Flour and sugar. We're a little surprised that you're willing to keep the sugar....

It is time for people to realize that, just because they can imagine a particular food shorn of its essential ingredients — all fat, sodium, calories, carbohydrates, etc., etc. — that doesn't mean it exists or can exist. Some people swear that a mixture of flaxseed and water is a perfect substitute for egg white. Others believe you can substitute any amount of applesauce or mashed banana or prune for any amount of shortening in any baking recipe.

We believe some baking recipes have been successfully modified through much trial and error to allow for some substitution of egg white and butter/margarine/shortening and still produce an edible result. But you cannot take out all or most of the ingredients from a recipe and still recreate all the wonderful tastes and foods you lovingly remember from your childhood. Can't be done. Sorry.

If we misunderstood your question, sorry for the rant, but we get an almost endless stream of questions about ingredients for which there are no practical substitutes – certainly no good substitutes. And the solution in most cases is to prepare a different dish or find a different recipe – not try to reengineer an essential ingredient that has been working for a couple hundred years.

Related Article: Hey, Show a Little Respect for Food Sensitivities!