Hi class, welcome back to baking school. Now we are currently on lesson 11 of the
baking fundamentals course and today we are going to talk about the role of fat
in baking and all of the different types of fat that you will encounter in baking.
Now when we think about fats role in baking it really serves to add a lot of
richness, flavor, and moisture to our baked goods but it actually also serves
a few other more scientific functions. It helps to tenderize our baked goods and
it can also help with some of the leavening. Now we talked about this some
in our lesson on gluten development but fat actually works as a barrier between
flour and water to help prevent gluten development. And it also works to shorten
gluten strands. Now this is why it's something like a cinnamon roll which is
a yeast bread made with fat is much more tender than something like a baguette
which is a yeast bread made without any fat. Now additionally solid fat can be
creamed with sugar to create a web of air between the two ingredients and this
can really help to leaven our baked goods. And also butter is one of our
solid fats that contains some water in it so as that water evaporates off in
the baking process. It can also help create some leavening. Now there are two
main types of fats that you will work with in baking: there are solid fats and
there are liquid fats. Now all solid fats can be melted into a liquid fat but
because they do re solidify once they cool down they do function slightly
differently.
So the most common types of solid fats used in baking are butter, vegetable
shortening, and lard. Now butter is the most common type of
fat used in baking because it adds a great flavor to our baked goods. And it
does contain some water which helps to leaven our baked goods. Now I should note
that margarine is not a direct substitute for butter and that is
because butter contains about 82% fat while margarine can contain as little as
35% fat. So this difference can really produce different results in our baked
goods. So vegetable shortening is another type of solid fat that does function a
little bit differently than butter. And this is because vegetable shortening
contains 100% fat and it also has a much higher melting point than butter.
So because vegetable shortening contains 100% fat it does create more tender
baked goods than butter and it also is less prone to shrinking in the oven.
So you can see this really evident in something like a pie crust where one pie
crust made with butter is prone to shrinking a great deal in the oven,
another pie crust made with vegetable shortening is less prone to shrinking
and this is because the water is evaporating out of the pie crust made
with butter and this is not happening in the pie crust made with shortening. Now
additionally because vegetable shortening does have a higher melting
point, it can create baked goods that tend to spread out less. So a cookie made
with butter is going to tend to spread more than a cookie made with shortening
and that is because the cookie is going to have time to solidify slightly in the
oven before the shortening melts and spreads out. Now this can be somewhat
desirable when you want to create a thick cookie but it can be a little bit
undesirable because when you eat something made with butter it
really melts in your mouth while when you eat something made with shortening
with melting point around 118 degrees Fahrenheit it can leave a really greasy
mouthfeel. Now lard is a type of solid fat that is
rendered from a pig and it functions very similarly to vegetable shortening
because it is also 100 percent fat. Now it does have a little bit of a higher
melting point than butter but it actually is a lower melting point than
vegetable shortening so it's kind of the best of both worlds.
Now the kind of lard used in baking is called leaf lard
and it's a really white fat that is pretty mild in flavor. But this is kind
of a difficult thing to find, you usually have to order it online but in my
opinion it does make the best biscuits in the world.
Now your liquid fats are going to be all of your oils and for baking you want to
use a mild flavored oil something like canola oil, vegetable oil, or grapeseed
oil now you typically don't want to use olive oil in baking because it has much
more flavor than all of the other oils. Now liquid fats tend to keep baked goods
more moist and tender and this is because they do not solidify it once
cooled. Now because liquid fats cannot be creamed with sugar or cut into flour
their main function is to add richness and tenderness and therefore they are
not a good substitute for solid fats. Now solid fats can be melted to replace
liquid fats but do keep in mind that because the solid fat is going to re-solidify once the baked good has cooled they tend to be less moist and tender.
Now coconut oil is technically a solid fat because it does solidify once it
cools but because it has a very low melting point of seventy-six degrees
Fahrenheit, it is kind of a hybrid between solid fat and liquid fat. So now
that you understand all about how fat works in baking I'm ready to give you
your homework assignment. Now for this lesson I want you to make two small
batches of drop biscuits, one with a solid fat and one with a liquid fat. Now
you can use any fat of your choice for both but I want you to see how
differently they turn out. Now you can share your results in our private
Facebook group where we continue the conversation after every lesson or you
can share it on social media using the hashtag #BBbakingschool or you can
email it to me directly at Bettie@BakerBettie.com. I'll see you guys next time. Bye!