Low fat baking

[binley100]

Just wondered if anyone has used prune puree as an alternative to fat in baking? I read an article that said you can use it as a substitute so I thought I'd give it a go. To make the puree you need to blend 250g of (destoned ) prunes with 6 tbsp hot water till a single cream like consistency. I actually found that you need more water . So keep checking as you process. It lowers the fat and calorie content by a lot and boosts the fibre and even the iron and calcium levels. Also as it's quite sweet you can reduce the amount of sugar you use.
So far I've made a parsnip and walnut cake and a bread pudding just using the puree instead of fat and also reduced the sugar as well . My dad made a parsnip and walnut cake the other day with fat and to be honest he couldn't tell the difference. Not tried the bread pudding as yet but I'm taking some up the lottie tomorrow as they like it up there so we'll see if they notice.

[grahama]

That sounds brilliant, love prunes !!! Any pics and methods, ie how much puree to replace how much fat etc plz ??

[Jardiniere]

use butter...its very very good for you...just cut back onthe sugar and flour......

[Hilary B]

I make a banana cake, Victoria Sponge recipe, replacing up to half the fat and sugar with an equal amount of mashed very-ripe banana. Start by weighing the peeled banana, then just subtract from the original recipe enough fat and sugar that adding the banana leaves you with the same total amount. Sometimes I add chopped dried apricots as well, but those are an extra.

[binley100]

That sounds brilliant, love prunes !!! Any pics and methods, ie how much puree to replace how much fat etc plz ??

You can replace the fat gram for gram with the puree ie 250g marg = 250g puree. or 250ml oil=250gr puree. Nobody noticed the difference with the bread pudding and I'd also put slightly less sugar in it. It was a little bit stickier than normal though .

[FROSTYFRECKLE]

Now that sounds interesting. I've stopped baking to try and shift some excess pounds and Mr Frosty and I do have a sweet tooth. Think I'll try some baking over the weekend - thanks Binley.

[ailsasyl]

mum got HB a greek cookbook, they use honey instead of sugar in all the recipes, haven't tried any of them yet. Mum said she was surprised by how much sweet stuff was in their diet but that a lot of it was done with honey and no refined foods pure butter