Can you really bake with applesauce?

Well, I guess the question isn't really can you bake with applesauce, because you can bake with whatever the heck you want. It's more a matter of if it will taste any good. I have heard over and over the trick of swapping in applesauce instead of butter to cut the fat in your baking but I have never tried it out myself. I'm not well versed in vegan cooking by any means and I typically take the viewpoint of if you want a cookie, have a COOKIE. However, if it tastes the same/ just as good this could definitely be a good trick to have up my sleeve.

When I told my boyfriend I was going to try this out he warned me that it would turn out dry and recommended I use only half applesauce and half butter, but in the interest of seeing how this trick really works I'm going to use all applesauce.

Also in the interest of conducting a fair experiment I am going to use the classic tollhouse chocolate chip cookie recipe as my test subject because I am very familiar with how this one bakes and tastes with all butter.

Here’s the recipe. It’s just one cup of applesauce in place of each cup of butter:

 

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup apple sauce

3/4 cup granulated sugar

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 large eggs

2 cups

 

Bake for 9-11 minutes at 375.

 

(I made only a half batch since I wasn’t sure how they’d turn out.)

 

 

I added the applesauce right in with the wet ingridients.

 

 

Even after adding the dry ingredients the dough was much runnier than with butter. It smelled a little apple-y too which I guess is to be expected.

 

 

I popped the dough in the freezer for about ten minutes to stiffen up the dough so it'd be a bit less messy to work with.

 

 

They look like cookies! That's a good sign.

 

The biggest difference is in the texture. They were chewier than with butter, but chewy in a sticky way... if that makes sense. They were also much less dense, which I personally don't mind. Dipped in milk they were actually fantastic because they soaked up the milk better than the traditional recipe.

 

I'd use this trick again, but probably with half and half to make them a bit gooier. All in all, they were much better than I expected though and if you haven't already tried baking with applesauce I highly recommend it.

 

Yum :)

 

 

 

See you later,

Brooke