I’ve always been something of a dilettante about pie crusts. I’ve gone through phases when I’d make them with cream cheese or add herbs or spices. Sometimes I’d add ground nuts, cocoa or, for apple pies, cheddar cheese. When we became aware of the dangers of trans fat, I threw away my Crisco and went to all-butter crusts. They’re delicious and easy to make and roll out.
Then a couple weeks ago I noticed the cholesterol count on the butter package and nearly fainted. One tablespoon has a whopping 30 grams and most double crust recipes use at least 12 tablespoons. I’ve long known butter is worse than lard in terms of saturated fat, but when I put the numbers side by side, I knew my all-butter days were over:
| Calories | Total fat | Sat fat | Trans fat | Cholesterol | |
| Butter | 100 | 11g | 7g | 0g | 30mg |
| Lard | 120 | 13g | 5g | 0g | 10mg |
| Crisco | 110 | 12g | 3g | 0g | 0mg |
Now let’s take a closer look:
| Monounsaturated | Polyunsaturated | |
| Butter | 4g | 1g |
| Lard | 6g | 2g |
| Crisco | 2.5g | 6g |
Even though I make only a few pies a year, I often cook with some butter and every gram counts. It’s a small, controllable step, one of many over the course of a year. Changing crusts — again — is an easy choice for me, now that Crisco has so little trans fat it can put zero on the label. It might be entirely free of it, but who knows? The government allows any per-serving trans fat amount that is below .5 to be listed as 0mg. So much for truth in labeling; I’d prefer reserving 0 for those truly absent of trans fat and using “trace” or < .5 for the others.
I’ll still cook with butter and there will be special times when I use a small amount in crusts and I will continue to use some lard for crusts at Thanksgiving. But most of the time I will be using all vegetable shortening.
While I would never presume to suggest anyone else do the same, I did remove the all-butter crusts I posted in the spring. I won’t be using them again.
For extensive and in-depth information about oils, fats and their composition, consult this resource at Hormel’s website.
Related: Pie Crust, Crisco and Trans Fat
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Don’t worry about using butter, its so good for you!!!
Don’t listen to goverment recommendations; look here for more info too:
http://www.westonaprice.org/knowyourfats/skinny.html
Nothing tastes as good as butter when you cook, especially things like tarte tatin. What would your grandma think?
Love the blog, more please (repost your all-butter crusts for me)!!
cheers
That site certainly presents an alternate opinion. Thanks for the link.
When you find a crust recipe you like, just sub butter for whatever fat it calls for. They’re interchangeable. The one at Pie Crust, Crisco and Trans Fat works beautifully with butter.
It good to see a health conscious baker. I love food but do have issues with the high amount of fat in food today. i think we can cook great tasting food without all the fat and calories. That way i can eat more and not worry about gaining weight or dropping dead of a heart attack.
Pies are my favorite!
Thumbs up to you!
Joyangel123
Thank you so much!
I’ve found there are limits to how much fat can be cut out of baked goods without sacrificing palatability, but nearly every recipe can be made healthier, if only by a little. It adds up.