Fat is one of the key nutrients in a wide range of baked goods. In the bakery it is usually used in the form of oil or butter. So what types of fat are there? Let's take a look.
The Two Main Sources of Fat
1. Animal fats
These include butterfat and cheese (from cow's milk) and pork fat (lard). Animal fats are saturated fats, which become solid at temperatures below 25°C.
2. Plant fats
These include palm oil, coconut oil and oils pressed from seeds such as cottonseed, sesame and various nuts and legumes. Most plant fats are unsaturated fats, which stay liquid at room temperature. They are considered the "good" fats because they can help lower the risk of high blood cholesterol. The exceptions are palm oil and coconut oil, which are saturated fats, just like animal fats.
Fats Commonly Used in Baking
1. Vegetable oil
Vegetable oil is extracted from the dried seeds of oil-bearing plants such as palm, soybean, corn and cotton, then refined to remove color and impurities. Its color depends on the raw material: peanut oil and cottonseed oil are colorless, while corn and soybean oil have a light tint. Most vegetable oils are pale yellow.
Oil is liquid at room temperature and is 100% fat.
Some cakes rely on vegetable oil for their soft texture, such as chiffon cake and banana cake.
2. Butter
Butter is made from the fat in cow's milk. The milk is left to stand so the fat rises to the top; this fat is skimmed off and churned until it clumps together, the liquid is drained away, and the remaining mass is kneaded until smooth. Butter contains no less than 80% fat. It is yellow and fragrant, and it softens or melts at room temperature.
There are two kinds of butter:
- Unsalted butter: fragrant with a slightly sweet taste
- Salted butter
3. Margarine
Margarine is made from plant fats such as palm fat and coconut fat. It contains about 80–85% fat and is solid at room temperature. Color, aroma and flavor are added so that it looks and tastes as close to butter as possible, which is why it is also known as "imitation butter". It is often blended with butter for cakes and pies, because margarine whips up more easily than butter and does not turn the mixture runny during beating.
4. Vegetable shortening
Vegetable shortening is a white, creamy fat made from refined, odorless vegetable oils such as coconut, corn, palm or soybean oil. The oil goes through hydrogenation, which makes the fat firmer; the more it is hydrogenated, the harder it becomes. No flavor or color is added, so shortening is 100% pure fat.
Because it is white, it is called "white butter" in Thai. It has no taste or smell, is solid at room temperature and is 100% fat. It is commonly used for bread rolls and other yeast-raised products, for greasing baking pans so that bakes release cleanly, and for blending with butter to whip into cake frosting.
