I noticed veggie shortening and the vegan butters (earth balance) have palm oil in them and I believe palm oil is not A compliant.  I notice I do best with NO MILK or detrivatives/caseins, etc.  What do any of you use to make cookies?  Brands, etc.  Veggie oil I have read works for sweet breads.  I am also trying to make a pie crust stick together and need a shortening substitute.  Please advise.  Thank you!

Ghee, ghee, and ghee

no caseins?  does not make sense to me how could be casein free

It's my understanding that the baddies all get cooked off, leaving only the yummy goodness behind .

Quoted from mzunforgettable

no caseins?  does not make sense to me how could be casein free

It is my understanding that casein is a milk protein or sugar...  Ghee is only pure milkfat, so it no longer has any sugar, protein, or water in it...

I have had some good success just switching the fat for non-tofu in recipes.  Of course would not work so well for B's though.  Makes a less fat product.  Any reason why I want to keep the fats in my diet?  I am trying to stay thin.  Then again I am also trying to attract a B male as I want AB kids.    I guess I don't want to share my fat free tofu cookies/desserts with him though.  B's can eat the caseins though, correct?  Actually caseins are B beneficial?      

Here is a good explanation of why ghee is okay to eat, even if one is avoiding casein...http://www.kurma.net/ingredients/i2.html

Quoted from Drea

Here is a good explanation of why ghee is okay to eat, even if one is avoiding casein...http://www.kurma.net/ingredients/i2.html

Thanks for sharing that Drea. To make Ghee is on my to do list today.

I've also used liquid vegetable oils in recipes calling for solid shortening or fat. You need to use a little bit less oil than the fat called for, and be prepared for the cookies to have a slightly different texture.

I routinely bake cookies for my kids using eggs, flax, whatever  oil I have in the house (grapeseed, or a nut oil such as macadamia), honey, spelt flour, and oatmeal, then I usually stir in raisins or chocolate chips to make them more interesting. I've posted a few versions of my cookie recipes in the typebase, but generally I toss ingredients together without using a real recipe.

Quoted from 10809

Thanks for sharing that Drea. To make Ghee is on my to do list today.

Let us know how it goes, okay? One more convert!

It says to make ghee, unsalted butter is used.  But can salted butter be used?  If not, what would be the reason?

Quoted from mzunforgettable

Any reason why I want to keep the fats in my diet?  I am trying to stay thin.

Most of the time, fats are not the cause of weight gain.  

Why you want to keep fats in your diet is that your body needs a balance of good fats for it to function properly...  Get short of fats and the nerves and brain activity slows down, joints aren't properly lubricated, etc...

Quoted from Momotaro

It says to make ghee, unsalted butter is used.  But can salted butter be used?  If not, what would be the reason?

Yes, the salt sinks to the bottom with the milk solids.  The ghee tastes the same when finished and filtered.

Quoted from Drea

Let us know how it goes, okay? One more convert!

I made it. There was plenty of foam on the top. I removed that but there was not much residue on the bottom. Could that be because it is natural, churned, unsalted butter. It is a nice golden brown. I buy brown rice pasta to make my son kraft dinner and get rid of the pasta which comes with it. I tried the ghee in it. He said it tasted too greasy. I find it ghee greasy as well. Funny how we change. We all used to love butter and had a hard time switching to olive oil margerine and now it will be hard to get used to the ghee. Just read the posts again, I think I can sell him on the cla. lol I was wondering if you can stock up and buy butter when it is on sale and freeze it to make ghee as you need it. Something my mom used to do was put butter on oatmeal and spice it as you like. I like it from time to time. For you ghee lovers, you may like that. I can see why it is so expensive to buy already made. I did not get much ghee from half a block of butter.

Quoted from Drea

Here is a good explanation of why ghee is okay to eat, even if one is avoiding casein...http://www.kurma.net/ingredients/i2.html

helpful - thank you!

Quoted from ABJoe

Most of the time, fats are not the cause of weight gain.  

Why you want to keep fats in your diet is that your body needs a balance of good fats for it to function properly...  Get short of fats and the nerves and brain activity slows down, joints aren't properly lubricated, etc...

I eat a dose of flax seed oil everyday for fat and omegas, enough?

Quoted from 10809

I was wondering if you can stock up and buy butter when it is on sale and freeze it to make ghee as you need it.

That's exactly what I do!

I get 15 ounces of ghee from a pound of butter. Perhaps you are cooking too fast, on too high a heat? Go as low as your burner will let you; that's my advice.

Quoted from Drea

That's exactly what I do!

I get 15 ounces of ghee from a pound of butter. Perhaps you are cooking too fast, on too high a heat? Go as low as your burner will let you; that's my advice.

I did it on low and used a glass pot. I am wondering, if you intend on using it for cooking, should you not opt for the brownish color. Mine is not solidifying on the counter top. Is it supposed to stay liquid?

Quoted from mzunforgettable

  Any reason why I want to keep the fats in my diet?  I am trying to stay thin.  Then again I am also trying to attract a B male as I want AB kids.    I guess I don't want to share my fat free tofu cookies/desserts with him though.  B's can eat the caseins though, correct?  Actually caseins are B beneficial?      

If you don't eat enough fats, your body will hang on for dear life to any fats that are stored in your body.  It's hard to lose weight that way.

Dr. D has listed the fats that are good for your particular genotype/bloodtype.  Just take note of the recommended portions.  I aim for 1 Tb or less of all added fats each day, because that is what is suggested on my own food list.

(And, oh yeah, B's are good people!!)  

Quoted from mzunforgettable

I eat a dose of flax seed oil everyday for fat and omegas, enough?

I can't answer that...  The best advice I can give is for you to follow your SWAMI guidelines...

Quoted from 10809

I can see why it is so expensive to buy already made. I did not get much ghee from half a block of butter.

I get about a pint of ghee from each pound of butter.

If it tasted too greasy, try using less of it next time. Remember that butter is milkfat plus water, while ghee is pure milkfat. Try using about 3/4 as much ghee as you used to use butter, and possibly add a bit of water to the recipe as well.

I'm wondering why you got so little ghee. How did you filter it- maybe too much got lost in the filtering process? I never skim mine- whatever floats to the top gets strained out at the end anyway. I strain it through a fine mesh metal strainer.

I tried it again today, this super taster finds it just too strong in taste. I was burping the taste for hours after. It overwhelmed my food. Maybe I will try making it again but this time not make it brown. It did solidify a little after leaving it out over night but not enough to be spread with a butter knife. It would drip off and it had a strange texture. Like when butter gets left out too long. Perhaps I did something wrong. All I did was skim it and then poured it into the container carefully to leave the bottom residue in the pot.

Maybe you left too little in the pot when you poured it out, and/or took off too much when you skimmed it.

I don't skim. I just let it simmer until it smells good, then let it cool a little (not too much) and then pour through a metal strainer into a glass jar. The strainer catches the sediments so I don't need to worry about leaving a little in the bottom of the pot.

It's important to use a metal strainer, not a plastic one. I melted a strainer once that way (but with schmaltz, not ghee.)

what is schmaltz? I thought that was a made-up word meaning "stuff" .

No, it's a Yiddish word meaning chicken fat. It came to mean "stuff" because old-world Jewish cooks would add schmaltz to foods for extra flavor. The traditional way of preparing schmaltz is to take raw chicken fat (including pieces of skin attached to the fat) and cook it with an onion added to the fat as it cooks- the end result isn't just rendered chicken fat, but something with a very distinctive flavor. I don't know if chicken fat would have a milder flavor if rendered without the onion- I've never tried that.

Long  before there were commercially available vegetable oils, kosher cooks used schmaltz for cooking meat meals and butter for cooking dairy meals.

Thanks ruthie! I love learning new things.

stuff would be schmontzes

schmaltz is rendered chicken fat, like the one the rabby s wife cooked with which almost killed him.......

Griebenschmalz (pork with skin pieces schmaltz)is very popular in Austria and Germany.

schmaltz comes in many shapes and sizes depending on individuality and customs and all
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schmaltz