Blue Bonnet Butter vs. real butter - is there a difference? - Page 3

butter!

I guess it's not about which is better, but how you make it taste with the rest of the ingredients. It's funny though that everyone can have such a strong opinion.

I use both, Blue Bonnet and stick butter. I baked cakes yesterday and today one yellow cake batch I used BB the other butter...same recipe the cake with the BB did rise higher.
Now, Indy lol...you are like my sister with the butter, I can't get her to touch it with a 10' pole.
If you have never tried the Amish rolled butter, you just may change your mind with what you put on your biscuit. It is sweet, creamy and out of this world. Store stick butter just isn't the same quality as rolled butter.

I have to agree with the others about farm-fresh butter. A friend of mine used to get it for me several years ago. It was so much better than stick butter. It was creamy, but not as greasy as stick butter.

I wish that farm had not been sold off to a housing developer. I would still be buying my butter there.

Theresa

My mother was 7 years old in Tokyo when the US bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki (she's japanese). She along with everyone else in Japan at that time nearly starved.

That being said, we ate as cheap as possible as kids and Blue Bonnet was "butter" in our house. I never knew what real butter was until I grew up, moved out and realized there was a difference. Mom still cooks and bakes with Blue Bonnet.

Since I have a hangup about NOT wanting to be like my mom (another story), I always bake with real butter but use margarine for everything else (baked potatoes, veggies, etc). I need to get over it because her baking is as good as mine and a lot cheaper.

I'm not a chemist or anything, but I've heard that margarine is one molecule away from being plastic! As scary as that sounds, I only use margarine in my icing. I used to use real butter, but with my budget and with me making more cakes, I've resorted to the cheap margarine. Margarine does blend better. When I used real butter, my icing would sometimes have lumps in it.

I am a butter fan when baking, and especially when making buttercream. I like the way it helps the bc 'set up' in the frig. I think it helps keep the cakes firm and together while transporting - a big plus in my opinion.

Butter is natural, margarine is man-made. Out bodies can process butter easier than margarine, but we have both in our frig.

Margarine also has a higher water content. If you ever want to see this for yourself, melt a stick of each and see what you get.

Nice thing about this topic is that there is no right or wrong, just personal preference!

indydebi, I'll join your poor kids club. We only had butter on the farm at grandma's but we had to make it ourselves. At our farm, we didn't have cows so we had margarine. I use butter with cakes; margarine with cookies--CCers swore it would help my cookies keep their shape and they were right.

Doug--in central IL hum????? me too!

Paula

We were so poor I remember the day they came around with mini samples of wonder bread. All 7 of us kids got our own loaf and that was dinner for the day. Ah the cucumber , tomato and miracle whip sandwhiches. Never knew of butter until later in life, I must say for baking and icing that calls for butter I LOVE the taste of that over margarine. I do use BB and may have to start using that in cookies if these prices don't quit, but to butter lovers they can taste my sugar cookies without icing and can pick up the butter taste. I guess we all have a preverance. Mine will be changing due to my pocket book soon I have a feeling.

We lived in WI (where margarine was banned for a long time) so my parents would always load up when visiting relatives in IL.
(Had to mix in the yellow coloring that was included with the margarine yourself!)

When we moved to IL, we had our choice of margarines!

I use butter, oil or shortening in baking, margarine spread for toast and butter and/or hi-ratio shortening for frosting. Also use coconut oil for frying eggs and making popcorn.

Couldn't find any info on Blue Bonnet butter or oil/butter blend.....

ConAgra Foods lists: (Blue Bonnet) stick margarine, light stick margarine, margarine bowl, and light margarine bowl.

Margarine choices (stick, spread, oil/butter blends):

http://tinyurl.com/645463

More info on Smart Balance oil/butter blend sticks:

http://tinyurl.com/5ja3ym

There seem to be some misconceptions about the fat and water content of margarine, salted and unsalted butter:
(Margarine & salted butter are the same, while unsalted butter can have a slightly higher water content.)

http://tinyurl.com/hresc
(Chart showing compostion of salted, unsalted & whipped butter.)

The real deal (facts) on margarine being one molecule away from plastic being spread via the internet:

http://www.snopes.com/food/warnings/butter.asp

Unsalted butter may be "fresher" than salted butter in the store because it has a shorter shelf life (so faster turn-over than salted butter).

Substituting salted butter for unsalted:

http://www.ochef.com/865.htm

Difference between butter and margarine:

http://www.ochef.com/864.htm

Don't understand the prohibition against using salted butter in the meringue b/c's...... (Unless it's because salt lowers the melting point of butter.)

These popular CC Italian & Swiss meringue b/c recipes use salted butter:

http://www.cakecentral.com/cake_recipe-2426-Italian-Meringue-Buttercream--Shirleys-Method.html

http://www.cakecentral.com/cake_recipe-6927-Very-Vanilla-Swiss-Meringue-Buttercream.html

IMHO, they're all good (for somebody) and personal taste is the deciding factor (or maybe your budget given current inflation rates).

HTH

Butter melts. Margarine don't. If you leave them both out on the counter on a 90 deg day. The butter will be a puddle. The margarine will be standing as tall as ever. The lower melting pt. of butter is what gives it a better mouth feel for baked goods. Ever have a bake good stick to the inside of your mouth? That's the one with the margarine.

Mike

Wow thanks JanH for the ton of information, you are so good at finding this stuff, and Mike now I know why I love butter in my cookies. Seriously though if prices don't go down my cookies will be sticking to the top of my mouth. Hahahahahahaha................no offense to margarine users. I use both here myself, just not for baking. YET.

butter all the way! margarine is just gross


there's a reason why margarine is so cheap!

Hey Jan, just try some salted butter in your S/IMBC and you'll see why! It whips up all the same, but its nothing I would want on a cake! (you can really taste the salt)