Fats and oils are important bakery ingredients. In bakery foods, shortenings impart tenderness, give a moister mouthfeel, contribute structure, lubricate, incorporate air, and transfer heat. In addition to modifying the mouthfeel or texture, they often add taste of their own and tend to round off harsh notes in some of the spicy taste. Moreover, fats and oils often aid in manipulation of doughs, provide for aeration and resultant leavening of the final product, modify gluten (particularly in development of yeast‐raised doughs), act as emulsifiers for holding of liquids (shortenings). In the case of layered doughs, they provide for development of flakiness in products (Danish and puffed pastry products).
Properties of a fat that determine its ability to carry out these functions are the ratio of solid to liquid phase, the plasticity of a solid shortening, and the oxidative stability of the solid fat or oil. The oil fraction of a plastic shortening or oil in baked products gives a tender bite, moist mouthfeel, and lubricity. In turn, the solid fraction of a plastic shortening or solid fat contributes to the structure of the dough and the final baked product and entraps air bubbles during mixing of recipe ingredients.