Author: Namratha Gopal | Illustrator: Parvathi Nayanar
It’s the holiday season and the desserts are on chart for most of us!! While many baking foods are a major source of added sugars and fat, the desserts you prepare at home can still be healthy and of course in a well-balanced eating pattern. There are dozens of ingredients for healthy baking substitutes that you can implement using everyday pantry-essentials you likely do have in your home. With that said, why wait? Go grab your baking essentials and bake one dessert you like.
Baking is an excellent art as the ingredients like flour, fats, creams and sugar plays an important role while ensuring you that you end up with a tastiest final product. These ingredients are the reason for many baked products to turn out super amazing. In spite of using those store-bought products, you can make handful of healthy substitutions to lighten up any baked product without making any sacrifices in the taste and texture. So next time when you are baking any dessert, try to use these healthy baking substitutes –
HEALTHY BAKING SUBSTITUTES FOR FLOUR
As we all know that the flours we often tend to use are refined. Firstly try substituting 1/3rd or ½ portions of refined flours with whole wheat or whole grain flours of your choice and see how it turns out. Once you feel okay with it, and gradually increase the amount of whole grain flours. This can work well with cakes, cupcakes, muffins, cookies etc. Make sure to know that other whole grain flours don’t exactly work like whole wheat pastry flours do. Barley flours, bean flours, quinoa flour, oat flour etc. should partly be used in combination with either whole wheat flour or all purpose flours.
HEALTHY BAKING SUBSTITUTES FOR FAT
Fats are the one that helps in giving moisture to the baked products. However, it’s important for us to know that fats generally contain saturated fats. Here are few for fat swaps:
- ½ cup of butter or oil ↔ try swapping them with ½ cup of applesauce and 7/8th cup of avocado oil and ½ cup of vegetable oil
- 1 cup of butter or oil ↔ try swapping them with ½ cup of mashed banana and ½ cup of vegetable oil
- In place of 1 cup of butter or oil ↔ try swapping them with ½ cup of mashed ripe avocado. This particular swap works best for chocolate based brownies.
- When it comes to frostings, try swapping creams and cheese or at least some part of it with ↔ Non-fat Greek yogurt.
HEALTHY BAKING SUBSTITUTES FOR EGGS
Eggs can increase your cholesterol levels when used beyond the limits. However it is also essential to know that eggs are great source of nutrients and is an excellent option to add it in your healthy diet. Although eggs are perfectly fine to use in baked products and also vegetarians refuse to use it too, substituting flax or chia seeds will add a dose of fiber and heart-healthy omega-3 fatty acids. This swap is a great choice for vegan-friendly baked food.
- Try swapping 1 egg with ↔ 1 tablespoon of ground flax seeds powder with 3 tablespoon of water.
- Try swapping 1 egg with ↔ 1 tablespoon of chia seeds with 3 tablespoon of water.
Mix both of the ingredients in a separate bowl and let them sit for couple of hours before mixing it with rest of the ingredients.
HEALTHY BAKING SUBSTITUTES FOR SUGAR
Sweeteners like brown sugar, agave nectar or maple syrup are not nutritionally superior to white sugar and are however often called as added sugars. So make sure to lighten up your baked product with less added sugars.
- You can try the previous swap mentioned above with applesauce and bananas where doubling them in this case should be fine. If you are trying this swap out for substituting sugar, then try reducing the amount of sugar by ¼ cup.
- You can also use honey by replacing the same amount of sugar. For example, if you are using ½ cup of sugar, try to substitute it with ½ cup of honey in your recipe. However, make sure to use them as per your choice and as per the sweetness required. You can in fact also use jaggery powder.
Disclaimer
- Make sure to give these swaps a try initially and see if it suits your body type. And try to increase the quantity from there on once you are happy with the outcome of the recipe.
- The content in this article is for generic information purpose only.
- Make sure you don’t use Eno powder instead of baking powder. Baking powder is what required in baking products and don’t try to use any other instead of it as we use them in a very minimal quantity and it should be fine.
