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Baking sessions are a beloved family tradition in many homes, but because baked goods are often prepared with ingredients such as sugar and butter, such sessions may not be respected by family physicians. .
Baked goods will never match vegetables in nutritional value, but there are ways to make the foods amateur bakers love a little healthier.
- Replace sugar with fig puree. Figs are nutrient-rich fruits that are important sources of calcium, potassium and iron. WebMD points out that figs are also a good source of dietary fiber. Soaking 8 ounces of figs in water softens them before pureeing them in 1/4 to 1/3 cup of water. The resulting fig puree can be used as a sugar substitute.
- Make it a “date” night. Similar to figs, dates can be pureed and used as a sugar substitute. However, WebMD points out that pureed dates cannot replace all the sugar in a recipe. 1 cup of date puree and 1/2 to 1 cup of water can replace half of the sugar that the recipe calls for.
- Replace butter with avocado. Sugar isn’t the only thing that makes baked goods unhealthy. Many baking recipes call for a fair amount of butter, and California Avocados states that avocado can replace butter in his 1:1 ratio when baking. So if a recipe calls for 1 cup of butter, the baker can substitute it with 1 cup of avocado puree. WebMD warns that avocados contain more moisture than butter, so the baker may want to lower his oven temperature by 25% to bake the food a little longer. .
- Replace white flour with whole grain flour. White flour is often the go-to for amateurs and even professional bakers. Whole grains are unprocessed, so they retain their nutritional value. Baking with whole grains can take a learning curve, and some bakers prefer to use a mixture of whole grains and white flours to maintain familiar flavors.
