Ask the Test Kitchen
Many of my older recipes for cakes and cookies call for shortening. It appears that nowadays’s recipes use mostly butter or margarine. Can those be substituted for shortening? What adjustments will I observe in taste and texture? —R.M., Wyoming, MichiganYes, butter or stick margarine can be substituted for shortening in same proportions in cake and cookie recipes. Most oldsters choose butter due to the tremendous flavor it imparts. However, you can assume a few changes in the feel of your baked goods. Cookies made with butter can have a darker color and tend to unfold out greater as they bake. Using part butter and element shortening will help cookies preserve their shape. Cakes made with butter may be as light and tender as those made with shortening…if the butter and sugar are creamed properly. During the creaming procedure, the sugar and butter are beaten together to contain air bubbles into the fat, which facilitates to make the cake texture light.For great effects, start with butter at room temperature (65°). The bowl and beaters have to be cool to save you the butter from turning into too heat as you beat it. Before you start, it’s a great idea to rinse both the bowl and the beaters in ice water. Cream the butter and sugar for 4 to five mins until the combination is mild and fluffy, once in a while scraping down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula.
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