How to Make Healthier Desserts That Don’t Quite Suck
A celebration is not complete without dessert. Even on a normal day, dinner becomes special when you know there will be cake. But the three things that make them completely irresistible are the same things we need to watch out for – fats, sugars and carbohydrates. What a nice combo! Responsible for hundreds of thousands (dare I say millions?) of treats around the world. Resolutions and cookie hangovers make ditching the big three a popular move this time of year, and it’s never a bad idea to have a few healthier treat options in your back pocket, but let’s be realistic: desserts without sugar, fat, and carbs usually suck.
Nobody wants to hear me say, “Just eat seasonal raw fruit!” Fruit is good, but it’s not biscuits. If you’ve ever tried sugar-free cookies, you know that making good cookies can be a challenge. Some desserts made with substitutes have an “unpleasant” taste or texture issues, but there are a number of desserts that are really tasty and much healthier than their counterparts full of sugar and fat.
Before you start baking, you need to ask yourself a few questions: What are your limitations? Do you need a diet without refined sugar? Are natural sweeteners like honey or agave okay? Sugar is perfectly acceptable, but are you on a low-fat or no-fat diet? Maybe you are trying to switch to keto? Once you’ve determined what you’re trying to avoid, move on to the ingredients you can use.
Low Fat Desserts
Fats perform many functions in baked goods, such as adding flavor, improving texture, and emulsifying other ingredients such as eggs for binding. It also promotes browning by adding a warm and inviting color. Removing such an important player usually means that it must be replaced – partially or completely – with something that can perform these necessary functions. Look for recipes that use Greek yogurt, bananas, or applesauce, such as this Banana Greek Yogurt Bread or Apple Honey Pie in the next section. Keep in mind that although applesauce is almost tasteless when baked, you can definitely taste bananas, and yogurt will give the finished product a light flavor and a lot of moisture.
Let’s not forget desserts that are completely fat-free, even if you don’t try them. Angel food pie is light, fluffy and completely satisfying without a gram of fat; try this one from Taste of Home with lightly macerated fruit for a delicious treat. In addition, macaroons with jam (instead of butter filling) are completely fat-free, like their Italian counterparts – amaretti biscuits .
While they are considered healthier fats, avoid recipes with lots of nuts, nut butter, and coconut oil if you’re really trying to avoid fat entirely. (Nuts are high in fat, and coconut is high in saturated fat, so you might unknowingly ruin your dessert.)
Desserts with low sugar content
White, brown and powdered sugar give the dessert a unique texture and taste. They caramelize as they cook, which, like butter, helps give the treat a tempting golden brown hue. But let’s be honest, we love sucrose for its real sweetness. This makes substitution difficult because it’s not so much a function as a binding of ingredients, but an elemental taste. In this case, your options include sugar substitutes such as Splenda or Stevia (which may have a noticeably cool, non-sugar flavor), natural sweeteners such as maple syrup, honey, coconut sugar, and agave nectar, or fruit-based ingredients such as puree. and juices.
This Apple & Honey Cake from The Muesli Diaries uses a clever combination of applesauce, honey and apple chunks to provide sweetness, flavor and texture. Aside from coconut sugar, which can replace white or brown sugar in a 1:1 ratio, most sugar substitutes have a different weight, texture, and consistency, making substitutions difficult in your regular recipes. Splenda is a powder, while honey and maple syrup are viscous liquids, so if you try to whip it up with a regular sugar recipe, you could end up with a tortilla or a melted cookie. Follow specific recipes for these ingredients to ensure the success of the finished product.
And finally, try to find recipes with a strong taste, especially when working with artificial sweeteners. This sugar-free peanut butter cookie uses a powdered sweetener like Splenda, but its main flavor is peanut butter. Desserts with dark chocolate, coffee, peanut butter, or lots of spices will take center stage in your taste buds, so you won’t notice a change in sugar levels as quickly as you would in a vanilla or citrus dessert.
Low Carb Desserts
There are plenty of nutritious, low carb substitutes available that work damn well. Because white and wheat flour make up the bulk of most desserts, you want a substitute that provides a structure with a somewhat neutral flavor, such as beans, beaten egg whites, or alternative flours. Since many flour manufacturers cater to the needs of people with allergies or dietary restrictions, they have created some decent substitutes, but keep your goals in mind because not all flour substitutes are low in carbs.
For substitutes that are higher in protein and lower in carbs than all-purpose flour, look for recipes that use almond flour or chickpea bean flour (also called chickpea flour or besan), such as this Chickpea Flour Double Chocolate Cookie from Sometimes Eggs . Note that most low carb flour substitutes are gluten-free, so you should not directly substitute the alternative flour in any old recipe. Gluten is a binding structural protein that is present in all-purpose flour but absent from many low-carb flour substitutes, so unless a flour substitute explicitly lists vital wheat gluten in the ingredients section, you should follow recipes that explain its absence. gluten.
If that doesn’t work for you and you prefer an equal proportion substitute, then you can try Arrowhead Mills Protein Flour or make your own low carb baking flour with this recipe from A Family Feast using xanthan gum as a binder. .
low trio
I don’t think we’ve talked about beans and sweet potatoes enough. Dessert ingredients aren’t exactly common—although sweet potatoes make great popsicles —but they have many of the qualities we look for in substitutes: binding, texture, somewhat neutral flavor, far fewer carbs than flour and butter substitutes, with added nutritional benefits. substances, fiber and protein.
Sweet potatoes and overripe bananas are especially helpful in this area because they are sweet. With natural sugars, you can significantly cut down on added substances. These substitutes work well for more compact desserts, so look for ones that are usually thick and gooey, like cakes or cookies. My favorite Live Eat Learn Black Bean Brownie recipe is very chocolaty and contains very little butter and sugar per serving. The trick to disguising beans, sweet potatoes and bananas? Mix the hell out of them. If you want an airy treat with minimal sugar, fat, or carbs, try my Cinnamon Spice Sweet Potato Soufflé:
Sweet Potato Cinnamon Spice Soufflé (Yield: 5 x 6 oz molds)
Ingredients:
- 1 packaged cup (9 1/2 oz) boiled sweet potato
- 2 tablespoons maple syrup
- 1 tablespoon almond milk
- 3 egg yolks
- 1 pinch of salt
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ⅛ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 4 egg whites
- 1 teaspoon melted butter (for greasing the molds)
- Optional: sugar, finely ground coconut or almond flour for dusting.
Preheat oven to 375℉.
Brush each mold with a thin layer of melted butter. Traditionally, you poured some granulated sugar into the mold and swirled it around to create a thin layer of sand that the soufflé “rose” over. If you want to eliminate all refined sugar from this recipe, you can use almond flour or finely ground coconut (I loved the flavor and smooth texture you get with this), or skip the grainy coating altogether for a slightly smaller layer.
In a small food processor, pulse the sweet potatoes, maple syrup, almond milk, egg yolks, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg until fluffy and silky. Be sure to scrape off the mixture and stir again so that no potato pieces remain. Transfer the sweet potato mixture to a medium bowl.
Using a hand or stand mixer, use the whisk attachment and a squeaky clean bowl to beat the egg whites to stiff peaks. The egg whites should be glossy, not dry, and stand on a slightly sloping point. The idea is for the egg whites to hold on to air bubbles that haven’t reached their limit yet, so they’ll still have some room to expand when heated in the oven.
With a rubber spatula, gently fold the beaten egg whites into the sweet potato mixture one third at a time. With the last third, add the egg whites until the last white streaks are gone. Immediately spread the soufflé dough into the prepared molds. Use a knife or flat spatula to flatten the tops and place them directly in the oven at 375℉. Bake 17-20 minutes or until puffed up and lightly browned around the edges; the air bubbles on the side should no longer look wet.
Enjoy as is or garnish with icing sugar or a dash of maple syrup.
If you indulge in fragrant sweets from time to time, this will not hinder your progress, no matter how high your health goals are. With a few conscious substitutions and the understanding that, yes, your black bean brownie will taste different than two butter and four cups of sugar at your favorite bakery – and that’s okay – you’re on your way to feeling very proud. yourself this year.