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You can replace some or all of the oil/butter called for in cakes and quickbreads (like your pumpkin bread) with the same amount of applesauce. You still use the egg/egg whites as usual. Depending on the amount of oil etc that was in there originally and the rest of the recipe, you may or may not notice differences in taste or texture. You can also do the same thing with yogurt, which I prefer in many instances to applesauce.

For a boxed mix you can use the same amount of applesauce as what they list the oil. It's a 1-1 ratio.

For a home made recipe, use 3/4 applesauce and 1/4 oil for better texture.

You still need the eggs/egg whites. You can just add egg whites to sub for a whole egg if you really want to get rid of all the fat.

Make sure you're using unsweetened applesauce!

I prefer to use beans.  1 14oz can black beans for a chocolate mix pureed with 1 cup of water.  White pinto beans for other mixes.  It comes out really moist and you don't use egg or oil.

Doesn't the baking go stale really fast though?  That's always been my experience with low-fat baking recipes. 

It's not my experience although I do keep them in the fridge and I also freeze the ones that I'm not going to use within a week.

Original Post by susiecue:

Doesn't the baking go stale really fast though?  That's always been my experience with low-fat baking recipes. 

I don't usually have baked goods around for more than a day or two, and after that, I find most home-baked things start to suffer. I don't really bake in advance - fresh tastes better, and leftovers are for taking into work, not lying around either being tempting or going bad!

Oil does tend to keep things moist, so I could see low-fat stuff drying out faster than their full-fat counterparts.

Thanks so much!! I think all of the advice on here was very helpful!!!! I do agree that it has to be eaten sooner rather than later, but then again anything remotely sweet in my house after two days goes in the trash anyway. I'm going to give it a try. I also just read since posting this that canned pumpkin can be used in the place of the oil, eggs or water. I'm not too sure about it though. Anyone done that?

Also, has anyone ever tried the diet coke or diet sprite trick? I tired it in banana bread recipe. I regretted not going with diet sprite instead of the diet coke because I couldn't get it out of my mind that all I was tasting was D coke. But It still did the trick. For those who don't know about it, you subsitute all added ingredients for one can of diet coke or diet sprite. The texture was great!!!

I've used the canned pumpkin, it works just like the applesauce, but will definitely add flavor to your recipe. If you're doing something chocolate, it won't be as noticeable. I only do the pumpkin when I want the pumpkin flavor. I use applesauce if I don't want to change the flavor of the recipe.

I never heard of using the beans. I'll give that a try.

You can also used pureed prunes in place of the oil/eggs just like the pumpkin & applesauce. You can find it in the baking aisle as a substitute.

I've only had the diet coke/diet sprite from a boxed mix. I thought the texture was too light/crumbly. I'd still do it though as it wasn't so far off as to be undesirable.