One of the easiest substitutions you can make in your kitchen is to substitute applesauce for vegetable oil in baked goods like cakes, muffins, brownies, and more. Replacing oil with applesauce lowers the calories and fat in a recipe.
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How to Substitute Applesauce for Oil
- Applesauce can be replaced at a 1:1 ratio.
- Be sure to buy sugar-free, all-natural applesauce since your recipe probably doesn’t need more sugar.
- Baked goods may be slightly chewier with applesauce than with oil.
- If you’re worried about applesauce changing the texture of your recipe, you can substitute a portion of the oil rather than the whole amount.
- Other fruit purees work as well because they all contain pectin, which acts a lot like oil in the recipe. Try making your own applesauce.
We’ve always had really good results replacing oil with applesauce in bread, cakes, and muffins. I’ve never tried replacing it in cookies, but I’d love to hear your thoughts if you have any!
How much applesauce to replace oil?
Since applesauce can be used as a 1:1 replacement, 1/2 cup of oil can be directly replaced with 1/2 cup of applesauce.
Applesauce nutrition vs. Vegetable oil nutrition
Let’s start by stating that there are 16 tablespoons in a cup, which will help us easily convert the nutrition of unsweetened applesauce to that of oil. Then we will assume our recipe calls for 1/4 cup of oil.
Applesauce Nutrition value
- Calories: 25
- Fat: 0
- Cholesterol: 0
- Sodium: 1.5 g
- Potassium: 45 g
- Total Carbs: 7 g
- Fiber: 0.75 g
- Sugar: 5.75 g
- Protein: 0.1 g
Vegetable Oil Nutrition
- Calories: 480
- Fat: 54.4 g
- Cholesterol: 0
- Sodium: 0
- Potassium: 0
- Total Carbs: 0
- Fiber: 0
- Sugar: 0
- Protein: 0
In my opinion, I would prefer to have some carbs in my diet than to add 455 calories for the same exact ingredient purpose, not to mention 54 grams of fat the vegetable oil has.
If you do not like the way your baking products come out using applesauce as a substitute for oil 100%, you should try 1/2 applesauce and the other 1/2 oil.
Have you used applesauce or other fruit purees as a substitute in baked goods?
Featured Photo by Rachel Loughman from Pexels
