Fondant Icing

[AnnaLeeBotha]

I live in South Africa and found a fondant icing recipe that looks pretty easy to make. The recipe uses Crisco Shortening. I have no idea what that is. Are there any substitutes I could use in the place of the Crisco Shortening for the icing?

[sunshine842]

Crisco is an all-vegetable shortening that remains very soft at room temperature.

Don't know what the equivalent would be in SA.

[AnnaLeeBotha]

Thanks :-) I will check to see if we have something similar here. Why do they call it "shortening" ?

[sunshine842]

Good question! Wikipedia says that "The reason it is called shortening is that it prevents cross-linkage between gluten molecules. Cross linking gives dough elasticity. In pastries such as cake, which should not be elastic, shortening is used.[1] Although butter is solid at room temperature and is frequently used in making pastry, the term "shortening" seldom refers to butter but is more closely related to margarine." (I didn't know that, either, but it makes sense!)

I looked around the websites for Pick n Pay and Woolworths....but i don't see anything (which could mean I'm not looking in the right place....)

I found an old thread here: http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/406390 that says that Holsum could be used, and a blog here: http://www.food24.com/Experts/Juliet_... that says to try Wooden Spoon margarine.

It's an all-vegetable fat that is solid at room temperature...?

Hope that helps.