Delicious and Nutritious Baking Hacks

Have a sweet tooth? You don’t have to skip dessert to stick to your healthy eating goals! Between cookies, muffins and cakes, the opportunities for temptation are limitless. Try making your own nutritious, guilt-free desserts as an alternative to store-bought treats.

Patricia Hertz, registered dietitian with the Center for Fitness & Health at Adventist HealthCare Shady Grove Medical Center, says it’s easy to make healthy baking swaps.

“Making minor tweaks to a recipe by swapping ingredients for healthier ones can make a world of difference when it comes to nutrition,” Patricia said. “Instead of focusing on what we’re removing from a recipe, why not focus on what healthy ingredients we can add?”

If you enjoy baking but want to lighten things up, try one of Patricia’s recommendations for ramping up the nutritional value of your sweet treats:

Swap for higher-quality or nutrient-rich ingredients.

Enhance the nutritional benefits and flavor of your food by swapping an ingredient with a substitute that offers more dietary benefits. For example:

• Try vanilla beans instead of vanilla extract.
• Replace all-purpose white flour with whole-grain flour.
• Add shredded or pureed apples, carrots, bananas or pumpkin.

Try dark chocolate instead of milk chocolate.

When a recipe calls for milk chocolate, don’t be afraid to use dark chocolate in its place. Dark chocolate offers antioxidants, heart healthy benefits and much more. Be sure to look for one with 70 percent cocoa or higher.

Reduce saturated fats.

When baking, use fat-free dairy products or low-fat milk and buttermilk. Try adding Greek yogurt to recipes to add protein and calcium.

Cut the sugar down.

When modifying a recipe, you can often cut sugar by 25 percent without a noticeable difference in taste. For example, if a recipe calls for 4 tablespoons of sugar, you can reduce that amount to 3 tablespoons. When reducing sugar, you may need to increase the liquid in a recipe.

You don’t need to use all of these swaps when baking a healthier dessert. One or two can boost a recipe’s nutrition and still taste delicious.

“As an avid dessert lover myself, I don’t recommend that my patients give up dessert because I wouldn’t want to either,” Patricia said. “It’s all about moderation. Enjoy the desserts you love, but try healthy ingredient swaps and watch your portion size.”

Search our blog for healthy desserts that taste great at AHCYou.com/W24Bake.