5 Secrets for Baking Healthier Cookies (Page 3)

1. Make Them Heart Healthy (cont.)

To replace fats with pureed fruit or vegetables: Try using pureed fruit or even vegetables in place of some of the butter, margarine or shortening. Options include applesauce, pear butter, prune puree or even pureed pumpkin. Pureed fruit products, such as like Lighter Bake, are commercially made pureed fruit fat-replacers. Look for them in the baking aisle.

Using a fruit fat-replacer will give you a cakier, chewier or softer texture, so it works well in cookies that are naturally softer, such as oatmeal cookies or ginger molasses cookies. Just like replacing some of the butter with oil, it’s best to start with a small amount and experiment. Depending on the recipe, you may be successful replacing as much as half the butter with a fruit-based fat-replacer.

Examples of cookies that use a fruit-based fat-replacer:
Orange Spice Molasses Cookies
Cranberry-Orange-Nut Cookies

Next: 2. Replace Unhealthy Fats »