Is there such thing as a safe shortening? One that isn’t full of transfats?? If anyone knows, please chime in here and point me in the right direction, please???
I have found several pie crust/biscuit/scone recipes that specify shortening. I think you can just substitute equal amounts of butter, but I'm not sure.
a friend of mine was talking about this recently and she said through her reading that rendered lard is better for you than things such as crisco, but since we don't have an ethnic market around here you would probably have to render the lard yourself, which could take some time
Hi Mimi, I read somewhere about using coconut oil (naturally solid at room temp--not hydrogenated, so no trans fat). I have bought some for the shelf, but have not used it yet as I don't really use shortening very often. If you use it for frosting, it is supposed to add a mild coconutty taste. I will see if I can find where I first read about using it. Maybe the blog Volunteer Simplicity?
More on Coconut Oil... Mimi, I Googled 'coconut oil' and a whole slew of info came up. Here is a site for the brand that I bought at my health food store: http://www.spectrumorganics.com/
Another site here has links to just about everything you care to know about it...click on thier 'research' link in the left column: http://www.coconut-info.com/
BTW, the 'Choosing Voluntary Simplicity' blog apparently was not the place I was thinking of, but I really like the blog...excellent reading!
Butter should work just fine. You can also find margarine that is made from all olive oil which works very well in all kinds of baking. You can even make a lot of things just using olive oil.
Comments
I read somewhere about using coconut oil (naturally solid at room temp--not hydrogenated, so no trans fat). I have bought some for the shelf, but have not used it yet as I don't really use shortening very often. If you use it for frosting, it is supposed to add a mild coconutty taste. I will see if I can find where I first read about using it. Maybe the blog Volunteer Simplicity?
Mimi, I Googled 'coconut oil' and a whole slew of info came up. Here is a site for the brand that I bought at my health food store:
http://www.spectrumorganics.com/
Another site here has links to just about everything you care to know about it...click on thier 'research' link in the left column:
http://www.coconut-info.com/
BTW, the 'Choosing Voluntary Simplicity' blog apparently was not the place I was thinking of, but I really like the blog...excellent reading!
Butter should work just fine. You can also find margarine that is made from all olive oil which works very well in all kinds of baking. You can even make a lot of things just using olive oil.
Sammie