Baking question: margarine or butter?

craigywv

rosie383 wrote: »

I may get shot down here, but I use the cheapest big tubs of marg that I can get for most of my baking except for shortbread. Then I use the cheapest butter I can get, or make my own from whoopsied cream. I noticed that they have 250g butter in 99p shop today. It's Dale Farm butter from NI so it is good quality.

:)hi i am fron N.I. and i can deffo tell you that the butter in the £ shop is EXCELLENT it comes out of the fridge hard like real butter not spread ,tastes smells and looks like real butter a light lemon colour i HATE marg its bright yellow and i dont care they all smell like stork, so next time you in pick 1 up i have copious amounts of the stuff in my freezers its really worth it bet if u did the butter test u wouldnt know the difference ............swear i sound like a rep for DALE FARM ....its only up the road from me:D

tiff

I made a victoria sponge with butter and the next week made one with Stork, there was a big difference in colour with the Stork cake more yellow and it gave the sponge a horrible taste so I have been sticking with butter. Always buy whatever is on offer. Value butter is ok but doesnt soften up that much at room temp so find it hard to work with.

orange-sox

I've always been a butter only kinda girl, but found value butter to be relentless solid, and thus unusable as I have a shoulder condition... However I tried tescoid value spreadable butter last week (about £1.70 for 500g) and found it to be very good so I am converted!

Nanamia

I'm a butter snob or so my family would tell you. Only Lurp*k for me, cake, pastries,biscuits you name it only Lurp*k will do. My family have done "the taste test" on me and believe me I can tell the difference even in chocolate cake, even if it's a different brand!
I think if you are going to the trouble of baking then you should use what tastes the best. And stock up when it's on offer or you're in Costco
So shoot me!

Dollardog

I wouldn't use margarine, too many additives. I only use butter for cakes and things. As for lard, my mum only ever used all lard for her pastry and it was wonderful, quite 'short'. She used it for sweet things and savoury, I can't ever say that it tasted of pork at all. I don't make my own pastry, but if I did, it would always be all lard. My mum's mince pies were the very best I've ever tasted.

BitterAndTwisted

I'm not in a position to be fussy about what I use in my baking, alas. My budget won''t allow for the use of butter, even the cheapest, so my choice is bake with marge or not bake at all. I NEED to eat home-made bikkies and cake, so marge it is and no light sponges or shortbread for me. It's a fair exchange.

If I had the money it would be unsalted Normany butter and lashings of it on everything, never mind the baking

terra_ferma

orange-sox wrote: »

I've always been a butter only kinda girl, but found value butter to be relentless solid, and thus unusable as I have a shoulder condition... However I tried tescoid value spreadable butter last week (about £1.70 for 500g) and found it to be very good so I am converted!

If it's spreadable it's probably not butter, but a blend, with added chemicals.
Is this the one you mean (although the price is different, maybe it's different)?
http://www.tesco.com/groceries/Product/Details/?id=252542001
I've had to resign myself to the fact that butter is not spreadable, and either buy spreadable substitutes, or proper butter that is more difficult to spread.

Incidentally I was surprised to find that the cheapest butter from mainstream supermarkets, at full price, seems to be Waitrose essentials, extremely good and cheap at £2.19 for a big pack 500g, cheaper than most value brands, (not sure about lidl/aldi etc)
http://www.mysupermarket.co.uk/#/waitrose-price-comparison/butter_margarine_and_spreads/essential_waitrose_salted_dairy_butter_500g.html

motherkitty

I find that using all butter makes cakes and biscuits quite greasy, sometimes with a bit of a leathery texture too. I always use stork for baking, used to use Tesc0 value margarine but the tops of cakes were always sticky. I think the tub says it is not suitable for home baking anyway, have also tried the Tesc0 baking margarine which I didn't like.
If you are making a flavoured cake I don't think you need to use all butter as most of the time you wouldn't be able to taste it.
Always use stork, if it's a plain cake I sometimes use half butter/half stork, or even a quarter butter to get a buttery flavour.
Have always used the 'all in one' method with Stork (and still have the original Stork cookbook (from the 70's?).
Not much good at pastry but results are way better using half Trex and half butter.

angeltreats

I actually prefer Stork to butter for a few things. For a sponge cake I prefer Stork, and for buttercream I add a little bit of Stork in with the butter, which is something Dan Lepard agrees with I find it gives a lighter buttercream. It absolutely has to be Stork though. I once tried Tesco own brand baking margarine and it was disgusting - it actually had a gritty texture and smelt horrible.

For most other stuff I use Lurpak almost exclusively, although for Danish pastries I quite like the value butter as it's more solid and will hold together and doesn't melt as you work it.

Oh and I am a huge advocate of using lard for pastry. Half lard and half butter gives a great taste with lovely short texture. My mum used to use half Cookeen and half Echo (baking marg and vegetable shortening) and her pastry was legendary.

zippychick

a couple of threads to help you

baking question - margarine or butter?

oil rather than butter in baking

ill merge this later on

Zip