New Year Resolution 1: Eat Healthy
One week into the New Year, and already desperately trying to hold onto your resolutions? A few easy substitutions can assuage the guilt of having a little indulgence .
Fats play an important role in baking, and messing with them can have consequences. Butter, oh glorious sweet creamy butter, is responsible for the tenderness, moisture and richness in flavor of baked goods. However, eating too much also has consequences, and the holiday season often results in too much of a good thing, namely that glorious butter (combined with heaps of sugar). So if your new year plan involves looking to cut calories and saturated fat, we have some suggestions of substitutes to help you achieve your goal and still enjoy delicious favorites. Find below 5 easy substitutions. Some work better than others depending on the recipe, and it may take a little experimenting.
Applesauce (unsweetened)
Can successfully be used as an alternative to both butter and oil.
Works best: in cake-like recipes or quick breads.
How to use: Replace half the amount of butter in your recipe with applesauce. If you don’t mind a more dense texture, replace the entire amount of butter with applesauce.
Example: If your recipe calls for 1 C. butter, use ½ C. butter and ½ C. applesauce instead.
Bananas (Mashed)
Can successfully be used in place of oil.
Works best: In quick breads and coffee cakes. Because bananas are dense, they are not ideal for baked goods intended to have a lighter texture.
How to use: For every 1 cup of oil, you can substitute it with ½ cup of mashed banana.Use a very ripe (yellow with dark brown spots) for sweetness or a green banana if you don’t want competing flavors.
Example: If your recipe calls for 1 C. Oil, use ½ C. mashed bananas instead
Greek yogurt (plain)
Can successfully be used in place of butter or oil
Works best: In cookie recipes (as a sub for butter), and muffins, brownies and cakes (as a sub for oil)
How to use: Replace half the amount of butter in your cookie recipes with ¼ the amount of full-fat plain Greek yogurt. Replace half the amount of oil in your recipe and substitute in ¾ C. Greek yogurt.
Example: if the recipe calls for 1C. butter, use ½ C. butter and 1/4 C. yogurt
Example: if the recipe calls for 1C. oil, use ½ C. oil and ¾ C. yogurt
Prune purée (or prune butter)
Can successfully be used in place of butter
Works best: In chocolate recipes or when using spices such as cinnamon.
How to use: Replace butter with equal ratio of prune puree
Example: If your recipe calls for 1 C. butter, replace with 1 C. prune puree
Pumpkin Puree (unsweetened)
Can successfully be used in place of butter
Works best: Similar to applesauce, this substitute works best in cakier baked goods such as spice cake, quick breads, muffins, cakes, and even brownies
How to use: Replace half the amount of butter in your recipe with pumpkin puree .
Example: If your recipe calls for 1 C. butter, use ½ C. butter and ½ C. pumpkin puree instead.
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