Substituting Heavy Cream For Shortening Or Butter

[mauder]

I found this in the letters-to editor section in the September '05 issue of Better Homes and Garden from Emily Helton of Bend, Oregon. I have not tried it myself. "An April article, 'Make it Fast with Love,' page 252, changed the way I bake. I am wheat and gluten intolerant, do all my own baking, and have several good recipes; but most are not as moist or hold together as well as they would with wheat flour. I love Marian Getz's tip on sustituting heavy cream for shortening or butter. I quickly tried this in my pizza crust recipe that calls for melted shortening. The results were fantastic! My pizza crust is ten times better thanks to this tip." I hope a more experienced baker will try this and let us know if this works.

[eKatherine]

First, a 1:1 substitution will increase the moistness of a recipe, as heavy cream has more moisture than butter or shortening. If you substitute it for shortening, you're adding the rich flavor of butter, but you're also adding milk, which will improve the end product. At the same time you'd be making it a little lower in fat than a shortening recipe, which might make it less greasy (that's what I think about shortening baked goods, anyway).

I used to buy glass-bottled heavy cream at a local dairy. I used it for everything. It was truly a miracle product.