After my recent column about Tips for Healthy Holiday Eating folks asked if I had any tips for healthy holiday baking. Frequently people do a lot of baking at this time of year. Between the cooler
weather, the festive mood, and the desire for gift giving, baking just really fits the bill. It's also a great way to spend time together with your family as you make up treats and package them up.
Use caution and don't make too many changes at once. If you have a favorite recipe, or three, that you want to "healthify" you need to do it in steps to make sure that your favorite recipe doesn't turn into a batch of doorstops.
Fat: The first change is to get rid of the hydrogenated fats. Use real butter which is much healthier for you. While a recipe that calls for a whole stick of butter seems horrifying to many folks your body knows how to process it and it won't have the same negative health effects of margarine or shortening. The substitution is one for one. When the recipe calls for 1 C. of margarine, you will need 1 C. of butter.
If you want to reduce the amount of fat in your recipe you can substitute applesauce for some of the fat in the recipe. Typically it is best to not substitute more than half the fat for applesauce.
Sweetener: Get rid of the white sugar. It is not a healthy choice because it is so highly processed. While the other choices are not lower in calories they are not as processed. For lighter more delicate cookies (like lemon sugar cookies or snickerdoodles) use evaporated cane juice crystals. For denser more flavorful cookies (such as oatmeal raisin) use sucanat, also known as Sugar Cane Natural. For brown sugar, which is typically white sugar with caramel coloring added, turbinado works very well. Although the turbinado crystals are larger it seems to work out just fine and the added moisture in that sweetener makes the difference. The substitution is one for one. You can read more about different sugars here.
You may also want to consider reducing the amount of sugar in your recipe and see how it tastes. This is a change that you would want to make slowly reducing 2-4 T. at a time.
Use caution and don't make too many changes at once. If you have a favorite recipe, or three, that you want to "healthify" you need to do it in steps to make sure that your favorite recipe doesn't turn into a batch of doorstops.
Fat: The first change is to get rid of the hydrogenated fats. Use real butter which is much healthier for you. While a recipe that calls for a whole stick of butter seems horrifying to many folks your body knows how to process it and it won't have the same negative health effects of margarine or shortening. The substitution is one for one. When the recipe calls for 1 C. of margarine, you will need 1 C. of butter.
If you want to reduce the amount of fat in your recipe you can substitute applesauce for some of the fat in the recipe. Typically it is best to not substitute more than half the fat for applesauce.
Sweetener: Get rid of the white sugar. It is not a healthy choice because it is so highly processed. While the other choices are not lower in calories they are not as processed. For lighter more delicate cookies (like lemon sugar cookies or snickerdoodles) use evaporated cane juice crystals. For denser more flavorful cookies (such as oatmeal raisin) use sucanat, also known as Sugar Cane Natural. For brown sugar, which is typically white sugar with caramel coloring added, turbinado works very well. Although the turbinado crystals are larger it seems to work out just fine and the added moisture in that sweetener makes the difference. The substitution is one for one. You can read more about different sugars here.
You may also want to consider reducing the amount of sugar in your recipe and see how it tastes. This is a change that you would want to make slowly reducing 2-4 T. at a time.
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- How make a substitution for baking cocoa
- Substituting sugar in a recipe
- Making a recipe healthier
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