From breakfasts to deserts and more, it’s not a secret that we all are fans of making healthier food. It’s possible to slash major calories and fat from almost any baked good without sacrificing flavor or texture All it takes to make decadent treats that do minimal damage is one or two modifications
Baked goods are often filled with saturated fats, refined sugars and hundreds of calories per serving. If you like cake, but want to watch your intake of empty calories, you can learn to substitute unconventional ingredients to make it healthier.
Let’s find out how to make a healthy substitution when baking. This is intended to help manage your clients who have health issues that require attention to the basic ingredients.
Replace up to half of the oil, butter or margarine with applesauce or mashed bananas.
This fruit puree adds moisture like fat would, but cuts down on the calories and saturated fat. You can also replace it with plain yogurt.
- Replace up to half of the fat content with bean puree. Use pinto beans for non-chocolate cakes and black beans for chocolate cakes. This substitution increases the fiber and protein of your cake, making it much healthier.
- Replace a portion of the fat with vegetable puree. Pumpkin puree and sweet potato puree are excellent choices. You can use spinach puree for a small portion of the fat in dark chocolate desserts.
Replace white flour with whole wheat flour in the same amount. It works well in all cakes/cookies.
Replace dairy products, such as Heavy cream milk with almond, evaporated milk.
In a chocolate recipe, you can replace milk with a coffee and soy or almond milk mixture for a richer taste. Remember to use unsweetened alternative milk, because many of the sweetened brands have large amounts of added sugar.
Replace half to 3/4 of your all purpose flour with alternative flours.
You can use almond flour, spelt flour, quinoa flour or whole wheat flour. Grind your rolled oats in a food processor to serve as oat flour.
- Cakes with airier textures should have less all purpose flour substituted. If your cake requires fine flour, you can buy whole wheat pastry flour for a replacement.
Replace the sugar with honey or agave nectar.
These sweeteners still pack a lot of calories; however, they are more natural and have a lower glycemic index, so they are considered more healthy. If you use agave nectar, it is sweeter than sugar so you can use 3/4 of the sugar measurement.
- Try reducing the amount of sugar in your cake. If you want to continue to use granulated sugar, you may be able to reduce the sugar by up to 1/3 of the measurement. A fresh cake will still taste sweet and airy with slightly less sugar.
Use dark chocolate in place of milk or semi-sweet chocolate whenever possible.
Look for chocolate with at least 70 percent cocoa and aim to go for an even higher percentage. Your cake will taste richer while adding antioxidants.
