What is the difference between using butter and shortening in cookies?
Cookies made with butter which is a fat that will melt at a rather low temperature will spread. Cookies made with shortening, which doesn’t melt at a low temp like butter, spreads much less so the cookies will retain their shape much better. But you can combine the two to make a cookie that has that wonderful buttery flavor and the better shape and less spread with shortening. This is very handy when it comes to trying to make really large cookies. If you just use butter for big cookies, they tend to really spread and the edges may burn and get greasy. But the real difference between butter and shortening or lard can be seen in making pastry dough.
