Differences between cooking oils when baking?!
Thanks for all answers in advance.
Answers: When a baking recipe calls for vegetable oil, is it ok to use other kinds of oils, such as safflower or canola or even extra virgin olive oil? What is the actual difference between oils, anyway, other than taste and different burning points such as if you were deep frying? I don't want to use shortening or lard... since I've heard that certain oils are more nutritious e.g. higher in Vitamin E or omega 3s or 6s...
Thanks for all answers in advance.
Use veggie or canola oil for baking. Check out this reference it will tell you everything you want to know about oils.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cooking_oil
Different fats have different flavours. Also, for frying, different fats have different cooking temperatures. Butter for instance has a very low cooking temperature and burns easily, whereas peanut oil has a very high cooking temperature.
It is a matter of taste. Especially virgin olive oil; it has a strong flavor. There is an Italian lemon cake that calls for olive oil, it has a certain texture unique to that cake. Because of taste, I use half melted butter and half corn oil because I like the taste best, even if the recipe calls for all oil.
Safflower, canola, and olive oil are all vegetable oils. So are palm oil, soybean oil,pumpkin seed oil, corn oil, sunflower oil, peanut oil, grape seed oil, sesame oil, argan oil and rice bran oil.
Aside from the taste and smoke point, there's the amount of cholesterol and the way the oil affects our cholesterol levels to consider.
I don't know all the virtues and downsides of all the oils, but I do know coconut oil is saturated, and raises both LDL and HDL cholesterol levels. Corn, soybean, safflower, and cottonseed oils are polyunsaturated and lower LDL and raise HDL cholesterol levels. Olive oil, canola oil, and peanut oil are monounsaturated and lower LDL and raise HDL cholesterol levels.