If you’re like most people, baking some goodies will be figuring into your holiday TO-DO  list…also like many, actually EATING these same goods is on your TO-DON’T list. 

Nothing new, or mysterious about this product, it just truly is so smart, and good for you, on all levels.

Using pureed fruit as a butter substitute is not new…recipes specifically using mashed bananas or applesauce have been around for a while, but it’s just never been easy to find general substitution information easily, outside those recipes.

Then, a few years back, I found this, Sunsweet Lighter Bake. Made of dried plums and dried apples, this stuff is beyond amazing, and the conversion chart is right on the bottle. In order of importance, here is why you should give it a try, too.

First: Taste/Results: In my experience, baked goods smell, taste and look like they should (although because of the color of the puree, really light-colored goods will bake up darker).

 Doug and his brothers are dessert snobs purists, and highly suspicious of  ‘substitute’ anything.  Since finding this, I have successfully snuck this by them used this in cookie, cake and most importantly BROWNIES on many occasions.

Second: Health  This jar contains 27 tablespoons of puree….at 35 calories a pop, it’s about one-third the caloric cost of the same amount of butter, 100 calories a tablespoon. OH, BUT WAIT-it’s not an equal exchange, you only need HALF the amount of puree that you would need for butter.

So that brings the caloric cost down to about 17.5%  of what it’d be for butter. Also has lots of antioxidants, and it’s  fat-, sodium-, and cholesterol- free.

Third: Cost   These 27 tablespoons are the equivalent of 54 tablespoons of butter…almost seven sticks of butter. This jar cost I think $2.89…which would be maybe half the cost of that much butter?

SO-to re-cap: tastes great, healthy alternative, half the price of butter.

It’s not going to make a brownie the equivalent of having a salad, but if you’re going to have that browine, you can enjoy it even more.  Only tricky part is finding it in the supermarket…baking supplies might be a logical choice, but our local place has chosen at the end of the cooking oils aisle.