Butter or Margarine for apple tart pastry?

loco-colo

Every recipe seems to be different - Catherine Leydon of Oflums and TV keeps saying both - but in one video she just uses marg,

what is the difference and can you use half and half? Thanks.

Tree

I use butter, unless I have a dairy free person to cater for. I think butter is tastier. I think you'd need to go to harder fats like cookeen before we talk about crispier outcomes.

loco-colo

Thanks Tree - I bought some Stork on the way home to keep my options open - says on packet that it is for baking - was thinking of going half and half - freezing it and grating into flour,

the beer revolu

Butter all day long.

Margarine was only used because it's cheaper. If butter won't break the bank, I'd always go for butter.

Getting into lard or suet is another thing altogether.

loco-colo

Yep - I am a big butter man - on everything from toast to spuds so will stick with it.

And stick it did today when I made one - two to one so flour to butter - chilled ok but think I added a tad too much water so was sticking to rolling pin / however got it back to just be workable by adding flour but probably had to work it a bit much to do that.

Still it came out pretty well - gave myself a 7 out of 10 for it - must improve.

Incidentally I never see anybody greasing the plate to stop it sticking - probably because of butter in pastry - found it sticking a bit around the rim of tart.

Dempo1

Honestly, Ive always used Margerine for making shortcrust pastry, no particular reason and I can see the merits of using easier. Some will say Butter has possibly more flavour, salt etc but I've ultimately found the results from either, pretty much the same. I will for example add a pinch of salt if I'm making something savoury like quiche. I suppose its down to personal choice but both work fine for me. Minimum handling and refrigerating the pastry before rolling are the most important considerations.

ellejay

I use stork and also freeze it before grating in.

I find the volume of water that you need to use changes every time I make it.

So my advice there is to add the water slowly.

Definitely allow to sit in cling film in fridge before rolling out, makes it much easier to handle.

I've never used butter, at this stage I'm afraid it'll be a disaster after going well for so long.

Edited to say, I've also used Supermarket own brand and results were the same.

wildwillow

I always use butter but now have a grandchild who is dairy and egg intolerant. So I use margarine and no egg when making pastry which she will be eating. I like to add egg even to shortcrust as it gives a better flavour and colour.

Butter is better for flavour and handling. I usually make a large batch and use food processor to blend the butter and mix, taking care not to over work.

I often make a margarine batch and keep it exclusively for the child. Some vegan recipies are very successful but others are just awful.