Do you ever realize how absent minded you are when you’re baking? You know that feeling. When you’re almost done and your oven is preheated to perfection, then you reach for your handy Pam spray to grease your baking pan and it’s not there. This happens to me all the time. I wish I was kidding─it’s happened like 5 times in a row this week alone.
Now, when this happens to me I do not have the time to run to the store to buy Pam. So, I just make do with other ways to grease my baking pan (or just pray that nonstick really is nonstick). Because cooking sprays aren’t really good for you in general. Plus I’m a college kid on a budget.
Shortening
Shortening is generally made of a combination of vegetable oils. As most non-stick sprays are generally a combination of vegetable oil and lecithin, shortening does a pretty similar job creating a non-stick alternative. Simply take a bit of shortening and rub it across your baking surface.
#SpoonTip: Put some flour on top of the shortening and you have a perfect non-stick surface for a cake.
Butter
Many recipes call for buttering a pan instead of greasing it. This is because the fatty cells in butter create a non-stick coat on your pan. I’ve used it many times by just taking a stick of butter and running it around the surface of a pan to grease (prime example: buttering a pan and coating it with powdered sugar for marshmallows).
#SpoonTip: Use a bit of cocoa powder mixed in with the flour if you’re making brownies. Keeps the edges brown.
Vegetable Oil
Most commercial baking sprays are made with vegetable oil, which makes this a no brainer when it comes to using this as a replacement to grease your pans. All you have to do is pour some of your vegetable oil on a paper towel and rub it along the sides of the pan in order to make sure the whole thing is coated.
Bacon Fat
This one is slightly less versatile, unless you don’t mind a slight taste of bacon with your baked goods. Nevertheless, bacon fat makes a good substitute and─really─who doesn’t love bacon?
Now get baking. It’ll make you feel better.