Baked Goods Blues: butter does make it better
good afternoon food fanatics! (and i use that word in only the most positive light)
so, i have an ongoing dilemma, and i am afraid there is no solution, actually, there probably isn't, i just thought id ask anyways.
i have problems digesting oil and butter, but i loooove muffins and stuff like pumpkin bread and apple fritters, but i cant enjoy them because i get ridiculously sick after consuming them (yes, it is a hard life i lead haha)
is there any recipes out there for sweet baked deliciousness that contains no oil or butter ?
btw - i know the old swap apple sauce or yogurt for oil or butter, but all the recipes i have tried with the substitution have been not so great ...
thanks my fellow food lovers!
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14 Comments:
All oils? It's a vast world of fat out there. It sounds insane, but what about lard? The shelf-stable supermarket stuff is hydrogenated and not so good for you, but if you can eat pork and pork fat, you might consider rendering your own lard and using that.
Otherwise, if you've tried all the substitutions, I really don't know what else to try. There are recipes that rely on those subs, but if you don't like them...
The other alternative, though, might be sweet yeasted breads. Normally there's a bit of fat, but you could work around that, and just make a sweeter bread dough and a filling with cinnamon and sugar and at least it would be a bakery-style sweet.
Can you have nuts? Peanut butter added to a yeasted dough is nice, although of course there's oil in the peanut butter. But if you can tolerate that, you could add peanut butter to some of those recipes and see how it works.
Isn't there a fake fat on the market, or has that been killed off?
Have you tried all the odd oils, like avocado and walnut...? Palm oil? A lot of oils aren't all that good for you, but if you have no other alternatives and you aren't going to go crazy with the stuff, it might work for you.
Sigh. No butter. It makes me sad...
dbcurrie at 8:54PM on 04/23/09
a life without oil/butter? that's awful...try some pepto after you eat it. i second the peanut butter.
dearrie at 10:02PM on 04/23/09
hmm the peanut butter idea is interesting! i will try it. maybe can just make some sweet yeast cinnamon raisin bread ...
though i am really just looking for a good recipe where yogurt or apple sauce is used.
the recipes i have tried have been weird texture and consistency. the taste has been okay though!
Deeberry at 10:50PM on 04/23/09
This isn't exactly a sweetbread, but have you played around with pancakes at all? I never put butter or oil in my pancakes, and I love the way they taste, so there's no need to put in tons of fat. All I actually put in is oats, flour (or WW flour), eggs (or egg whites), milk/buttermilk (if it's the fat that kills you, buttermilk is pretty low in fat, and I've also used skim and it tastes fine), and then mix-ins to spice them up. Anyway, you can add all kinds of stuff to make them sweet. I've put in applesauce, chopped up apples, mashed bananas, blueberries, honey, cinnamon, pecans, walnuts, peanut butter, sweet corn, cottage cheese, etc, and I would bet pumpkin pancakes would be fabulous too. WW flour and oats will make them heavier and denser, and when I did that with applesauce, it came out very dense and moist, *almost* like a healthier-tasting dessert bread (okay, that's a bad description, but I think you know what I mean). I also love dipping them in applesauce...better than syrup in my opinion.
cycorider at 11:35PM on 04/23/09
If you can handle peanut butter without any problems, maybe you'd be okay with a little peanut oil and use yogurt/applesauce/prunes or whatever else seems to work in the recipe. Oil does perform a function in baking, so if you eliminate all of it, the texture isn't going to be the same. The other option is to find some chemical or natural but unusual ingredient that mimics what oil does, but offhand I have no idea what that might be.
Perhaps if you spoke to a nutritionist, he/she might be able to give you some ideas. You can't be the only person on earth with this issue. And if you can't digest oils at all, it could be a symptom of something that needs to be looked at. Or there could be some simple medication that solves the problem. It's probably not possible to eliminate all fats from your diet, and if you did, you'd probably end up with other medical issues, because some fat is essential in the diet.
dbcurrie at 11:36PM on 04/23/09
Oops, forgot to mention baking powder or baking soda. Well, it works without them, but then they're REAAAALLY dense haha.
cycorider at 11:36PM on 04/23/09
How much oil is too much oil? there's a bran muffin recipe on 101cookbooks that uses yogurt and only about 2 tbs of butter (which I sub with soy yogurt and oil due to digestive issues of my own). It's not totally oil free, but for an entire batch of muffins, that might be okay?
I think there may be some other lower in fat baking recipes on that site as well, though the bran muffins are the only one I've tried.
tangledgray at 12:10PM on 04/24/09
Margarine? Coconut oil?
erinlovestoeat at 4:26PM on 04/24/09
this is mildly off topic, but are you seeing a doctor about this? So many foods involve oil or butter. A doctor might be able to figure out if there's a health problem that is serious. Or tell you if its specific oils/fats that are causing the problem.
I don't mean to pry, its just the first thing that came to mind.
engmcmuffin at 8:09PM on 04/24/09
Do you like flans? they can be made without any oil or butter.
I couldn't eat any oily or buttery things when my acid reflux was acting up, so I made a lot of traditional Japanese desserts when I wanted something sweet.. they don't have fat to begin with.
I know how sad it is not to be able to eat regular baked goods... sorry!! :-(
hmw0029 at 11:05PM on 04/24/09
Dee! Hopefully this can be a recipe for you to try:
I like using yogurt in baked goods, particularly muffins and quick breads. Stonyfield Farm Organics has a great recipe for Pumpkin bread that is fairly low in fat (1/3 cup of oil and the batch is HUUUGE!) but uses mainly yogurt for moisture. You can also substitute it in brownies for oil (it's worked for me!). I would definitely check out the recipe on Stonyfield's Website!
http://recipes.stonyfield.com/recipes.cfm?action=details:recipeID=54
And, to add my own bit of unofficial medical advice....Is this a recent problem? I know that I had a period of time where I consumed a very low fat diet (for better or for worse...) and every time I ate something with a high fat content, I would get the worst stomach pains, particularly with butter products. Slowly, I re-introduced fat back into my diet, mainly in the form of peanut butter, or using oil in baked goods versus always substituting it with applesauce. Though I won't go on a "fat binge" now, I have found that those awful stomach pains went away as I gradually adjusted my fat intake. I'm not sure if this relates to your problem, but perhaps if the fat is lower in content your problem could be solved! (If not, I would talk to a doctor for sure).
If you like Carrot Cake, Good Housekeeping has a great recipe for a reduced fat cake that is still very moist (doesn't need that 1.5 cups of oil like other recipes suggest :) )
http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/recipefinder/carrot-cake-ghk0907?click=recipe_sr
Here are some other recipes to try:
Banana Bread, from one of my favorite food blogs:
http://eatliverun.com/a-day-without-baking-is-a-day-unlived/
(Banana Bread and Pumpkin are definitley two types of baked goods that can afford to have less oil, as the banana/pumpkin often provide plenty of moisture and flavor).
Carrot Banana Bread (Could omit the nuts, and exchange them for raisins or choco chips, if those sit well with your stomach):
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Carrot-Banana-Bread/Detail.aspx
Oatmeal Bran Muffins:
http://bakingbites.com/2005/11/cooking-school-oatmeal-bran-muffins/
These recipes do have some oil, but per serving the fat content would be very low.
I would also check out Fatfreevegan.com--she has a ton of nonfat recipes. I don't think I've made anything from her yet, but some of them do look good!
Hope this helps!
luswim06 at 11:49PM on 04/24/09
@everyone
thanks so much for all tips! i will try them out and see what manages to not upset my stomach!
i have seen a doctor about it, my body just has a hard time digesting certain fats, no worries.
nuts dont bother me for some reason, and neither does lean meat (Even if there is a bit of fat in them) but full fat dairy, butter, margarine, and liquid oils give me a horrible time!
@luswim06
thanks so much for all the recipes, the breads look amazing, i think i might try to sub fat free yogurt for all the oil and see how it turns out
Deeberry at 2:10PM on 04/25/09
I would search the message boards for Alli users. I'm sure they have come up with some interesting fat- and oil-free recipes.
renzata at 3:26PM on 04/25/09
Oh, off hte top of my head there's the cake-mix/pumpkin muffins recipe. It's that basic: take a box of cake mix, mix with a can of pureed pumpkin (just pumpkin; no eggs or oil), put into muffin tins and bake. They're pretty tasty, and you can mix in nuts, raisins, etc., as you like.
renzata at 3:29PM on 04/25/09