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| Wednesday, February 18, 2009 |
| Healthy Baking Made Easy |
With the holidays over and Valentine’s Day just passed, I know it’s time to get back to my healthy diet. I look forward to the holiday season because I love all of the baked goods that go along with that time of year. My sister bakes the best cookies ever, I bake my favorite apple crisp, my aunt bakes all kinds of pastries and my friend makes homemade chocolate for Valentine’s Day. For two months, I enjoy all of these high calorie, high fat foods that I love so much, but after Valentine’s Day it’s back to my healthy diet.
This year I vowed that I would enjoy my baked goods all year long, but since I’m health conscious and weight conscious, I have to put a little twist on my baked goods during the year. I did a little research and found some ways to get the great taste of my favorite foods without all of the fat and calories. After all, one cookie can have 200 calories and I never eat just one.
Everyone knows that too much fat in your diet can lead to weight gain, obesity and even stroke, so cutting the fat in some recipes is a great idea. Here are my favorite tips to cut the fat but leave the flavor:- When using eggs, substitute 2 egg whites for 1 whole egg. Don’t try to substitute all of the eggs for egg whites. It’s better to just do half. If a recipe calls for 4 eggs, use 2 eggs and 4 egg whites. You will save 14 grams of fat but keep the texture and flavor.
- When a recipe calls for butter or oil, you can substitute applesauce. Use a 1 to 1 ratio (substitute 1 Tbsp of applesauce for 1 Tbsp of butter). Only substitute half of the total amount called for. So if a recipe calls for 4 Tbsp butter use 2 Tbsp butter and 2 Tbsp applesauce to cut the fat but keep the flavor.
- If a recipe calls for sour cream, you can substitute low fat sour cream or yogurt.
- Use fruit purees as a substitute for butter or oil. You can pick any pureed baby fruit or puree your own bananas. These work great in cakes. They can lower the fat and give great flavor. Prune puree works great with chocolate recipes. As always, don’t substitute all of the fat, just half.
- You can always do the obvious and use low fat or skim milk instead of whole or use light butter or low fat mayonnaise.
Cutting the fat in your baked goods will help cut calories, but there are some other simple tricks that can help you cut the calories in your sweet treats. - Sometimes you can just reduce the amount of sugar called for in a recipe and you won’t even miss it. You can probably cut out half of the sugar in a recipe for cookies and not even really know the difference.
- Use spices like cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger to give great flavor while cutting down on the amount of sugar in a recipe.
- Use pureed fruit instead of frostings on cupcakes or cakes.
- You can also use chopped dried fruit in a recipe instead of chocolate chips. It will give a different taste, but people might like the change.
This year, I intend to enjoy my sweet treats all year. You can have your cake and eat it too if you just take some time to make that cake a little healthier. And if you’re thinking of taking baked goods to a party or friends house check out this website www.bakersstongo.com I came across. You can get the neatest carrying case for all of your goodies so they won’t be ruined by the time you get to the party.
- Jennifer
Labels: Healthy Cooking, Jennifer
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posted by My Sensei @ Wednesday, February 18, 2009   |
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