Would a cheap person ever use shortening in place of butter for chocolate chip cookies?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are lots of baking recipes that substitute shortening, do a mix of shortening and butter, or use oil or another fat, in lieu of butter. There are lots of reasons someone might do that, from the cost of butter to wanting to experiment to simply being short on something needing to use a substitute.

You are loading a TON of obnoxious judgment into your assessment of free cookies though. Maybe now that I have answered your question for you, we should use this thread to "sus out" what psychological damage or impairment is causing you to do this.

Using shortening or margarine sticks instead of butter in cookies is being a cheapskate.

bs

You know nothing about baking. There are specific advantages to shortening. People who bake know this. To assume it's about cheapness is just stupid. I make certain cookies with shortening and you wouldn't know it. I'd bet she didn't have enough butter or maybe her butter was a bit rancid. If you leave it sitting out too long to soften it can affect the taste.

What kind of person would assume this? Tell us more about yourself op.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Could using or using too much non-stick spray like Pam cause this?

Yes. The other spray that bakers use, I can't remember what it is called - something like Baker's Joy or whatever has a strong awful flavor that permeates everything. It is safe to use on non stick baking sheets and molds. You're not supposed to use pam on non stick baking trays. If it is Baker's Joy op, know that it is expensive. And awful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You can often pin a recipe in a time or place based on the ingredients. So when people have beloved family recipes passed down they might have different ingredients based on what was available/expensive.

For example a lot of carrot cake recipes still call for vegetable oil because they were created during or after WWII.

Clearly I’m someone who likes to think about these things but I would not assume it has anything to do with money since it would save very little overall.

Using vegetable oil will ensure your cake stays moist if you do all the other things right. It's assumed using butter will taste better. I often find it hard to tell the difference. High butter recipes often feel greasy to me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Everyone who bakes knows that they make butter flavored shortening. My MIL made all her cookies with it and the kids have a hard time saying that they like ones made with butter better. So much so that I was going to try her recipe this past Xmas with the butter flavored Crisco sticks but they were all sold out. So everyone ate the ones made with butter instead.

Honestly, I think that they come out a bit less flat with the shortening vs the butter but that could just be me.

It's not about flavor, butter is healthier and expensive, while Crisco is cheap, unnatural and makes you unhealthy.

Any fat that is solid at room temperature is horrible for you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The baker could have used browned butter. This method has become trendy.

Brown butter makes a heavenly cookie. That isn't what op described.

[Anonymous]

OP, you are absolutely ridiculous. It could be she used butter that had gone off for all you know. If you don't bake, you won't be able to pinpoint it from lack of knowledge.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are lots of baking recipes that substitute shortening, do a mix of shortening and butter, or use oil or another fat, in lieu of butter. There are lots of reasons someone might do that, from the cost of butter to wanting to experiment to simply being short on something needing to use a substitute.

You are loading a TON of obnoxious judgment into your assessment of free cookies though. Maybe now that I have answered your question for you, we should use this thread to "sus out" what psychological damage or impairment is causing you to do this.

Using shortening or margarine sticks instead of butter in cookies is being a cheapskate.

bs

You know nothing about baking. There are specific advantages to shortening. People who bake know this. To assume it's about cheapness is just stupid. I make certain cookies with shortening and you wouldn't know it. I'd bet she didn't have enough butter or maybe her butter was a bit rancid. If you leave it sitting out too long to soften it can affect the taste.

She probably used monkfruit instead of sugar.
What kind of person would assume this? Tell us more about yourself op.

[Anonymous]

Yes. I am in several Facebook groups for cookie decorating and many/most members are professionals. And by professionals, I mean people who sell custom royal icing cookies out of their home.

Butter has gone from $2-2.50/lb to $8-9/lb in some places over the last year. It’s $4-5/lb for Costco brand locally. I’ve read of people switching to Aldi margarine because the profit margin on custom cookies was slim before ingredients doubled.

Guess #2 - flax egg or egg beater instead of real egg because real eggs are hard to get right now.

Guess #3 - artificial vanilla extract

Guess #4 - old, poorly stored chocolate that took on the taste of something else in the cabinet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:LOL, you guys are so precious about your butter. Excellent bakers know when butter is the ingredient and when shortening is better, due to water and solids content, not to mention how it act with the other ingredients

This, which is why it's ridiculous to see all these people who don't bake acting like butter is the expensive, high end ingredient. It's comical. I have shortbread cookies I make with olive oil (and rosemary and chocolate), and since you can really taste the olive oil, I use the expensive stuff I buy from the specialty Italian store instead of the giant bottle of California olive oil I buy at the grocery store. But there are lots of other recipes I make using vegetable oil or shortening because they give a better texture. Many recipes work better with shortening because it is more stable during cooking. Still other recipes, I will melt the butter before incorporating into the batter, rather than creaming with the sugar. For pastry, I sometimes use shortening because of the challenges of working butter into a dough when my kitchen is hot. Shortening doesn't get hard like butter when it's cold, but it also doesn't melt when it's warm, making it an easier option if I'm making pie crusts in July or at the same time as I'm baking something in the oven at 500 degrees making my kitchen run hot. I like having options.

It's such a DCUM thing to be like "ew Crisco, don't poor people use that? it must be bad." It's ignorant and elitist, and therefore perfectly on brand.

1. Sometimes shortening is the correct ingredient for a recipe/ climate / technique - but 99/100 that is not true for chocolate chip cookies
2. Some of us who grew up in working class or poor households saw our moms and grandmothers bake almost exclusively with shortening or margarine - and it was purely about cost and shelf stability - not some superior knowledge of pastry technique.
3. If you really bake a lot, you would know how butter has more than doubled in price over the last 6-8 months. So currently it is a “high end” ingredient. High enough that a less experienced baker may swap butter Crisco or margarine for a recipe developed for butter.

Your superior baking snobbery is also very on brand DCUM ridiculousness.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Did they have a grainy textureL if yes then it’s a gluten free flour. The artificial test is probably stevia, or xylitol etc. They may be going low carb or sugar free.

Texture and look was fine. I thought it was most noticeable on the bottom, hence I assumed maybe she overused Pam cooking spray or something. But when I grabbed a second cookie, the strange aftertaste seemed to be throughout the cookie.

It was so bad that you needed to have a second one?!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Did they have a grainy textureL if yes then it’s a gluten free flour. The artificial test is probably stevia, or xylitol etc. They may be going low carb or sugar free.

Texture and look was fine. I thought it was most noticeable on the bottom, hence I assumed maybe she overused Pam cooking spray or something. But when I grabbed a second cookie, the strange aftertaste seemed to be throughout the cookie.

It was so bad that you needed to have a second one?!

Yeah, that had me laughing, too!

[Anonymous]

They probably used a dirty cookie sheet/ like it had been used for roasting veggies with salted/garlic.

[Anonymous]

I'd bet money that she sprayed Bakers Joy on her cookie sheets. It leaves a greasy texture and an artificial flavor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:LOL, you guys are so precious about your butter. Excellent bakers know when butter is the ingredient and when shortening is better, due to water and solids content, not to mention how it act with the other ingredients

This, which is why it's ridiculous to see all these people who don't bake acting like butter is the expensive, high end ingredient. It's comical. I have shortbread cookies I make with olive oil (and rosemary and chocolate), and since you can really taste the olive oil, I use the expensive stuff I buy from the specialty Italian store instead of the giant bottle of California olive oil I buy at the grocery store. But there are lots of other recipes I make using vegetable oil or shortening because they give a better texture. Many recipes work better with shortening because it is more stable during cooking. Still other recipes, I will melt the butter before incorporating into the batter, rather than creaming with the sugar. For pastry, I sometimes use shortening because of the challenges of working butter into a dough when my kitchen is hot. Shortening doesn't get hard like butter when it's cold, but it also doesn't melt when it's warm, making it an easier option if I'm making pie crusts in July or at the same time as I'm baking something in the oven at 500 degrees making my kitchen run hot. I like having options.

It's such a DCUM thing to be like "ew Crisco, don't poor people use that? it must be bad." It's ignorant and elitist, and therefore perfectly on brand.

1. Sometimes shortening is the correct ingredient for a recipe/ climate / technique - but 99/100 that is not true for chocolate chip cookies
2. Some of us who grew up in working class or poor households saw our moms and grandmothers bake almost exclusively with shortening or margarine - and it was purely about cost and shelf stability - not some superior knowledge of pastry technique.
3. If you really bake a lot, you would know how butter has more than doubled in price over the last 6-8 months. So currently it is a “high end” ingredient. High enough that a less experienced baker may swap butter Crisco or margarine for a recipe developed for butter.

Your superior baking snobbery is also very on brand DCUM ridiculousness.

You are ridiculous. A lot of those moms you mention grew up with their moms using crisco. Also back in the day, we all were told margarine was better for us. I grew up with that and Tang as being so much healthier.

[Anonymous]

We did this in home ec. The cookies were delicious hot. Cold they were garbage lol!