Reducing Fat In Baked Goods

Now it's possible to have your cake and eat it too--at least some of it. Recent baking recipes reveal fruit purees can be substituted for fats such as butter or oil.

In baking, fats add moisture, flavor and tender texture to cookies, cakes and muffins. Fruit purees, such as prunes or bananas and non-fat dairy products such as non-fat yogurt or sour cream, provide some of the fat in homemade baked goods.

The test of the success of non-fat substitutes is taste. Foods made with natural fat substitutes have similar flavor to their full-fat counterpart, but much healthier.

Not all fruit purees are the same in baking recipes. Prune puree provides a rich flavor and a moist texture. Prunes also work to enhance flavors in a recipe such as chocolate, cinnamon and orange.

When modifying a recipe using fruit purees, use half as much of the substitute as the recipe originally calls for. For example, if the recipe calls for 1 cup of butter, use ½ cup of fruit puree. For best results, add 1 tablespoon of butter back into the recipe. You can also trim the fat in your recipes by using egg whites instead of whole eggs and graham cracker crusts in recipes that call for higher fat pastry dough crust.