I'm dairy intolerant but I really love to bake. I've found success by substituting butter with either lard or coconut oil. The other night, I made a short pastry dough that called for 13 tablespoons of butter to 1.5 cups of flour and instead of using butter I used coconut oil. The dough was super delicate to work with since the oil heated up much more quickly and teared more easily than butter dough I've worked with before.
Would I achieve better results with a different fat? Say, margarine or shortening?
Any input would be greatly appreciated!
Best Answer
There are good quality vegan margarines (Earth balance, Alsan) on the market nowadays, often they are of the interesterified instead of the hydrogenated variety. They are designed to behave and taste similar to butter instead of (as many cheap margarines seem to do) staying spreadable at temperatures where butter would be very firm. Unlike pure coconut or palm oil, they do not act very brittle when cold, and also they soften gradually instead of suddenly melting like eutectic solder. These should be on the top of the list of things to try...
Also, some recipes recommend using more than one type of fat in pastry, for more interesting texture (eg such margarine, and smaller flakes of a hardened coconut fat).