I'm a sucker for baking! I love cakes, and cookies and muffins and squares and pies and danishes and tarts. I could eat just baking for days on end and be very, very happy (and also be pleasantly plump!). Because of this love, both to bake and to eat said baking, I have been recently learning to modify a lot of recipes (and creating some new ones of my own).
The two biggest things that make baking so unhealthy (and fluffy & delicious) are butter/fats and refined sugars. I was under the impression for a very long time that these were completely necessary in order for baking to taste good. Otherwise, its just gross health-food, not sinful chocolate cake! What I have learned over the last little while, is that these are not necessary ingredients! There are plenty of other ways to add and maintain moisture (what butter does) and to make baking sweet (that's the sugar's job). The best butter substitutes are plain, unsweetened apple sauce and fat-free yogourt. I usually just replace butter with a 1:1 ratio of apple sauce or yogourt. Now won't these change the flavour you ask? I'm baking a chocolate cake, not an apple cake...well the great news is that they don't! Even in something where using apple sauce might seem counter-intuitive. For example, I sub it in for chocolate cake all the time, and it tastes just like normal chocolate cake, and with more moisture! Adding yogourt makes for a little bit denser cakes, but also a bit richer in my opinion. It gives brownies the melt in your mouth feeling!
All that being said, I prefer to use apple sauce as a butter substitute, because it ALSO serves as a sugar substitute! I find that 1c of apple cause replaces about 1/2 - 3/4c sugar (depending on the recipe). So you may still have to add a bit of sugar to your recipe (but not nearly as much as was originally called for). If you do need to add sugar, brown or raw sugars are best (they are less refined). You can also use Stevia (which is an all natural sugar substitute, and no it isn't aspartame or the likes and can be purchased at most health food stores and in some grocery stores.). If you are trying to cut out sugar for weight loss only reasons, and aren't completely health conscious you could also add in a few some artificial aspartame based sweeteners as required. Another good sugar substitute is other fruit purees. Which you can either buy, or make yourself. I caution against using jams, as they are usually FULL of sugar and the pectin in them can change the consistency of your baking. Apple or guava are the best purees since they add sweetness without adding too much flavour. Wheres most berries add a lot of flavour. Pear puree can work too, although the flavour is often recognizable. Pineapple juice and puree are also great to use, especially in spice cakes, or muffins, where the acetic acid in the pineapple actually helps to enhance the flavour of some of the spices. Yum! Another great way, as weird as it sounds is citrus rind. It doesn't add sweetness in the same way that sugar does, but it adds flavour and tartness and you don't even realize you're missing the sugar!
A great way to keep moisture in your baking is to add veggies to it. What? Veggies in my chocolate cake you say? Now i'm not suggesting that you throw a bunch of beats or lettuce in your muffins, but there are some veggies that work well! Well we've been making carrot spice loafs, pumpkin pies and chocolate zucchini cakes for ages and there is a reason for it! It helps to keep baking moist! Sweet potato or yams can also add moisture and sweetness too! Just bake them whole, scoop the insides out, mash them up and add them in place of some of the butter! Yummy!
Learning to bake in a healthy way sometimes requires a bit of trial and error, and I have found that many of the recipes I find on the internet need a bit of alteration or substitution to get them just right. Sometimes its baking at a higher or lower temperature, and sometimes it means adding more or less of a specific ingredient. I will be posting a few of the healthy baking inspired recipes that I have made over the next few days!
Now baking can be (almost) guilt free!
The two biggest things that make baking so unhealthy (and fluffy & delicious) are butter/fats and refined sugars. I was under the impression for a very long time that these were completely necessary in order for baking to taste good. Otherwise, its just gross health-food, not sinful chocolate cake! What I have learned over the last little while, is that these are not necessary ingredients! There are plenty of other ways to add and maintain moisture (what butter does) and to make baking sweet (that's the sugar's job). The best butter substitutes are plain, unsweetened apple sauce and fat-free yogourt. I usually just replace butter with a 1:1 ratio of apple sauce or yogourt. Now won't these change the flavour you ask? I'm baking a chocolate cake, not an apple cake...well the great news is that they don't! Even in something where using apple sauce might seem counter-intuitive. For example, I sub it in for chocolate cake all the time, and it tastes just like normal chocolate cake, and with more moisture! Adding yogourt makes for a little bit denser cakes, but also a bit richer in my opinion. It gives brownies the melt in your mouth feeling!
All that being said, I prefer to use apple sauce as a butter substitute, because it ALSO serves as a sugar substitute! I find that 1c of apple cause replaces about 1/2 - 3/4c sugar (depending on the recipe). So you may still have to add a bit of sugar to your recipe (but not nearly as much as was originally called for). If you do need to add sugar, brown or raw sugars are best (they are less refined). You can also use Stevia (which is an all natural sugar substitute, and no it isn't aspartame or the likes and can be purchased at most health food stores and in some grocery stores.). If you are trying to cut out sugar for weight loss only reasons, and aren't completely health conscious you could also add in a few some artificial aspartame based sweeteners as required. Another good sugar substitute is other fruit purees. Which you can either buy, or make yourself. I caution against using jams, as they are usually FULL of sugar and the pectin in them can change the consistency of your baking. Apple or guava are the best purees since they add sweetness without adding too much flavour. Wheres most berries add a lot of flavour. Pear puree can work too, although the flavour is often recognizable. Pineapple juice and puree are also great to use, especially in spice cakes, or muffins, where the acetic acid in the pineapple actually helps to enhance the flavour of some of the spices. Yum! Another great way, as weird as it sounds is citrus rind. It doesn't add sweetness in the same way that sugar does, but it adds flavour and tartness and you don't even realize you're missing the sugar!
A great way to keep moisture in your baking is to add veggies to it. What? Veggies in my chocolate cake you say? Now i'm not suggesting that you throw a bunch of beats or lettuce in your muffins, but there are some veggies that work well! Well we've been making carrot spice loafs, pumpkin pies and chocolate zucchini cakes for ages and there is a reason for it! It helps to keep baking moist! Sweet potato or yams can also add moisture and sweetness too! Just bake them whole, scoop the insides out, mash them up and add them in place of some of the butter! Yummy!
Learning to bake in a healthy way sometimes requires a bit of trial and error, and I have found that many of the recipes I find on the internet need a bit of alteration or substitution to get them just right. Sometimes its baking at a higher or lower temperature, and sometimes it means adding more or less of a specific ingredient. I will be posting a few of the healthy baking inspired recipes that I have made over the next few days!
Now baking can be (almost) guilt free!
No comments:
Post a Comment