Forum: cooking.stackexchange.com
Tags: <baking><substitutions>
Title: What can be used as an alternative for Applesauce?
Question: This   banana bread recipe  calls for applesauce and it's not something that's available at the stores here. Will it be okay if I just leave it out or can I use any other common ingredient to replicate the effect?

Answers:
sents: text: Applesauce has little flavor and almost no nutritional value.
text: It is added to baked goods for the one thing it does have- pectin.
text: Pectin interferes with gluten in a similar manner to fat although by a different mechanism.
text: For this reason applesauce is often used to replace some of the fat in recipes for health-conscious bakers.
text: See this question .
text: Other banana bread recipes are very similar to cakes and rely on a huge amount of fat- often creamed with a large amount of sugar.
text: Your options are then to: Replace the applesauce with some other oil substitute.
text: Another puree of high-pectin fruit would work.
text: Switch to a recipe that just uses the fat and enjoy a richer banana bread.
answer_details: author: cooking.stackexchange.com/users/2001/Sobachatina
score: 14
sents: text: Why not making your own?
text: Making your own applesauce is actually very easy.
text: So I bet there are apples for sale in the stores?
text: The simpelest I can think of is:4 apples
text: 3/4 cup water(1/4 cup sugar)1/2
text: teaspoon ground cinnamonPeel core and chop the apples.
text: Cook it all together on medium heat until the apples are soft.
text: (15-20 minutes)It is no work at all and tastes delicious.
text: Personally I would use applesauce with no added sugar when using it in cakes.
text: However if you think it is to much work anyways
text: (but I do not hope so!)
text: it is good to know that in lots of recipes, applesauce is used to replace oil to lower the amount of calories.
text: (Some also claim that applesauce replaces eggs, but I have no experience with that)However, stating something like: 'replace 1 cup of applesauce by 1 cup of oil' can not be done properly.
text: Applesauce contains water where oil does not.
text: So it will make your cake more fat, and applesauce make the baking more 'cakier'.
text: Also you are making a fruit cake, and of course the apple taste improves this fruity taste.
text: I also think using oil will make you cake more 'heavy' then applesauce.
text: You can read more about applesauce replacing oil via this link.
text: I think if you are going to replace the applesauce by oil, you have to experiment about the substitution rate.
text: But I would start with using 1/4 cup of oil in stand of the 1/4 cup of applesauce.
text: If you don't want to make your own applesauce, nor replacing the sauce by oil you might want to look at baby-food.
text: Some jars of baby-food contain just some kind of apple puree.
answer_details: author: cooking.stackexchange.com/users/10126/Lotte Laat
score: 7
sents: text: The unsweetened applesauce also provides a bit of acid.
text: How about replacing the same weight, not volume, with apple juice and increasing the banana content by an small amount -say half a sm banana?
text: According to http://www.onlineconversion.com/weight_volume_cooking.htm 1 cup AS =
text: 8.6oz so 2 oz of juice would be about right With only 1/4C in the recipe, I am assuming that changes here
text: and there won't spell disaster.
answer_details: author: cooking.stackexchange.com/users/6638/Pat Sommer
score: 5
sents: text: Use chocolate pudding out of a little kids cup.
text: It adds an amazing chocolate flavor to the banana but it's not over powering.
text: Use the same amount of pudding as you would with applesauce.
answer_details: author: cooking.stackexchange.com/users/31388/Jillian
score: 2
sents: text: Look for applesauce in the baby food section.
answer_details: author: cooking.stackexchange.com/users/23186/user23186
score: 1
sents: text: A whipped fat can substitute the missing applesauce.
answer_details: author: cooking.stackexchange.com/users/31388/Jillian
score: 0

Summary of the answers:
You can replace it with another oil substitute, a puree of another high-pectin fruit, apple juice and banana or chocolate pudding from a kids' cup.
You can substitute with an oil or fat or another fruit puree.