When we think shortening it’s Crisco that comes to mind, but it’s just one of several options. Do you know the rest?
Shortening is a very important ingredient in a baker’s pantry. It’s what makes many shortbread recipes short, pie dough recipes flaky and biscuits tender. The how and why are explained below, along with info on all the types of shortening, not just the white kind.
The definition of shortening is any fat that is solid at room temperature. The list isn’t all that long, and you’re probably familiar with most of them. Lard, margarine and vegetable shortening such as Crisco are the most well known and most called for in recipes. Because butter is up to 20% water, it isn’t the best shortening out there, but in some recipes, it is used as shortening. Shortening’s job is to make doughs short. What exactly does that mean? Read on.
A wooden rolling pin rolls the dough sprinkled with flour. Homemade cake. Butter dough. Space for text. Mistress in the kitchen.
The term “shortening” technically refers to any type of fat that is solid at room temperature, including butter, margarine, and lard. Shortening can be made from either animal fat or vegetable oil, but most shortening available today is made from vegetable oils like soybean, cottonseed, or palm oil.
What Is a Vegetable Shortening Substitute?
There are vegetable and non-vegetable substitutes for vegetable shortening. All of them should be chilled before using to maintain their firmness.
On the vegetarian side, you can choose from coconut oil and dairy-free margarine for instances where you need a shortening that is solid at room temperature for pie crust, biscuits, cakes and cookies.
On the animal fat side of the list, your best options are butter and lard. Both will work when chilled, as that keeps the right consistency to cut into flour when making a pie crust.
Classic 100, Pumpkin Pie
Pre-baking the pie shell is one of the reasons this is The Best Pumpkin Pie (no soggy bottoms here), and heavy cream in the custard is another.
Best Pie Crust for Lattices
This may be the best pie dough recipe for any pie, not just a lattice. The butter-shortening combo gives you the best of both worlds.
FNK Peanut Butter Magic Shell
Matt Armendariz, 2014, Television Food Network, G.P. All Rights Reserved
This peanut butter topper for ice cream sets up and hardens just like the chocolate version. We think both at once would be excellent.
Food Network Kitchens Vegan Apple Pie For Vegan and Vegetarian Thanksgiving as seen on Food Network
Stephen Johnson, 2014, Television Food Network, G.P. All Rights Reserved.
The crust for this pie is made with coconut oil, but vegetable shortening can stand in if you don’t have any.
Classic Shortbread cookie shaped like a pizza slice
Hearst Communications Inc., 2009 Karl Juengel/Studio D Food Styling: Stephana
This recipe uses the creaming method to blend the butter and sugars together before the flour is mixed in. Use a spatula or a spoon to mix the flour, not the mixer, so you dont develop gluten.
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What Is Shortening In Baking?
Dough is referred to as short when the fat worked into the flour prevents long strands of gluten from forming as the dough is handled. Think about how crumbly and melty shortbread cookies are. They practically melt in your mouth, and if you break one with your fingers it will crumble. Theyre pretty much the opposite in texture from chewy bread, which does contain long strands of gluten, and is referred to as a long dough.
Pork fat in wooden plate, top view
Shortening plays an important role in many pie crusts, making them extra flaky. Fats purpose in pie dough is to separate flour and water into layers. The longer the solid fat is there, holding apart the matrix, the more air pockets – which we perceive as flakiness – form. Shortening stays solid longer than butter because it has a higher melting point.
Baker icing a cake. Kyoto, Japan. May 2016
For pie crusts: Butter and shortening each have their own benefits.
It’s butter for the win if you’re looking for flavor. Butter yields a tender, flaky crust too. But its not the best for making cut-outs and decorations because when the butter melts into the flour as it bakes, it softens and the crust “slumps’.
Shortening will give you a sturdier, flakier pie crust than butter, but vegetable shortening has no flavor. None. Zero. Zip. If you’re after flakiness and sturdiness in your crust (what you need for a custard pie such as pumpkin or pean), vegetable shortening is the better option.
For cookies and cakes: vegetable shortening and sugar can be creamed together, but the water in butter definitely helps that process along. And we keep coming back to flavor. For frosting, there are recipes that use only vegetable shortening, clear vanilla and confectioners’ sugar because they are looking for the absolute whitest frosting they can get. The visual appeal is understandable, but the flavor is, shall we say, lacking.
WTF is shortening?
FAQ
What is the main ingredient in shortening?
Is Crisco shortening bad for you?
Which is healthier butter or shortening?
What is Crisco shortening made out of?
What is shortening in baking?
What Is Shortening? Shortening, by definition, is any fat that is solid at room temperature and used in baking. This actually includes a few things that you may have thought were definitely not shortening before–like lard, and margarine, and hydrogenated vegetable oils, for instance. Shortening helps give baked goods a delicate, crumbly texture.
What is a shortening used for?
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.
What is vegetable shortening made of?
Though it varies by brand, most modern vegetable shortening is made with hydrogenated palm, soybean, and vegetable oils. There are four types of shortening: solid, liquid, all-purpose, and cake or icing shortening. Solid is sold in either a can or similar to butter as “baking sticks” and is best used in pie crusts, pastries, and bread recipes.
How are hydrogenated shortenings made?
Hydrogenated shortenings are made by adding hydrogen gas to heated oil, producing firmness. Tub of margarine. Margarines are emulsions containing about 80 percent fat, from either animal or vegetable sources, plus water, salt, emulsifiers, and sometimes milk solids.