Elvis Bars... replacing butter??

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iKapuniai
iKapuniai Posts: 594 Member
in Recipes
So my little sister made some "Elvis Bars" last night, which I found in the fridge while raiding it (hadn't had breakfast yet lol), and after trying one, I was HOOKED! She gave me the recipe and it looked like it might be fairly simple to make "healthier", but I wanted to post it here and see what ideas others had to do that.

Ingredients:

- 1/4c softened butter
- 1/2c brown sugar
- 1/2c white sugar
- 2 mashed bananas
- 1tsp vanilla
- 3/4c peanut butter
- 1tsp baking soda
- 2c oats
- 2/3c chocolate chips

1. Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease or spray an 8 x 8 inch baking pan and set aside.

2. In a large mixing bowl combine the first 4 ingredients and cream together well. Add in the vanilla, stir, then add in the peanut butter. Stirring carefully so you don’t spill, work in all of the peanut butter until in is completely incorporated.

3. Sprinkle the baking soda over the entire mixture, add in the oatmeal and chocolate chips and blend until well combined.

4. Pour into the 8 x 8 baking pan and bake for 30-32 minutes. Top should be nice and brown and center will still be slightly wiggly/moist. Allow to cool completely before cutting into them.

(recipe found on: http://www.food.com/recipe/dreamy-peanut-butter-banana-oatmeal-elvis-bars-362093)


My question is... I want to omit the butter completely if I can. I've heard somewhere that you can replace butter with applesauce... does anyone know if that might work in this particular recipe?? or if there's maybe something else I can use in place of butter?
Also, in the attempt to make it lower calorie and healthier, I'm thinking of using erythritol or truvia instead of sugar. And cutting it down 1/4 brown 1/4 white instead of 1/2 and 1/2, cause it's pretty darn sweet. May also use chunky peanut butter and dark chocolate chips. Maybe omit the chocolate chips all together. Ugh, it sounds so good right now.

Anyways... does anyone have any ideas on how to make it lower calorie and "healthier"? I figure it already has banana, peanut butter, and chocolate, which in my opinion are all pretty healthy in moderation (like everything else)... but does anyone know what I can use in place of butter??

Love and Alohas!
Ihilani Kapuniai

Replies

  • sophiamour
    sophiamour Posts: 27
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    Sounds absolutely delicious! Below are my suggestions, will lower the calories a bit or just to make healthier. Mine is a pretty natural approach, so you could cut calories even more by using artificial sugar if that's your thing, but I wouldnt recommend it. I'd make em a bit healthier and enjoy in moderation. Let us know how it goes!



    - 1/4c softened butter - SWITCH - Earth Balance butter sticks work fab in baking, much healthier, try applesauce for lower cals!

    - 1/2c brown sugar
    - 1/2c white sugar - KEEP proportions the same, you could switch to unrefined sugar in replacement of the two types

    - 2 mashed bananas - KEEP

    - 1tsp vanilla - KEEP

    - 3/4c peanut butter - SWAP- use the kind that's just "Peanuts, salt"

    - 1tsp baking soda - KEEP

    - 2c oats - KEEP

    - 2/3c chocolate chips - SWAP - use dark chocolate, organic/vegan to go the extra step
  • itsshadowwithane
    itsshadowwithane Posts: 114 Member
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    Yummm
  • sarahgilmore
    sarahgilmore Posts: 572 Member
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    I know swapping out butter/oil in cakes and muffins works well where it just provides moisture, but it doesn't so much in stuff like bars and cookies where its critical to the texture of the product

    1/4c of butter isn't too much, how many serves does this make, 24? If so it's only 1/6 of a tbsp of butter per serve - or 1/2 a teaspoon.

    reducing the sugar MAY affect the texture of the bar, but it's worth a try.

    If I was going to swap the butter for anything it would be to up the peanut butter (sugarless) to 1c
  • dodd319
    dodd319 Posts: 228
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    Sounds good! And I always substitute applesauce for oil but I've never heard of subbing it for butter. I guess you could but I'm not sure.
  • SKL0978
    SKL0978 Posts: 1
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    Avocado is a decent butter substitute in baking.

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