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Last year when i started to do my Christmas baking i noticed that my cookies were spreading out, sticking and were crunchier then years before. I thought it might have been the temperature of the oven or something like that so i tried different temps, bought a thermometer for the oven no luck some cookies would puddle out some wouldn't. I didn't know what was going on. But then got a clue with my first cookie entry in the cookie contest. I was typing the recipe and remembering back to when i was a kid and most recipes would butter or margarine on the ingredients. Being dyslexic and not being able to spell Margarine, I of corse went to the fridge (thank god for spell checking but they are only so good) where i did not find Margarine but Vegetable Oil Spread. When did this happen? Turns out a few years ago the powers that be started cracking down on labels. Butter by definition has to have 80% fat. Margarine also by definition has to have 80% fat. Vegetable Oil Spread is unregulated, Price right has 70% , Imperial has 53% but there could be as little 40% this is all well and good for fat Americans who worry about cholesterol and don't know why. Well what does fat and the cookie and baking them matter.
Stand back I'm about to do Science
Dramatic science back story: Most cookies will have you beat(cream) the butter and sugar first why you ask? The butter which is 80% fat (apparently by government say so) gets mixed with the sugar. The sugar rips holes or pockets in the fat. The next step is to add the eggs. The eggs have protein and water the protein surounds the pocket and because oil and water don't mix the water gets trapped in the pocket. You then add heat and the water turns to steam blowing the pocket up like a ballon making a moist and chewy cookie. If you don't have enough fat in the cookie these pockets don't form the cookie don't rise the steam escapes and your left with a dry cookie.
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Signing UpStep 1The Battle (Experiment)
On to the epic battle:
Now being from New England I will be making the best chocolate chip cookie ever "Nestle Toll House" Massachusetts state cookie. Nobody has yet to make a copy of this recipe as it is on the back of every Nestle semi-sweet Morsels bag (this is very convent). So i don't need to post it. Look at the pictures if you don't want to by the chips. The only change I will be making is I'm not adding the nuts. This is a cost saving move an should not effect the results.
Each recipe will have a different fat source: Butter, Margarine, Oil Spread 53% and 70%.
Now being from New England I will be making the best chocolate chip cookie ever "Nestle Toll House" Massachusetts state cookie. Nobody has yet to make a copy of this recipe as it is on the back of every Nestle semi-sweet Morsels bag (this is very convent). So i don't need to post it. Look at the pictures if you don't want to by the chips. The only change I will be making is I'm not adding the nuts. This is a cost saving move an should not effect the results.
Each recipe will have a different fat source: Butter, Margarine, Oil Spread 53% and 70%.
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This is definitely a great experiment. However, it does not really consider the effect on taste. In my opinion butter will give the best results. Margerine is useless in cooking.
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In my experience in hospitality butter always yield the lightest flavor, and least greasiness.
Sorry for hijacking your interesting thread Turbo with what was supposed to just be a laugh....
For more in depth information on the food science (including ingredient and cooking information), I highly recommend, "On Food and Cooking," by Harold McGee.