A Butter-ing Story

Previously, I set up a poll in KakiCookie to get opinions on my cookies price. Some people voted 'quite expensive' which I agree although some of my friends and voters said the price is reasonable.

For the price, I meticulously calculated each sen spent on the ingredients, electricity, my work effort and other costs such as petrol to and fro the bakery supply shop, the packaging etc etc. At first, the price I came up with is so expensive that I thought that if I continue with that price, nobody would want to buy my cookies. So, I chipped in here and there, reducing some cents that I thought I should. Finally I came up with the current price.

Still people find it expensive.

So, I did some survey on others who sell cookies and their price. I wonder how come some traders get to sell their cookies cheap?

Luckily, my mom opened a booth in Pameran Kerja Kahwin at Kompleks Kraf Jalan Conlay this week. Opportunity for me to survey the price and sample some of the homemade cookies sold there. Well, some are quite expensive and some are cheaper than mine.

Then, I tasted the cookies. Some are good and some are just so-so. There's this one tasty chocolate chip cookie that I taste and the price was quite cheap! I wonder why. So I bought a jar. It was so tasty that I ask everyone to eat it and I myself eat quite a lot.

Then, came the aftertaste. This cookies left some annoying feel on the teeth. You know the feeling as if your teeth is covered with sand paper. I know the cause of this as I've taste something like this before. These kinds of cookies use shortening instead of butter as the oil. I knew because when I was new to baking, I tried this recipe I found on the net that calls for a combination of butter and shortening . At that time I didn't knew that shortening has the same function as butter in baking cookies. This means, you can use either butter, shortening or any types of vegetable oil for your cookies. Each has their own pro and cons.

• Butter will give more flavour compared to the other two.
• Vegetable oil such as canola or corn oil is a healthier options for those who is a calorie-counter but it has less flavour so the cookies will not taste the same as cookies made with butter. They are also more expensive than butter.
• Shortening is a cheaper option than butter. Cookies may taste the same but as I mentioned earlier, it left an after taste which I found annoying. But it is an option for those who are lactose-intolerant and can't eat dairies.

For me, I'd rather pay more for cookies to have those sinfully fatty butter flavor rather than an annoying aftertaste on my teeth. However, if I use the more expensive option - vegetable oil, my cookies would be much more expensive than the current price. I think this is not viable in Malaysia especially for a newcomer cookies' baker like me.

My conclusion: maybe, my cookies are more expensive than others because I'm using totally butter in my batter, no shortening substitute or using half-butter-half-shortening to cut price or even using butter oil to bring out the flavour. It's always customers' choice: to buy or not to buy :D

Salam and Cheers!