Advice On How To Reduce The Fat In Your Favorite Baked Goods

by 4dramamama

posted on 08/25/2009

Baking at home is a great way to save money and provide your family with special treats. However, many people are concerned with reducing the fat in their diet to live a healthy lifestyle or to lose weight. There are several ways to reduce the fat in your favorite baked goods without reducing the taste.

How Much Fat to Take Out
You can start by replacing half of the oil in a recipe with your chosen substitute and cut your calories and fat grams dramatically. Continue to replace the oil in your favorite recipe until you have reached a flavor that you enjoy. Perhaps after replacing half the fat for a few months you might try to replace a greater amount of fat and see how much you truly enjoy the results without the fat grams. Some people even find that they prefer the reduced fat results better. When you reduce the oil in a recipe it can be more palatable to many people.

Popular Fat Replacement
The tried-and-true oil replacement in baked goods is applesauce. You will notice very little change in flavor and consistency when replacing oil with applesauce in cakes, muffins and brownies. The product is very moist and still delicious.

Add Nutrition While Subtracting Fat
A favorite oil replacement in almost any baked good, including cookies, is nonfat plain yogurt. This is a wonderful choice for adding protein and calcium while reducing the fat. You can also try substituting cottage cheese and tofu to boost protein while slashing fat content. All of these substitutions maintain a moist product.

Fruits and Veggies Anyone?
A creative way to add veggies to a diet is to replace fat in your baked goods. Prunes, bananas, zucchini and pumpkin can all be substituted in baking recipes. Zucchini should be shredded. Prunes, bananas and pumpkin should be pureed to a smooth consistency before use. Slight color changes will be noticed. These substitutions are all great choices for chocolate recipes where the color will not be noticed. Try one of these fruit and veggie substitutes in your next pan of brownies.

Reduce Fat and Sugar?
Reducing the fat in a recipe is not the only way to make a recipe healthier. You can also use sugar replacements. However, try the recipe by adjusting the fat content first to find a good level that you still enjoy with full sugar. Then try finding a sugar substitute that helps make the dish meet your nutrition and diet goals more completely.

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