Applesauce to Replace Oil, Butter or Egg?
The further I go down the rabbit hole of pound cakes from box mixes, the more fascinating stuff I learn. It's not about the pound cake. Nor is it about making my own cake -- I have all that. This is about the science and detective work involved in understanding the ingredients used in a commercial box cake mix. Plus, like the Pillsbury Strawberry Cake mix, there are some interesting cake mixes that I think would be fun to have as a pound cake.
So: Reading about using lemon juice as a dough improver, I also ran into the use of pectin as an improver. (Ginger works, too.) Knowing that I can use applesauce to increase moisture in a cake, I investigated.
Here's a fascinating video that explains in a few minutes how pectin gel works in a similar fashion to the oil and fats. For those who are interested in the science of baking and cooking, this is quite helpful.
Why Can Applesauce Replace Butter? And Oil? And Eggs? (youtube.com)
The synopsis is that pectin competes with water, while oil & fat make a barrier around the flour. Pectin, when heated, also forms a lattice that captures moisture and gas (carbon dioxide), forming a secondary network to the gluten network.
Applesauce has a sweet flavor, so it can change the taste of your cake. It's better to use unsweetened applesauce to keep those changes to a minimum.
I don't much like the added sugar, even when just eating applesauce on its own. I bought one of those 6-pack things, and keep it for when we have roast pork or foods like that. I tried a couple of Tablespoons in some Betty Crocker Peanut Butter cookies. They use 2 TBsp of vegetable oil and 1 TBsp of water.
I was adding a heaping teaspoon of chunky-style peanut butter, so figured that would do for (extra) oil. Then replaced the 2 TBsp completely with the unsweetened (but still pretty sweet) applesauce. No problems, and it did make the cookies more moist and pleasant.
In a pound cake, there's so much sugar anyway, it wouldn't likely matter. However, if I was concerned -- I'd go half the fat, half applesauce -- I can just drop the amount of sugar a little from the original.
On the other hand, with a box mix, I'll just leave it as is. Not much I can do about a previously combined mix. They're pretty sweet, but I'm adding things like egg and flour. Shouldn't be a problem there either.
It's a fascinating concept, well-known to many other people. Okay, that's fine, but I was interested in the underlying science and chemistry. Knowing how the applesauce works gives me a better understanding of oil and fat in other baking.