I'm going to recreate what low fat?

If you watch a lot of Food Channel, which I do, and read cookbooks, which I do as well, then there is one thing you hear a lot -- baking is a science. From what I understand baking doesn't naturally lend itself to bold experimentations. At least not for the inexperienced or casual baker like myself. So, naturally the other day when I read recipe for scones that weighted in with 258 calories this conversation ran through my head:

Me: Can I take that recipe and lower the calorie count?
Myself: Well, if you break the recipe down you can replace the sugar with splenda saving yourself almost 100 calories. But, what to do about the 1/2 cup of butter?
Me: Well, I've read about replacing butter and fats with unsweetened applesauce, pumpkin puree, and other fruit things
Myself: Hmmm could be good. So, what do you think? Can you take the scone recipe and lower the calorie count?
Me: I can so do that...

And like that the decision was made. My first official attempt at creating a for a lower calorie, lower fat, better for me recipe would be for scones.

You should know I love scones. I spent a semester in England in college and have never really given up the 4:00 pm tea time, but I had given my scones in the name of weight loss. My there was a way for me to have my scone and lose my fat, too.

I started this adventure by firing up my computer and going online to do a little research on how to replace butter in recipes. I came across this article from TLC. http://recipes.howstuffworks.com/low-fat-baking.htm. It was pretty useful and this is my plan of attack:

In place of butter I would use unsweetened applesauce. The applesauce should give me the moisture of butter and help control the gluten in the recipe.

Instead milk I would use low fat buttermilk which should lower the calories and give me more flavor.

Splenda in place of sugar

And add cornstarch to the recipe to help control the gluten even more.

But, how much applesauce, buttermilk and splenda should I use? Ha! I have not idea!!! Well, that's not exactly true. The splenda can be a 1:1 substitution. But, how much applesauce for butter? How much buttermilk for milk? How much cornstarch? That's the experiments, friends, that's the experiment.

Next post I'll let you know how it goes.