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What is shortening in baking? Shortening is a fat that’s solid at room temperature - like Crisco or other hydrogenated vegetable oils.. Shortening can sometimes also mean butter or lard, since both of these ingredients serve the same purpose in a baking recipe. However, conventional wisdom is that if a recipe calls for shortening it refers to hydrogenated vegetable oil. Since butter, lard ...
- What Is Shortening?
- Varieties
- Shortening Uses
- How to Cook and Bake with Shortening
- What Does It Taste like?
- Shortening Substitutes
- Shortening Recipes
- Where to Buy Shortening
- Storage
Vegetable shortening, or hydrogenated vegetable oil, was created in the early 1900s as a soap product before it was found to be useful in cooking. Prior to this, lard was the primary fat that went by the name shortening, which came about because of how it "shortens" or cuts through the dough. Popular brands, such as Crisco (short for "crystallized ...
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. Liquid shortening is ideal in recipes calling for melted shortening, like cakes, and is convenient when deep-frying; it is co...
Shortening has its place in both cooking and baking recipes. In order to understand how shortening is used in baking, it is necessary to understand how gluten works. Gluten creates a gummy or chewy end product, which is desired in elastic "long" doughs, such as pizza crust, but not in flaky or crumbly "short" doughs like pie crust. When shortening ...
In order to create a shortening effect in dough, a solid fat is “cut” into flour or a dry flour mixture. This can be accomplished with a pastry cutter, two knives, a food processor, or even your hands. The fat is repeatedly cut into smaller pieces and coated in flour. The final size of the pieces will determine the final texture of the baked good. ...
Unlike butter or lard, vegetable shortening has a neutral flavor, unless butter-flavored shortening is being used. This makes it useful for applications where strong fat flavors are not desired.
There are quite a few substitutes for shortening. Lard, what was originally shortening before hydrogenated vegetable shortening was invented, is the best option for producing flaky results. It should be used in lesser amounts, however, removing 2 tablespoons from every cup for 1 cup of shortening. Butter and margarine can be used in the same amount...
Shortening is often on the ingredient list in certain traditional Southern recipes, like fried chickenand flaky biscuits, and is the key to perfect pie crust and tender sugar cookies. 1. Nevaditos: Spanish Powdered Sugar Cookies 2. Easy Cornmeal Biscuits 3. Brown Sugar Pecan Pie
Vegetable shortening will be found next to the cooking oils at the grocery store. For specific organic brands, a health food store or online is a better bet.
Shortening has a long shelf life; its low moisture level delays rancidity and increases the stability of the fat, allowing it to be used repeatedly with less degradation. Unopened, vegetable shortening can last for up to two years; once opened, it will stay at its peak for about a year. It should be stored in a cool, dark place and requires no refr...
- Bethany Moncel
The fats and oils break down the gluten into “shorter strands” hence the term shorteners. Coating the flour in fat prevents the flour from absorbing water hindering the formation of gluten. If too much gluten developed, the food would be stretchy and elastic. Shortening is used in most doughs and batters, to give the baked product a crisp ...
Aug 17, 2023 · The URL shortener generates a unique identifier for this long URL. This identifier is usually a random series of characters – known as an alias or hash – but some shortening services let you choose the identifier or even use a personalized vanity domain. The URL shortener combines its domain name with the unique identifier to create a new ...
Feb 19, 2018 · 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.
Sep 29, 2021 · 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 ...
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Shortening is the combination of fat with flour used to make pastry or biscuits. The proportions of fat are usually half that of the flour for example 100g baking fat to 200g flour as in shortcrust pastry. The technique used to combine the fat into the flour is the rubbing-in method. When learning to cook this is done by hand but it can also be ...
