Since adopting a plant-based diet, I’ve chosen to remove oil from my diet. I don’t cook or bake with oil. I still enjoy baking and have found that applesauce is a great oil substitute. Occasionally I run out of applesauce when I’m baking, thankfully substituting applesauce is no problem!
This page contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate and member of other affiliate programs, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Question: What can I use as a substitute for applesauce?
First a little background. I don’t normally like to buy a lot of processed products but I like to use applesauce instead of oil and sometimes in place of eggs in baking. A reader recently wanted to make The World’s Best Banana Bread but she was out of applesauce and needed a substitute.
The quickest and easiest substitute is an apple. I know, simple huh?
Just put a cored apple in a food processor or high-powered blender like a Blendtec and process it. You don’t even have to peel it. The result is 100% apple, no fillers, no additives. This pureed apple will work just like applesauce in recipes. Your kids will probably like it too! You can even add cinnamon if you are feeling crazy.
If you don’t have apples or have an allergy there are a few other options.
What can be used instead of applesauce?
If you are out of applesauce and apples, there are plenty of other foods you can use as a substitute. Pureed pears, peaches and other fruit will work but may leave a slightly stronger taste.
Mashed bananas can be used as a substitute for oil or applesauce. Mashed sweet potatoes can also work when substituting applesauce in baking. You may want to add slightly less banana or sweet potato and add a little more water so the consistency will be similar to applesauce.
My World’s Best Vegan Banana Bread recipe uses applesauce! It’s so easy to put together! In fact most of my baked goods use applesauce or an applesauce substitute.
For more recipes that use applesauce (instead of oil) check out my Bread and Muffin Recipe Page! If you are still using oil in your baking try applesauce in its place.
Have you tried pureeing apples to use in place of applesauce?
This page contains affiliate links.
We can’t do apples here for a special diet reason, so we replace with pears. Open a can of pears, drain, but keep the pears in the can. Use an immersion blender and puree the heck out of them. Voila! Easy peasy pear sauce!
Sounds easy enough! Thanks for sharing Sarah! I’ll mention to anyone else reading make sure your pears are not packed in syrup. You can find them in water/juice.
Oh, yes, sorry, just pears and water. Forgot to mention that.
Hi there.
I want to make chocolate cookies that ask for 3/4 cup applesauce. But I am allergic to apples. I would like to substitute with mashed bananas. Please guide how I should go about doing it and also quantity of mashed bananas? Do I add water? And should I do exact 3/4 cup mashed bananas?
I don’t think applesauce makes a great ingredient in cookies in general. I use it in Breakfast Cookies with success but not regular cookies.
In other recipes, I’ve had luck substituting applesauce with mashed banana, pureed pear, pureed peaches and nectarines.
Can mango pure be a good substitute?
Mango should work well. The flavor is different so it might be noticeable where applesauce usually isn’t. If it’s in muffins or something like that it will work fine.
Can I use baby food (pureed) green beans as a substitute for vegetable oil in zucchini bread?
I’m not sure. I’ve never tried that. The consistency seems ok but it may be too low in fat.
I haven’t tried that so I’m not sure if it would work. The consistency seems ok but green beans are low in fat, I’m not sure if it will bind well.
Omg it worked!! I puréed two sliced and cored apples and it worked like a charm. 🙂
Woot woot! I’m so happy they worked for you! This has been a life saver for us. We always have apples!
I have used applesauce as a substitute in many foods with great success. I ran out of applesauce and didn’t have any apples to make any so I tried your suggestion about bananas. It worked well. Thank you.
Great! I’m so glad! Thanks for letting me know.
What is the oil to applesauce ratio
It may depend on the recipe and what other ingredients are being used. If a muffin recipe calls for 1/2 cup of oil, I will use 1/2 cup of applesauce instead. But if it’s for an apple muffin that already has applesauce in it, I would consider using another substitute. Most of the time I would substitute it 1 to 1 but I’d always change other ingredients. You want to make sure the batter is the right consistency.
My carrot cake recipe calling for the apple sauce. But I’m out of it. What will better substitutes it?
I’d use a pureed apple. If you don’t have that, a banana may work. Just make sure they create the correct amount of volume for the recipe. So if you need 1/2 cup apple sauce, one apple or one banana would probably be close but you’ll want to measure to be sure.
Hello,I watched recently a Bulgogi recipe and it had apple. I don’t mind oil in my diet so can I replace any cooking oil for apple? I opologize as my question is far different than the rest of the comments relating to diet and health. I will appreciate your reply and thank you in advance.
Hi Fatimah,
Apple and the other substitutes mentioned won’t work for all recipes. These work best in baked goods, especially sweet breads like muffins and banana bread.
I wouldn’t use it in savory recipes, saute recipes or roasting recipes. The apples work as a binder, not as a fat so it won’t work in every situation.
How can I reverse engineer a recipe calling for applesauce? The applesauce I had clearly was not good enough to use and I have no other fruit to substitute. I have no problem with using oil or eggs but the muffin recipe already calls for a stick of butter and an egg and the applesauce is to be added alternately with the dry ingredients so I am trying to eat find a what the applesauce is being used So I can substitute that ingredient back into the recipe. If you can help me out that would be great, Thank you so much.