Barry Harmon wrote:
> My wife got a book on Swedish Cakes and Cookies from the library. There
is
> a good section on Danish yeasted breads, so I took a quick look at that
> section.
>
> In the section on (what else?) Danish Pastry, I found this statement
>
> "Margarine is better than butter. It is easier to achieve a flaky
> consistency with solid baking margarine than with butter."
>
> Is this true?
Sort of.
> What's solid baking margarine and where do you get it?
>
It's unclear what the author is referring to. There is butter-flavored
and -colored vegetable shortening (you can buy a version of Crisco that
answers that description). It's not margarine, because it's 100 percent
fat instead of 75 or 80 percent fat. But if the author is using language
loosely, that might be what's meant. The idea is completely unappealing
to me, but there's no accounting for taste.
There is also commercial danish pastry margarine, which is made with
palm oil, much more saturated than table margarines and therefore
technically easier to work with. This is the stuff that leaves a coating
on the roof of your mouth that you can't scrape off with your tongue and
that annoys the hell out of you for hours. If you've ever eaten a danish
made with it, you know what I'm talking about and you didn't go back for
seconds.
Stick with butter, and don't take shortcuts on the chilling steps.
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