Dairy Free Baking- an Experiment
When it comes to the margarine vs. butter battle, I fall in the Paula Deen camp. Butter makes it better. I've only ever baked with Land O'Lakes salted butter. I read once that cheaper butters contain a higher water content than higher quality butters (such as Land O'Lakes). You don't want water in your cookies, do you? I didn't think so. You want cream, and milk, and salt. Mmm.
My Aunt Donna once used a generic butter when she was making fancy sugar cookies for a bridal shower. She made the recipe several times and her silly cookies just weren't turning out right. She switched to a higher quality butter on the last try, and they finally rolled out and baked perfectly. My mother and I decided, after hearing her tale of baking woe, that we'd only use the cheap stuff when cooking, and not when we needed the stability that a good butter provides.
Enter my friend Elizabeth. The poor girl has a dairy sensitivity. But her dear friend Jill (that's me) insists on baking her yummy treats on the regular. What to do?
And so begins my first experiment with margarine.
My memories of margarine consist solely of my Italian grandmother spooning whole sticks into her pot of mashed potatoes. Why she used margarine, I don't know. Perhaps it was a habit leftover from WWII. She and my grandfather were master budgeters and margarine is significantly cheaper than butter. So perhaps it was a money saving effort? But she was a margarine girl, through and through.
I probably would have never considered baking with margarine if it weren't for Elizabeth. She is always careful not to serve me something laced with garlic (I'd go all vampirey on her if she did) and I feel it's only right to honor her dairy sensitivity.
So when she and her hubs Doug invited me over for dinner, I started perusing my recipes. I asked Prissy if she thought swapping margarine in for butter in my favorite oatmeal scotchie recipe would work. It should, she said!
Have you ever eaten an oatmeal scotchie? It's a rich, buttery cookie, loaded with oatmeal and butterscotch chips. If you're baking for a person who recoils at the mention of oatmeal, bake these anyway. This is not a cousin of the oatmeal raisin cookie. This cookie is in its own cookie camp.
First, you cream. Butter (or margarine in my case), eggs, sugars, vanilla- beat, beat, beat.
At this point, I was a little shocked at how nicely everything was blending together. It definitely seemed to combine a little bit easier than butter. Must be all that oil from the margarine.
In a different bowl, combine your flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. If you use salted butter like I usually do, you can cut back on the salt here. I usually do about half of what a recipe calls for since there's already salt in my butter. I've been trying to use a sifter lately to combine my dry ingredients. At least, I sift when I'm not rushed or super lazy. Which is almost never.
So combine your dry ingredients with the wet in your mixer. Don't overmix, just mix until everything's combined. Add in your oatmeal and butterscotch chips. A whole bag of yummy, sweet butterscotch chips. Mmm.
Then scoop. You'll notice in the picture I use two fun tools here: a cookie scoop and silicone baking sheets. The cookie scoop (small one used here) is a life saver. The silicone baking sheets are brand new to me. They literally came in the mail yesterday. In the interest of saving money, I bought the Amazon brand. I'm impressed. Super easy to use and all the junk came off in the sink with a quick wash. I think I'm in love.
This recipe makes a lot of cookies. Yesterday I got four trays, with 12 cookies each. So 48 cookies. I feel that when you use butter these babies spread. A lot. So space your cookie dough blobs out farely well. And if you have time, it's always a good idea to chill the dough before baking. That helps to keep them from overspreading.
When these cookies come out of the oven, they'll be golden brown and nice and puffy. As they cool, they sink. This is totally normal. I found that when I used margarine yesterday, they didn't sink quite as much as they normally do when I use butter. So that's cool.
My first batch didn't quite brown as nicely as I would have liked. I'm not sure if that was a timing issue, or a result of the silicone baking mats. I'll have to do a little more experimenting. The recipe says cook for 7-10 minutes, depending on how you like your cookie (soft and chewy, or a little crispier). I probably did the third and fourth trays for maybe 10 minutes. The first tray was closer to 8. Hence the difference in colors.
A friend, who grew up eating these cookies, said he couldn't taste a difference between this batch made with margarine and past batches I've made with butter. I felt they looked different, but didn't have a noticeable difference in taste. Having said that, would I continue to bake with margarine? Probably not. I just like butter. But it's good to have this trick up my sleeve, especially seeing as how my adorable goddaughter Charlotte has a milk allergy too. Now I can pass off margarine suitable recipes to her mom!
My Aunt Donna once used a generic butter when she was making fancy sugar cookies for a bridal shower. She made the recipe several times and her silly cookies just weren't turning out right. She switched to a higher quality butter on the last try, and they finally rolled out and baked perfectly. My mother and I decided, after hearing her tale of baking woe, that we'd only use the cheap stuff when cooking, and not when we needed the stability that a good butter provides.
Enter my friend Elizabeth. The poor girl has a dairy sensitivity. But her dear friend Jill (that's me) insists on baking her yummy treats on the regular. What to do?
And so begins my first experiment with margarine.
My memories of margarine consist solely of my Italian grandmother spooning whole sticks into her pot of mashed potatoes. Why she used margarine, I don't know. Perhaps it was a habit leftover from WWII. She and my grandfather were master budgeters and margarine is significantly cheaper than butter. So perhaps it was a money saving effort? But she was a margarine girl, through and through.
I probably would have never considered baking with margarine if it weren't for Elizabeth. She is always careful not to serve me something laced with garlic (I'd go all vampirey on her if she did) and I feel it's only right to honor her dairy sensitivity.
So when she and her hubs Doug invited me over for dinner, I started perusing my recipes. I asked Prissy if she thought swapping margarine in for butter in my favorite oatmeal scotchie recipe would work. It should, she said!
Have you ever eaten an oatmeal scotchie? It's a rich, buttery cookie, loaded with oatmeal and butterscotch chips. If you're baking for a person who recoils at the mention of oatmeal, bake these anyway. This is not a cousin of the oatmeal raisin cookie. This cookie is in its own cookie camp.
First, you cream. Butter (or margarine in my case), eggs, sugars, vanilla- beat, beat, beat.
 |
| Creaming wet ingredients |
In a different bowl, combine your flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. If you use salted butter like I usually do, you can cut back on the salt here. I usually do about half of what a recipe calls for since there's already salt in my butter. I've been trying to use a sifter lately to combine my dry ingredients. At least, I sift when I'm not rushed or super lazy. Which is almost never.
 |
| Make sure your mixer is on low speed! |
 |
| Cookie scoop- my #1 love |
Then scoop. You'll notice in the picture I use two fun tools here: a cookie scoop and silicone baking sheets. The cookie scoop (small one used here) is a life saver. The silicone baking sheets are brand new to me. They literally came in the mail yesterday. In the interest of saving money, I bought the Amazon brand. I'm impressed. Super easy to use and all the junk came off in the sink with a quick wash. I think I'm in love.
This recipe makes a lot of cookies. Yesterday I got four trays, with 12 cookies each. So 48 cookies. I feel that when you use butter these babies spread. A lot. So space your cookie dough blobs out farely well. And if you have time, it's always a good idea to chill the dough before baking. That helps to keep them from overspreading.
 |
| This tray of cookies baked for 10ish minutes. |
My first batch didn't quite brown as nicely as I would have liked. I'm not sure if that was a timing issue, or a result of the silicone baking mats. I'll have to do a little more experimenting. The recipe says cook for 7-10 minutes, depending on how you like your cookie (soft and chewy, or a little crispier). I probably did the third and fourth trays for maybe 10 minutes. The first tray was closer to 8. Hence the difference in colors.
 |
| These cookies baked for eight-ish minutes. See the difference? |
Oatmeal Scotchies
Ingredients
1 1/4 cup flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup (2 sticks) butter or margarine, softened
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
3/4 cup granulated (white) sugar
2 large eggs, at room temp
1 tsp. vanilla extract
3 cup quick or old-fashioned oats
11 oz. package butterscotch chips
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees
2. In small mixing bowl, stir together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Set aside.
3. In large mixing bowl (or stand mixer), beat butter, sugars, eggs, and vanilla.
4. Gradually add the flour mixture to the sugar mixture.
5. Stir in oats and butterscotch chips.
6. Drop by rounded tablespoon onto ungreased baking sheets. (I used parchment paper or now my fancy new silicone baking mats.)
7. Bake for 7-8 minutes for chewy cookies, 9-10 minutes for crisp cookies.
8. Cool on cookie sheets for 2 minutes, then remove to cooling rack.
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