Shortening

Shortening is one of those baking ingredients that I used liberally, making cookies and other baked goods when our family was younger. We all ate it up!

Shortening makes baking tender and flaky, but it fell off its pedestal as the go-to fat when it was divulged that, as a partially hydrogenated vegetable oil, it was high in trans-fats and, therefore, bad for our arterial health.

Then about 5 years ago Crisco, the had-been staple in my pantry, underwent a transformation to make it safer to use for all of us health-conscious folks. With 50% less saturated fat than butter and zero grams of trans-fats per serving, shortening may again be used with impunity for all that delicious baking.

 As in these Chocolate Chip Cookies. Yum!!