Can I Have Your Fat?

That line is from “Caddyshack” one of my favorite movies and a substance I’m trying to avoid. But if you want to bake you need some sort of fat, usually butter, margarine or shortening. Here are a couple I like:
Plugrá European-Style Butter

From Blog Pictures

Plugrá European-Style Butter has less water than regular butter so stuff comes out much creamier, I’m sure there some fancy scientific reason, look it up if you care that much. Many markets have it but it seems to be cheapest at Smart & Final. Butter is considered the more gourmet choice and I like using it because I can’t eat too much, really I should eat no dairy, so it gives me a good reason to stop eating.

If you’re going to bake with margarine there are two things you need to know. First off you have to use hard stick margarine, you can’t use tub margarine, it won’t work. However most stick margarines still, even today, are chock full of trans fats. One good stick margarine without trans fat is I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter Sticks.

From Blog Pictures

This stuff is quite good, quite inexpensive and available almost everywhere. Go here for a coupon. I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter Sticks are not vegan though, they have a small amount of dairy whey. There’s another brand that is vegan, it's a lot more expensive though.  If I try it and like it I’ll let you know.