The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Do quality of a butter affect bread texture smell etc etc

owen1989's picture
owen1989

Do quality of a butter affect bread texture smell etc etc

wondering on ways to inform my bread rolls recipe..

so there is a wide range of butter..some double triple and maybe even 4 times the price..

how  much can 90gm of butter in a 1kg flour recipe affect? Does the quality of the butter matters? In what way..fat content is still there afterall..

likewise for using margarine and oil?

how is butter better than those 2? Since butter price is higher..

thx newbie adjusting ingradients

drogon's picture
drogon

It's as simple as that.

However I've no idea what country you're in - where I live, butter legally must contain at least 80% fat. After that its all down to provenance - outdoor/free range reared cows, organic, direct from the farm, supermarket and so on.

I buy butter by the 5Kg stick and it comes from a local(ish) farm via a small wholesaler. It's not organic but the cows are outdoor reared. It's about the same cost as the supermarket stuff, but it also has a slightly higher fat content and I feel I'm supporting small/local businesses rather than the big supermarkets.

-Gordon

gerhard's picture
gerhard

Butter has good natural flavour I don't think the same can be said about margarine.  If you are making an upmarket product and butter is called for don't replace it with a lower cost fat.  If you are mass producing a price sensitive commodity then you may have no other option if you want to make a profit.

Gerhard

Arjon's picture
Arjon

involves whether / how much the difference is noticeable and whether you think paying the additional cost is "worth it". The former is basically a matter of palates - yours and the other eaters'. The latter is pretty subjective and situational; e.g. you might decide to use higher-cost ingredients when you bake for others vs just for yourself. 

Ingrid G's picture
Ingrid G

Why not make your own butter? There are numerous instructions online, and you get a better taste in all your cooking.

drogon's picture
drogon

I've made butter. Great fun - sort of a "party trick" to make butter and use the butter milk to make soda bread - instant bread and butter in about half an hour.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxqY8CchJnI

The down side is that it's not economically viable for me to home-make my own butter. Wish it were, but )-:

 

-Gordon