We all love a warm, home-made piece of pie. If you are like me, perhaps you love decadent desserts a little too much. But you don't have to cut pies out of your life, altogether. I have found that I can take some simple little steps with the recipe that makes a huge difference in the end. Often, the calories and fat grams are reduced just a fraction of the original recipe.
Let us learn some now. We will start using a traditional Apple Pie recipe. This recipe is fairly consistent with most that are available.
So let's analyze!
First, let's say that a serving is about a 1/8 of a pie. Perfect! That is all we really need of this sweet dessert.
Here are the original ingredients:
Crust:
2-1/4 cups flour
1 tsp. salt
2 tablespoons sugar
1 cup shortening or butter
¼ to ½ cup of ice cold water
Filling:
8 cups thinly sliced, cored and peeled tart apples (about 5-6 large apples)
1/2 cup sugar
¼ cup brown sugar
1 Tbsp. cornstarch
2 Tbsp. butter (melted)
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
1 Tbsp. lemon juice (optional)
This comes to 506 calories and 29 grams of fat per serving, if we use all of the ingredients as they are.
I know you might blink and think that those numbers are for the entire pie, but you would be sadly mistaken. Those large, scary amounts are for one slice of apple pie. At that rate, you can have this pie...for dinner. That is really disappointing. Let's find a way to get this pie a little more reasonable.
1. Replace the butter or shortening with Smart Balance Light Buttery Spread (entire recipe). This will bring down the most of your fat content right here! There is butter in both the crust and filling, so this one step has major impact. You can use the butter substitute of your choice, but note the significant change.
Reduce 137 calories per serving and 15.6 fat grams per serving.
Replace sugar and brown sugar with Splenda No Calorie (entire recipe). This one is easily adjustable. You can also use the Splenda baking blend or just make your own blend of sugar. Try 3/4 Splenda and 1/4 sugar, and it will still give you the soft sugar flavor, without as many calories. You can still have the sweet- and keep your peace of mind.
Reduce 75 calories per serving.
Make only the top crust with original ingredients. I know- crust is fun. But instead of a pre-packaged dessert baked good, would you not rather have a delicious warm slice of apple pie - even if you only get half the crust. It would be the same amount of calories and you can think of it like a cobbler!
Reduce your recipe 191 calories per serving and 13 grams of fat per serving.
Make the top crust, replacing butter with Smart Balance Buttery Spread and sugar with Splenda no calories. Oh, we are on a roll now! This step is a huge impact on the final numbers.
Reduce 265 calories per serving and 20.8 g of fat per serving
If you combine all of the tips together (half crust on top, smart balance butter and No Calorie Splenda throughout) you will have a pie piece that is only 161 calories and 6.6 grams of fat per serving. The original pie 506 calories and 29 grams of fat per serving! So, get baking!
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