Hydrogenated Oil And gluten-free Baking

[NewGFMom]

So, I got the Bette Haggman cookbook. A lot of her recipes specifically call for margarine or crisco. I have not tried any of the recipes that call for that stuff, but I'm hesitant to make them.

I am probably a total hypocrite that I have no problem eating & serving my family butter and sugar. (in moderate amounts) But I've always tried to draw the line at trans fats.

Are they a necessary evil in gluten-free baking? A lot of the favorite recipes I've seen, but been hesitant to try call for these things.

Perhaps it's to deal with the dairy allergies that seem to coexist with celiac disease. But I get the impression that it's about flavor and texture as well.

Any of you bakers out there have any thoughts?

Thanks!!

Margaret

[dionnek]

I've heard that shortening works better in gluten-free cookies, but like you I can't bring myself to use it. I have always used margarine (like that's much better) in my baking, and still do now that I'm gluten-free, and everything so far has turned out (well, my first 2 tries at chocolate chip cookies didn't look so good, but they tasted fine - now I use the landolakes cc cookie recipe with margarine and it works for me). The only thing I will use crisco for is to season my cast iron skillet

[AndreaB]

I refuse to use hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils.

I do use Spectrum Vegetable Shortening.....that's non hydrogenated. Of course, I only use it to grease my bread pans. I did use it to make frosting at one point and to substitute eggs in a cake. Didn't turn out real well in my mind. It left a real heavy feeling in our stomachs.

I've found that I don't make much since we are gluten-free/cf/soy free.

[debmidge]

Criso now makes a "0 trans fat" all vegetable shortening in a green labeled can

Ingredients: soybean oil, sunflower oil, fully hydrogenated palm oil, mono-and diglycerides, TBHQ and citric acid (anti oxidants)

made by The J.M. Smucker Company

Calories 110 per tablespoon

total fat 12g

saturated fat 3 g

trans fat 0g

polyunsaturated fat 6g

monounsaturated fat 3 g

Lable also states 50% less saturated fat than butter

I've been using it and it acts the same as regular Crisco. Perhaps this is an suitable compromise between regular Crisco and Spectrum?

[Cheri A]

I am doing my best to get partially hydrogenated anything out of my house. I also us Spectrum shortening to grease my bread pans and for cookies. Margarine seemed to spread and not work in those for me. My dd is also dairy free so butter is out for us.

I would try the things that you'd like to with the butter and then try Spectrum if it doesn't work.

[bakinghomesteader]

I use butter or canola oil in place of margarine or someother oil. We eat all natural, so we don't use hydrogenated oils either. My bread turns out wonderful. I made up my own recipe. After several attempts, I found a combo that works for me.

Bakinghomesteader

[Gentleheart]

Hydrogenated fats are considered a major player in our generation's unique problem with plugged arteries. Hydrogenation is done for only one reason, to make a liquid fat into a solid one, artificially. And that is only for a perceived convenience in baking and to compete with butter or other naturally saturated fats in the marketplace.

Margarine became popular in America around the last 2 World Wars as a substitute for butter, which was scarce. People raised on butter laughed at it then because it tasted and looked so desperately awful. But modern technology being what it is, managed to fix those problems and many of us ended up being raised on margarine for no good reason at all. It was just marketing and a few clever TV commercials that kept us from the natural fats of our forefathers.

The liquid oil producing industries, bless their hearts, wanting to take over the huge market share held by solid tropical oils like palm and coconut and even butter, put out bogus documentation a few years back on the dangers of saturated vegetable fats. They conveniently left out all the facts about nearly no heart disease among tropical peoples who had consumed huge amounts of those fats for generations. Even though their science was incorrect, they were completely successful in their public relations efforts and we ended up with that fantastic movie theatre popcorn popped in coconut oil, being dumped for popcorn cooked in partially hydrogenated soybean oil. The same thing occurred in most fast food restaurants and processed foods worldwide. Follow the money.

Heart disease went sky high. Now everything is finally swinging back to palm and coconut oil and butter. Science discovered that saturated vegetable fats were NOT the same as saturated animal fats and were actually healthy. OOps.

I prefer to always eat things that are real. I figure that's the best way to ensure that it is food and can even be digested at all. And even more when my digestion is compromised by allergies anyway. It has been reported that conventional margarine is one step chemically from plastic. That's why it will never spoil. That can't be good.

I use extra virgin coconut oil or palm oil in all my baking efforts. Seems to work just fine. I'm allergic to dairy so I can't use butter, or I would use that too.

[jmd3]

I substitute a lot of my oil with applesauce to bake with. I did it before I knew I was celiac. My kids always said the cakes were more moist - we called it our secret ingredient.

[tarnalberry]

another reason I don't think I've tried more than two of her recipes. the ingredients...