Summer of 60 Pins, #40: Using Avocados to Cut Fat in Baking

The Pin:

                                 Source: fitbie.msn.com via Laura on Pinterest

Well, let's take the "Avocado for Butter" slide from the original source, fitbie, sentence by sentence, or phrase by phrase while I bake some Sugar Saucers from Rebecca Rather's The Pastry Queen.

"this may sound a little adventurous, but you won't taste the difference" - I would agree that using avocados in place of butter in baking is adventurous, but I'm a small-town girl who doesn't get out much. I approached this tip with a healthy dose of skepticism. Wouldn't the avocado taste come through? And turn the baked goods green? Would anyone eat something green that isn't supposed to be, especially in my picky family? And we'll get back to the taste.

"switch out half of the butter in a cookie recipe for mashed avocado"- my family is sooo happy I'm subjecting them to another taste test. But I also have friends who are going to get to benefit from my Pinterest attempts!

"this simple change will reduce fat content by 40% and cut the number of calories by nearly as much"  - very possible. I don't know how to support or refute that. I'm a speech path. My math skills consist of making sure I'm on the right line when converting raw scores into standard scores.

"you'll still get the creaminess of butter and the fatty taste, but this substitution knocks out some of the saturated fat in favor of the belly-flattening monosaturated kind" - okay, I'm giving fitbie the second half of this sentence. Do we get creaminess?

Here's the dough, a little stiffer and more formed than the dough made with just butter. And greener. Do you notice that?

Here is a plain Sugar Saucer next to the avocado-substituted cookies. I pressed down the cookies the same amount, but the sugar saucers spread out more while the avocado saucers stayed true to form.

And the last comment from fitbie? The one I find the most interesting? Are you ready?

"Sure, your cookies might have a green tinge, but they should also be softer and chewier"

MIGHT have a green TINGE? MIGHT? Take a look at these things!

It should be St. Patty's Day in August! My son, the cookie-dough hog, wouldn't touch the dough or the cookies. When I invited my husband to try them, he said they looked too weird.

The Good: It's a pretty easy substitution to make, and if you believe fitbie, much healthier.

The Bad: How healthy can sugar cookies be, even with a healthier substitution?

Summary: Here is the left-over platter:

My friends LOVED the avocado saucers, but I still couldn't get my guys to take a bite. So it's a good plan for friends but not for family.