What is the best and healthiest fat for baking?

[PercyPigPie]

I'm looking for some sort of vegatable fat that will be good for cakes/biscuits etc.

butter. I think it is very good for cakes/biscuits

I use butter currently and like the fact there are no added nasties - but was looking for something unsaturated.

I use butter too, as I think it's healthier than margerine.

I usually use butter, but a few weeks ago I went on a cookery course and the baker who runs it recommended margarine for cakes (Stork specifically) so I'm going to give that a try.

I also like the fact that butter doesn't have any nasties so did check the Stork packet and it didn't look too bad.

Don't know how it will turn out but his tips on bread baking were fantastic so I'm optimistic.

margarine, I don't use it and can't spell it!

butter all the way.
I read somewhere that marg is the only thing cockroaches won't eat. Prob an urban myth type thing, but has always put me off.

In many cakes you can substitue fruit or veg as fat. For example in a chocolate cake use beetroot instead of fat....

I use Stork
unsaturated, no trans fats, cheap and v easy to work as v soft.

what was once referred to as 'margarine' was basically vaseline ie petrochemical fat-substitute - nowhere sells it anymore.

vegetable spreads (Flora, Stork, Olivio etc) are much much lower in saturated fat than butter.

if you are still worried, use muffin-type recipes that need oil rather than solid fat - no nasties in that.

i you are baking forget low fat! use butter or trex or whatever makes it taste nice, otherwise eat a carrot

Monounsaturated fats are the healthiest use margerine made from olive or rapeseed oils

butter - as there is no added nasty stuffs to muck up your insides

yes, I'm afraid that "best" and "healthiest" don;t really go together when it comes to baking. I use butter. My mum uses stork (and turns out fantastic cakes). I'm tempted to try using clover - have just bought some to try for general use as its lower in monosaturates than butter - but still butter derived so lacks the taste of the sunflower or oilve oil based ones - and I have to say I'm quite impressed with it. yet to try it for baking but I reckon it should be good.

hmm - think I might be getting my saturates muddled up. whatever it is that butter has got that olive oil and sunflower spreads haven't (or got less of) that's the one that clover has less of than butter. iyswim. I think...wanders off to kitchen to look at packaging...but doubt i'll be back soon as need to cook tea instead of mn...

stork does make a lvoely light cake. My m um always uses it and her sponges are superb.

Use butter meself.

i sometimes use that Pure soya stuff, 0 cholesterol