Tropical Traditions Organic Palm Shortening – Review & Giveaway

I’ve reviewed many products from Tropical Traditions on here, from coconut oil to skin exfoliant. I’ve enjoyed using their products, so when they asked me if I would like to review another item from their line, I naturally agreed! I decided to try out a gallon of their organic Palm Shortening, since I love to cook. And one lucky Contest Corner reader will win their own gallon of Palm Shortening, so read on!

My Take:

Last month, Jai and I attended an annual Christmas party thrown by some friends. It’s become tradition for me to bring a pie to this event as my hostess gift – I’ve become somewhat famous for my pie crusts, and when I’m making a dessert for an event, people often request that I bring a pie. I usually make an oil crust, which always surprises people. It seems to be a lesser-known way to make crusts, and people tell me that my pie crusts are so flaky that they can’t believe it’s anything other than butter. But I was all out of vegetable oil, and I didn’t feel like thawing out butter, so I decided to try out the Palm Shortening that Tropical Traditions sent me for the first time. I’ve never tried palm oil before – when I’ve used shortening in the past, it’s always been Crisco or something similar. I knew a pie crust would really put this palm shortening to the test: You can conceal the taste of an ingredient in cakes and cookies, but there’s no hiding anything in a crust; and I thought the palm oil might change the flavor somewhat.

The first thing that struck me about the shortening was the texture. It’s very firm, similar to coconut oil – not at all like greasy, smeary shortening that I’ve used before. In fact, the greasy mess that shortening makes is the reason why I never buy it; I bake with margarine these days. But although it wasn’t as messy, this shortening started to make me nervous. It looked so unlike anything I had ever used, and here I was putting in a pie crust just 2 hours before the party. I’m a highly experimental chef, but I thought that perhaps I would regret my decision to do something so drastic with no time for a do-over – especially since I have a reputation for good crusts! Oh, what was I thinking!

However, I was very surprised at how nice the crust looked and how easy it was to roll out and manipulate. In fact, this ended up being one of the best-looking crusts I’ve made in a while. I nibbled a little bit of the pastry to see how it compared, and it tasted like regular pie crust – I didn’t detect any odd flavor. Here’s a snapshot of the pastry before I filled the it:

I then scooped in blackberry pie filling (the recipe for that is here), rolled out the top crust and baked. With everything going on at the party, I never did taste the finished product, but it seemed to be a big hit since it disappeared quickly – Jai told me it was really good. My pie crust reputation is intact, and the shortening was so nice to work with in the crust that I fully intend to use it in other pies.

Win it!

One lucky Contest Corner reader will win a gallon of Tropical Traditions Organic Palm Shortening! Here’s how to enter:

1. For your first entry, click here to subscribe to the Tropical Traditions Sales Newsletter. Then come back here and leave a comment with the email address you used to subscribe!

This step is required to qualify for the drawing. Be sure to leave an email address with your comment, so that I may notify you in the event that you are the lucky winner!

Want extra entries? Do any of the following, and leave a separate comment for each one:

2. Click here to visit Tropical Traditions’ Free Coconut Recipe website. Then come back here and leave a comment mentioning your favorite recipe!
3. Write a post on your blog linking to this giveaway and Tropical Traditions. Then come back here and leave me the link!
4. Write about this on Twitter, then come back and leave me the link to your tweet!
5. Subscribe to my blog updates by entering your email into the “Subscribe” box in the sidebar. Then come back and leave me the email you subscribed with!
6. Become a follower of my blog by clicking the “Follow” button in my sidebar! Then come back here and let me know in a separate comment!
7. Post my button on your website – just copy and paste the following code, and let me know where you put it:

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8. I am offering extra entries into all of my giveaways this month for donations made to Hope For Haiti. Click here to donate to Hope For Haiti via PayPal, and you will receive one extra entry for every dollar donated. Just leave a separate comment on this post with your donation invoice number. Leave a separate comment for each dollar – i.e., if you donate one dollar, leave one comment, if you donate five dollars, leave five comments, etc.

Disclaimer: Tropical Traditions provided me with a free sample of this product to review, and I was under no obligation to review it if I so chose. Nor was I under any obligation to write a positive review or sponsor a product giveaway in return for the free product.