Better With Butter

This is a fluff piece.

I grew up with butter, not margarine. My mother loved butter so much, she would sometimes slice a chunk off the stick and pop it in her mouth. My husband grew up with margarine. It took a few years to work out the details of this culinary divide, but butter naturally won.

A recent article about the chosen fat in The New York Times says nothing beats butter when it comes to baking cookies and other yummies. I know this to be true. What I didn't know was the science behind my favorite fat.

Careful attention to butter's properties will result in better baked products. I've been doing all the right things over the years but frankly, I didn't know the secret to my success. Better brush up on your butter management skills if you want your time and money investment to pay off.

The good news is, most sweet eaters could care less about flake factor, and sugar trumps flavor every time. I don't know if I could tell the difference between a cookie baked with margarine and one made with a pedigreed butter. Even if I could, I wouldn't turn up my nose at a home-baked or bakery cookie, although I admit to being a food snob. I refuse to eat packaged cookies.

In my kitchen you'll only find butter, cholesterol be damned. As for the product "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter!" all I can only say is, oh, really?