels of LDL (bad) cholesterol and lower levels of HDL (good) cholesterol, increasing the risk of fat accumulation in blood vessels, which can lead to atherosclerosis, heart disease, and stroke.
Saturated fats, also found in some shortenings like butter, lard, coconut oil, and palm kernel oil, can also raise LDL cholesterol levels and lower HDL cholesterol levels. It is advisable to check nutrition labels for trans fat content and consider using alternatives.
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shortening, fats and oils of animal or vegetable origin used in most doughs and batters to impart crisp and crumbly texture to baked products and to increase the plasticity, or workability, of doughs. Important commercial shortenings include butter, lard, vegetable oils, processed shortenings, and margarine. For most baking purposes, desirable characteristics include bland or pleasant flavour; freedom from objectionable odour; light or clear colour; a high degree of plasticity; long storage life; and good shortening power, or ability to weaken and lubricate the structure of baked products to produce tenderness. Firm fats produce flaky pastry; oils yield more compact pastry. The proportion of shortening in doughs and batters varies according to the product, with breads and rolls containing about 1β2 percent, cakes containing 10β20 percent, and piecrusts containing over 30 percent. Increasing shortening proportions increases tenderness, but very high proportions may cause cakes to fall.
Butter, with yellow colour, solid consistency, and about 80 percent fat content, is valued for its sweet flavour, pleasant aroma, and ability to contribute great tenderness to baked products. It is popular for specialty breads, cookies, and pastries and is rolled into doughs from which flaky and tender pastries, such as Danish pastry and puff-paste products, are made. Because of its high cost, it is used, alone or in shortening mixtures, mainly in higher-priced baked goods. It is fairly perishable, requiring storage at low temperature, and is not easily creamed (blended with sugar), producing cakes with lower volume and coarser grain than those made with more easily creamed shortenings.
Lard, obtained from the fatty tissue of hogs, has solid consistency, white colour, about 98 percent fat content, and mild, pleasing flavour and odour considered desirable in breads, crackers, cookies (sweet biscuits), and piecrusts.
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Vegetable oils, obtained from such oil-bearing seeds as corn (maize), cottonseed, peanuts, palm nuts (coconuts), and soybeans, are 100 percent fat and remain liquid at fairly low temperatures. They are processed to achieve neutral to yellow colour and to eliminate odour or produce mild odour. Oils are used mainly in rolls, breads, and other fairly hard baked goods and in chiffon and other cakes in which their liquid consistency is useful.
Processed shortenings, suitable for most baking purposes, are usually vegetable oils treated to produce an odourless white shortening, 100 percent fat, with solid, smooth consistency and good plasticity. They may have added ingredients to retard rancidity and to encourage moisture absorbency and retention. Hydrogenated shortenings are made by adding hydrogen gas to heated oil, producing firmness.
Margarines are emulsions containing about 80 percent fat, from either animal or vegetable sources, plus water, salt, emulsifiers, and sometimes milk solids. They are white to yellow in colour, with neutral or butterlike flavour and solid consistency. Margarine has a high melting point, produces tender products, and is especially popular for use in puff pastes.