Welcome to day 3 of the Healthy Baking Experiment. Today I’m going to give you my top 5 key tips to making some delicious but healthy baked goods. Last post we spoke about replacements. When you are replacing certain ingredients sometimes your baked-goods can loose a bit of the flavor that unhealthy ingredients bring. That’s why I’ve provided these tips to help whatever you are baking keep their flavors without health sacrifices.
5 Tips to Remember:
1. Spices are your friends—When It comes to Healthy Baking spices are key! Lets be honest the reason a lot of baked goods are delicious because the ingredients are unhealthy. Think about it, butter is pure fat but it makes practically everything all the more delicious. So when you are replacing these unhealthy ingredients with nutritious ones you may loose a bit of that delicious flavoring. Spices are the perfect way to elevate the taste so that instead of tasting bland it has complex-multidimensional flavor. Have you ever eaten something that every time you take a bite you taste something new? That delicious sensation is exactly what we are going for. I put cinnamon in literally everything, and you know what its great for your blood sugar, arteries and cholesterol. Nutmeg has a distinct cozy fall flavor and its also helps with depression and digestion.
2. Vanilla extract makes everything better—I know every baking recipe, healthy or nonhealthy, calls for this ingredient and there’s a reason. Don’t forget it or you’ll regret it. Like spices Vanilla extract really elevates flavors and sweetness of a recipe. Also if you are trying to make something that has a batter taste, vanilla extract will help do the trick. Not to mention Vanilla is a known anxiety reliever. I like to even add some in my coffee; it makes my homemade “lattes” taste more like Starbucks.
3. Blend really well—The best investment I ever made was a food processor. I kid you not. Besides being able to chop and puree fruits and veggies it’s awesome for making dough. The Food processor makes sure everything is blended nearly perfectly. This is key in healthy baking because when you are using some non-traditional ingredients (like tofu or beans) you don’t want that taste to stand out. By blending it together you’ll still get the benefits of the ingredient but not that distinct flavor. Recipes aren’t about one ingredient they are about all the ingredients working together. Seriously though… food processors are awesome.
4. When in doubt, under bake—My grandma used to say “take out your cookies when you can smell them, not when the timer goes off.” FYI: My grandma is a pretty awesome baker. Few people object to that delicious gooey inside of a slightly under-baked brownie (unless you’re weird like me and actually like burnt baked-goods). The key that most people don’t realize is that when you take it out of the oven, it will still bake in the pan! This tip is especially helpful when you are baking eggless, because you don’t have to worry about salmonella. Some vegan cookies I’ve made before literally take 8 minutes to cook because there’s no egg.
5. Nuts may raise the calorie count… but they are good for you!—Now a days people are far to concerned at the calorie label. When looking at the nutrition facts of the recipe I always have to remind myself that its not the amount calories its where the calories come from. Nuts are high in fats and calories, yet they provide great protein and are really heart healthy… not to mention they really add great texture and complex flavors to your baked goods. So don’t focus so much on calories, focus more on the value of the ingredients.