Substituting Applesauce for Butter

If you take out one single ingredient of a recipe, it loses its original taste and texture. It is the reason why finding the perfect food substitution is a really daunting task. However, some scenarios, like health considerations, food allergies and falling short of some less important ingredients of a recipe, may force you to search for an equally effective food substitute. One of such commonly consumed food products that determines textures and taste of numerous food recipes is butter. If you don't have the required amount of butter or are planning to reduce butter consumptions for health reasons and weight loss; then finding the right kind of butter substitute is the best thing that you can do.

How to Substitute Applesauce for Butter

When it comes to substituting applesauce for oil or butter, you need to use applesauce in its unsweetened form. Hence when it comes to substituting applesauce in desserts and sweet food products, always use unsweetened and if possible, homemade applesauce, so that its taste does not interfere with the sweetness of the recipe that you are preparing. Secondly, rather than using a tablespoon, always prefer using a measuring cup for the sake of correct measurements. When it comes to combining applesauce with egg or other fluid flavorings of the recipe, you need to use your hand or a stand mixer to blend.

As a last note of advice, I would like to mention that you should never alter the cooking or baking time which is required for that recipe. Alteration in time may result into a too dry or too moist recipe. Unlike oil substitute for butter, applesauce substitution should be done in the 1:1 ratio. It means, if the recipe that you are preparing calls for a cup of butter, then you should use ½ cup of butter + ½ cup of applesauce. You can also try variations in when you substitute applesauce for butter in cake and brownies. For instance, try using ¼ cup of butter + ¾ cup of applesauce and check how that recipe turns out.

Useful Tips

When you are preparing a recipe in which butter is a vital ingredient, you have to use it in the necessitated amount. If you don't have it, then you may have to search for the best butter substitute. You must have heard and even tried substituting oil for butter. Well, let me tell you that substituting oil for butter is a totally different thing than substituting butter with applesauce. Especially when you are substituting applesauce for butter while baking, you need to be even more careful. There are quite a few things that you may need to remember while doing so. First of all, the texture and the kind of baked recipe that you are preparing.

If you are substituting applesauce in place of butter in cookies, then you may have to think twice, since it affects the crisp texture of cookies. They also claim that applesauce makes the cookies to appear soft, like brownies and cakes. Hence, unless you are fond of cakey and mushy cookies, you should not use applesauce as a substitute for butter. However, experts advocate that one can substitute applesauce for butter in brownies, cakes and other such soft textured recipes, considering the fact that it contributes to the structure of cake and brownie recipes. It is the reason why you can use applesauce as a substitute in cooking various bread recipe, muffins, cakes and brownie recipes. But for other food recipes like cookies, biscuits and such crispy recipes, you may need to search for another butter substitute.

Substituting applesauce instead butter totally depends upon the consistency and texture of the recipe that you want to maintain. All in all, it is advised to use applesauce only in soft recipes that call for butter and never in their crunchy and crispy counterparts!