Can margarine be used?

[Charu Mehta]

I may sound stupid... but can margarine be used in any kind of baking?

[Big Daddy's House]

I don't use it when baking cakes, pastries and cookies. I love that buttery taste that only real butter can give.

[natt12321]

Yes, it can and in fact in many ways is better for baking. It creates a much less greasy cake. It's what the industry uses and I think that says it all really.

Butter has it's place, and has a slightly different flavour, however most puff paste, cake batter, shortcrust paste, sweet paste and biscuits (with the certain exception of shortbread) will all be made with marg, either in part of entirely.

[EriAuLait]

You can restore the buttery taste to something with margarine by adding a little extra salt, believe it or not...

[Big Daddy's House]

One thing that I don't need in my diet is more salt. Sorry.

[MrPolarZero]

Yes, it can.. My family owns a small bakery and we use margarine in many breads.

[Whoopie Pie]

You can use margarine, but make sure that it is the proper margarine. The "spread" in the tub has far too much water content to be a good substitute, and can easily ruin a batch of cookies. If you are going with margarine, buy the type sold in sticks that say that they are good for baking.

In the US most margarine sold in sticks, still has trans-fats which is not a good thing. The type that doesn't have trans-fats usually costs as much as butter or more. Seeing that you are from Canada, Imperial brand margarine is great for baking and comes in sticks with no trans-fats, unfortunately Imperial here in the states still has trans fats.

[Big Daddy's House]

I thought that all tranfats (which is hydrogenated vegetable oil) was removed from all types of margerine.

At least that is what the gov't is leading ppl to believe.

But you're right, Whoopie Pie, when you said that spreadable margerine in the tubs has far too much water content. You melt some of it and all you see is water and yellow grease!!

When the big tub of speadable Country Crock is gone that I bought, I'm not buying any more of that. I'll stick with the little oblong-shaped tubs of spreadable butter.

And since non-transfat types of margering can cost as much as butter or more, I might as well stay with butter for cooking, baking and for spreading onto toast, begals and bread.

[Whoopie Pie]

I thought that all tranfats (which is hydrogenated vegetable oil) was removed from all types of margerine.

At least that is what the gov't is leading ppl to believe.

But you're right, Whoopie Pie, when you said that spreadable margerine in the tubs has far too much water content. You melt some of it and all you see is water and yellow grease!!

When the big tub of speadable Country Crock is gone that I bought, I'm not buying any more of that. I'll stick with the little oblong-shaped tubs of spreadable butter.

And since non-transfat types of margering can cost as much as butter or more, I might as well stay with butter for cooking, baking and for spreading onto toast, begals and bread.

Every stick margarine that we have in my store except for 2 (smart balance and a country crock stick boasting "no hydrogenated oil") has trans fats still listed on the label and are still made with hydrogenated oil. There are even tub spreads that still have hydrogenated oil, but still boast "no trans fats per serving" which is only because they managed to reformulate the formula to get it to the 1/2 gram mark per serving, but if you eat more than one serving (which most do) you are getting a measurable amount of trans fats. Same thing goes for the reformulated crisco.

Partially hydrogenated oil = trans fats

[Liketobake]

I use to only bake with margarine (because I grew up on it) and only really discovered butter a couple years ago. You can bake anything with margarine, but imo butter tastes much better.

[Big Daddy's House]

Every stick margarine that we have in my store except for 2 (smart balance and a country crock stick boasting "no hydrogenated oil") has trans fats still listed on the label and are still made with hydrogenated oil. There are even tub spreads that still have hydrogenated oil, but still boast "no trans fats per serving" which is only because they managed to reformulate the formula to get it to the 1/2 gram mark per serving, but if you eat more than one serving (which most do) you are getting a measurable amount of trans fats. Same thing goes for the reformulated crisco.

Partially hydrogenated oil = trans fats




You see?

They are totally misleading consumers into thinking that there are absolutely no tranfats in margerine when there still are!!

All of which brings to mind, false advertising!

Someone needs to bring this hogwash to the gov't's attention, but I'm sure that they already know about it. They're just not doing enough to stop it!!

Well, from now on, when I go into the supermarket and might buy margerine again, you can best believe that I'll be scouring both the nutrition label and the list of ingredients - just to see what is what.

And if one or more of the ingredients are hydrogenated vegetable oil, then guess what? Back it goes, sit right there!! It will NOT be going into the shopping cart.

[samue1eb]

I just buy butter. It may be more expensive, but I don't like sacrificing on ingredients.

[Big Daddy's House]

Tell me something, guys & gals;

Country Crock says on the tubs that its spreadable oleomargerine has no transfats at all, yet amoungst and according to the ingredients listed, it has partially hydrogenated cottonseed oil and hydrogenated soybeen oil!!

Isn't ANY product or oil that is hydrogenated, a form of transfat? It would seem to me, that they are double-talking and misleading consumers, fooling them into thinking that the product has no transfats at all, when it says in the ingredients list that it STILL contains 2 hydrogenated ingredients that, to me, are still very questionable.

Why is that? How do, or how can I be sure that these two ingredients aren't unhealthy? In addition to all the other additives in the product, this makes me unsure as to whether I'd want to buy this product again. Your thoughts, please;

[Liketobake]

From what I have read yes any hydrogenated form of oil is a form of trasfat.

It's crazy what companies try to get away with on their labels. Not just for fat but many other ingredients too.

[Big Daddy's House]

I THOUGHT so!

That is so blasted misleading!!

They should be called out and confronted for false advertising!!!

When this stuff is all gone, I'll stick with spreadable butter!!

Olivio spreadable butter is good, which I now have. It has ABSOLUTELY NO transfats whatsoever, is made with a combination of sweet creamery butter, olive and canola oil and it is lightly salted.

It has no aditives either and is practically pure. And it is cheaper than Land-O-Lakes spreadable butter, but compares equally to it very favorably!! It comes in little oval-shaped tubs with a dark blue lid.

[Whoopie Pie]

They can label it "trans fat free" if PER SERVING it has 1/2 gram or less of trans fat, and be perfectly legal. Since many people are going to use more than one serving at a time, this can add up to a measurable amount of trans fat. Think about it, if you have toast in the morning, you will likely use more than one tablespoon for two slices of toast. If you have some spread on veg or a roll, or you cook with it, you will get another serving or two. Now you are looking at pretty unhealthy levels of trans fat. Experts say that there isn't a safe level when it comes to trans fat.

Crisco is now "trans fat free" but still contains partially hydrogenated oils. It also contains "Fully" hydrogenated oils. It is said that "fully" hydrogenated oils are not trans fats and not dangerous, but I am not sure that I am willing to buy that. So what you see is more manufacturers putting more fully hydrogenated oils in their product to reduce the amount of trans fat. They cannot JUST use fully hydrogenated oil because it has the consistency of wax and wouldn't work in many cases, so they make a concoction of the fully and partially hydrogenated fat to come under that 1/2 gram mark.

If I absolutely need to use shortening, I buy the spectrum organics shortening. It is made from palm oil and works really well. There seems to be a lot of research coming out saying that plant based saturated fats, such as palm and coconut oil are not as bad as once thought and in many cases have health benefits.

It costs me a bit more to avoid hydrogenated oil, but I think my health is worth it.

[natt12321]

I do always find these conversations fascinating! It's really not something I had ever thought about, but having gone check I have no reason too.

Our only brand of shortening (that I can get hold of in a supermarket) is free of trans fats and so is the margarine I buy (I haven't checked them all out, but I did check mine out of interest). Interestingly the shortening had the transfats removed because of health concerns, however it doesn't boast it on it's packaging.

[Big Daddy's House]

Shortening DOES help make light good tasting flaky biscuits. But then, there is the problem concerning transfats in the product.

Butter also helps make good light flaky bisuits as well. But again, it should only be used once in a while.

Even though butter is fattening as well, I'll stick with using butter for cooking and baking when I don't use olive or canola oil, since other types of products always seem to have or hide transfats and are also hiding the true facts.