Fruitful Fat Substitutes

Looking for a healthful and delicious way to trim some fat from your baked goods? Think fruit. By now, everyone has heard about using applesauce as a fat substitute, but a variety of other products including pured canned pears, peaches, apricots, and plums a pure made from one part prunes and two parts water baby food fruit pures and mashed bananas can also replace part or all of the fat in baked goods. !ow do fruit pures work? "at performs many vital functions in baking, some of which can be duplicated by fruit pures. "or instance, fat adds moistness and flavor, promotes browning, and imparts tenderness. "ruit pures reduce the need for fat because their fibers and naturally occurring sugars hold moisture into baked goods. These same fruit sugars also promote browning. "ruit pures also help tenderi#e baked goods, though not nearly to the e$tent that fat does. %ome recipes are better candidates for fat reduction than others. &hich baked goods are most suited to the use of fruitful fat substitutes? 'uick breads and muffins, dense cakes such as carrot cakes and fudgy chocolate cakes, and brownies and chewy cookies are some of the most easily slimmed(down recipes. )ackaged muffin, *uick bread, and cake mi$es are also easily prepared with little or no fat. Baked goods that are meant to have a very light, tender te$ture are more difficult to make without fat. !owever, you can often eliminate +, to ,- percent of the fat in these recipes, too. !ow do you go about substituting fruit pures and other ingredients for the fat in recipes? .eplace the desired amount of butter, margarine, or other solid shortening with half as much fat substitute. "or instance, if you are omitting /0+ cup of butter from a recipe, replace it with /01 cup of fruit pure. 23f the recipe calls for oil, substitute three( fourths as much pure.4 5i$ up the batter. 3f it seems too dry, add a little more fruit pure. To insure the greatest success when trimming the fat from your favorite recipes, also keep the following tips in mind.

At first, eliminate only half the fat in a recipe. The ne$t time you make the recipe, try replacing even more fat. 6ontinue reducing the fat until you find the lowest amount that will give you the results you desire. Use low-gluten flours. &heat flour contains proteins that when mi$ed with li*uid into a batter, form tough strands called gluten. "at tenderi#es baked goods by interfering with this process. This is why removing the fat from baked goods often makes them tough or rubbery. %ince sugar also interferes with gluten formation, many fat(free and low(fat recipes solve this problem by adding e$tra sugar. 7nfortunately, this also means e$tra calories and an overly sweet product. &hat8s a better solution? 7se low(gluten flours like whole wheat pastry flour and oat flour in your lighter baking. 9at bran, rolled oats, and cornmeal are also low in gluten, making these products ideal ingredients for low(fat baking. Minimize mixing. %tirring batter e$cessively develops gluten and toughens the te$ture of baked goods. %tir only enough to mi$ well. Avoid overbaking. .educed(fat baked goods tend to bake more *uickly than do those made with fat, and if left in the oven too long, they can become dry. To

prevent this, reduce oven temperatures by +,:", and check the product for doneness a few minutes before the end of the usual baking time.