Type of Oil in Molasses Cookies?

[lovessushi]

Hi!
Starting the holiday cookie bake tomorrow night..finally...

This recipe http://www.canada.com/life/Molasses+c... calls for 2tb of canola oil. I have olive. Any chance I can use the olive or is that a dumb idea? I I don't use canola oil and don't really want to buy a whole bottle just for 2tb.
Perhaps I should consider another recipe...

Thanks!

[sandylc]

I'm in the all-butter crowd.

[lovessushi]

Thanks to all - sorry I forgot to respond. In the end I decided not to make them...too worried about the olive oil not working after all my work...(no mixer and tired of creaming by hand!). I do plan to try them next week!

[cstr]

Don't use olive oil, too heavy in taste, you can sub veg oil instead of canola.

[meatn3]

You may find this prior thread of interest:

http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/869487

[willownt]

I have never used oil in a molasses cookie, nor can I remember having seen a recipe for them that used oil. I initially wondered if the cookie was from some Canola oil or Canadian products brochure.... Anyway I would substitute more butter, or, if there is a butter shortage, vegetable shortening (crisco). As I recall, my grandma's recipe calls for shortening but she uses margarine. I make mine with all butter, and they are fine. No overwhelmingly buttery taste or dairy overload to speak of.

[juliejulez]

The recipe I use also calls for shortening and I just sub out butter as well. No oil in my recipe either. But in general I don't think I'd ever use olive oil of any kind as a sub for vegetable or canola oil.

[C. Hamster]

I agree that the oil seems strange

I'd use all butter, as well

[maria lorraine]

The recipe calls for 2 T. butter and 2 T. canola oil. Just use 4 T. of butter.

Canola often smells/tastes like fish when exposed to high temps. The cookies will taste better with butter anyway. BTW, the procedure/directions as described seems faulty: the butter and sugars are combined first, then the egg, and so forth. This makes a difference in the final product.

P.S. A similar cookie I can recommend very highly is the Chow Super-Sized Ginger Chewies cookie recipe here. One of the very best I've ever had. I double, even triple, the spices:
http://www.chow.com/recipes/10071-sup...

[Khatru]

Ooh. I really would try not to use olive oil in those cookies. You need the most neutral tasting oil you can find. Molasses cookies are such a wonderful palette for the spices and molasses you don't want to mess it up. I make molasses cookies all thru the holidays and don't even use oil in my recipe, just butter.

[meatn3]

Provided your olive oil is neutral flavor-wise it will be fine. Even if it is a little on the fruity side the molasses and spices will be the predominant flavor.

[ipsedixit]

You can, but it will change the flavor of the cookie. Olive oil has a much more pronounced and stronger flavor profile than canola (which is basically tasteless). The concern with using olive oil is that might compete with the molasses flavor, or worse, overwhelm the molasses.

[magiesmom]

While I think neutral oil is better I personally dislike canola oil. At any rate, it is unlikely that 2T is going to overwhelm the flavor of 1/3 cup of molasses

[lovessushi]

Thanks - yes, I was afraid it might overwhelm the cookie...I think I'll take my chances, and try it out...it is very neutral olive oil - actually it's light (I mean to buy extra virgin and picked up the wrong thing) so hopefully it will work out...

Thanks for helping :)

[Becca Porter]

Oh yeah, light oo will be fine.