Blend up that apple pulp or a handful of prunes and you have an excellent, healthy butter substitute for baking sweets and quick breads. In fact, pureed bananas, pineapple, and pears also give an excellent “fat” consistency to recipes with an added jolt of health and flavor. We have a few tips to help maximize your results:

• Because the fruit will add more sweetness than butter, reduce the sugar in your recipes a touch.
• Think of the flavor of your recipe to judge which fruit flavor will work best. For example, prune puree works particularly well in chocolate desserts, such as brownies; and pineapple can add a tropical flair to most quick breads.
• Use ½ cup of pureed fruit in place of one cup of butter. You may need to add a tablespoon or two of vegetable shortening or oil back into the recipe to achieve the best results.
• If you don’t have fresh fruit on hand, drained applesauce, strained baby food fruit, or a puree of water with any dried fruit (apples, apricots, peaches, etc.) will work in a pinch. See our Prune Puree recipe below for dried fruit help. Or, try a mixture of ½ cup applesauce and ½ cup vegetable oil as an excellent replacement for butter in cakes and quick breads.
• You may choose to use a straight blender puree, or get a little fancy with one of the recipes below.

Recipes:

• Apple-Pear Puree
• Prune / Dried Fruit Puree