Can I Substitute Butter for Shortening in Baking

How to Substitute Butter for Shortening When Blistering

If you've always wondered, "If a baking recipe calls for shortening, can I use butter or margarine instead?" you're not alone. Here yous'll discover our Test Kitchen's best tips for replacing shortening with butter when y'all're in a pinch.

Then your sugariness molar is calling and information technology'due south fourth dimension for a baking therapy session. You start gathering your ingredients and baking tools just to discover you don't have any shortening to make the classic peanut butter cookies you're craving. Don't worry, there'due south a shortening substitute likely already in your fridge: butter. Whether you ran out of shortening or butter, want to use upwards a package, or but prefer the texture or flavour of ane over the other you tin substitute butter for shortening and shortening for butter in your baked goods. Our Better Homes & Gardens Test Kitchen has tested hundreds of recipes using both of these baking ingredient substitutions. Fats and oils add flavor and contribute to the texture of baked goods, but they do work a bit differently. Here's what you need to know when using butter instead of shortening when blistering.

Credit: Kritsada Panichgul

How to Substitute Butter for Shortening

In full general, you tin can utilize a one:1 ratio when substituting butter in identify of shortening. Making this substitution may slightly alter the texture of your broiled appurtenances. Why? Shortening is solid, 100% fat. Butter is most 85% fat and xv% h2o. This additional liquid may change the consistency of the sweets you bake.

Examination Kitchen Tip: Considering margarine and buttery spreads incorporate water, this reduces the fat in your recipe. At that place's no guarantee using margarine as a substitute for shortening or butter will yield desirable results.

What differences will you see in your baked goods if y'all utilize butter instead of shortening?

These are the virtually common differences y'all'll notice if baking with butter instead of shortening.

• Cookies fabricated with butter or margarine may exist softer and spread a lilliputian more. Cookies made with butter are usually crisper than chewy cookies fabricated with shortening, but the flavor is richer with butter. Then if you need a substitute for shortening in cookies, a one-to-one butter bandy will work groovy.
• In cakes and breads, the substitution is rarely noticeable when using shortening vs. butter. You shouldn't have any upshot when substituting butter for shortening here.
• Piecrust made with butter or margarine volition not be as flaky as one made with shortening. If you're a fan of flaky, you may not want to substitute butter for shortening in pie crust. See our tips for making an all-butter piecrust if y'all're attack using it.

How to Substitute Shortening for Butter

On the rare occasion that you run out of butter (how could y'all allow this happen?!), shortening with a little table salt makes an first-class fat exchange. Calculation the optional salt will give you more of a salted butter result than unsalted butter.

If a recipe calls for:

• i cup butter use 1 cup shortening plus, if desired, ¼ tsp. salt
• ½ cup butter utilise ½ loving cup shortening plus, if desired, ⅛ tsp. salt
• ¼ cup butter use ¼ cup shortening plus, if desired a nuance of salt

Test Kitchen Tip: If you've got open packages of both shortening and butter, you tin can utilize a combination of the 2 in your baking. Just combine to mensurate the amount called for in your recipe.

Now that yous know you lot'll be set to go if yous're in a bind and need to swap butter for shortening, you can go on practicing your blistering skills with less worry. Get a headstart on your vacation baking with some freezer-friendly cookies. Or to see both butter and shortening piece of work their magic together, endeavour our best-ever chocolate chip cookies.

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Source: https://www.bhg.com/recipes/how-to/bake/how-to-substitute-butter-for-shortening-when-baking/

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