Interesting result with ghee

[Lindsey]

Having set my heart on making an Eve's Pudding on Sunday and being under a Severe Weather Warning, I was saddened to find I only had 2/3 of the required amount of butter needed for the sponge topping, but I suddenly remembered I had snapped up a reduced tin of Ghee earlier in the year. I used this in the sponge mix to make up the 1/3 missing butter and the result was really good. The delicious slightly crunchy topping of sponge straight from the oven stayed for the 2 day life of the pud, and the flavour was a more intense butteriness than with straight butter, texture of the sponge was lighter than usual but the flavour made up for this tenfold. I will use again and try in different ways.

Any suggestions? Quite a large tin!!

[Keith_W]

A friend of mine owns a bakery. He says: use lard or ghee as a substitute for everything! Use it as a substitute for butter. Use it to fry food. It will make everything taste better and come out with a nicer texture. The downside is that it is not very good for you ...

[Blether]

What kind of ghee is it ? 100% pure butter ghee ? Or is it one of the ones with things like cottonseed oil blended in, and so a bit like Crisco crossed with butter ?

[Lisa Shock]

You have to watch out with certain substitutions. Some cookies, for example, rely on the water in the butter to activate the gluten in the flour to make a chewy texture. With ghee, high ratio shortening or lard you need to add some water to the mixture for the recipe to work properly. This is why some bizcochito recipes call for wine or orange juice.

[Mjx]

. . . .

Any suggestions? Quite a large tin!!

The results sound great, but... suggestions for what? Using ghee generally? Substitutions?

What kind of ghee is it ? 100% pure butter ghee ? Or is it one of the ones with things like cottonseed oil blended in, and so a bit like Crisco crossed with butter ?

Do those blends actually count as ghee? I thought that by definition ghee had to be made from butter only.