Fresh baked goods find their way into our diets from time to time, there’s no denying that, but with all of the refined carbohydrates, the treats only leave us feeling guilty. Made with white flour and sugar, most of the time they are empty calories that pack pounds onto the waistline.

To make your baked goods a bit less treacherous for your waistline, there are some changes you can try!

• Cut back on sugar: Depending on the recipe, you can cut back as much as half of the normal amount suggested! Though sugar is still needed, this will definitely help the cause. With this, it is best to test out before planning to bake a large amount to give to someone else, because it can be a tricky switch.
• Fat replacement: A lot of cooking forums suggest unsweetened applesauce as a replacement for oil or butter in baking recipes. This can be a huge success. What I’ve found is that the applesauce can easily be substituted 1:1 with recipes that call for oil, such as breads or cakes. The product is still extremely moist and delicious. With butter based recipes, it changes the consistency a bit, so it is best to test those recipes.
• White flour woes: Made from only the endosperm of the grain, it doesn’t offer much along the lines of nutrition. Because of this, many people have made the switch from white to wheat bread. Wheat flour is ground as the “whole” grain: the bran, germ and endosperm, which packs a bigger punch with fiber and protein. Substitutions work best in cookies, breads and muffins. Whether you substitute half of or the entire amount of flour with whole wheat is totally dependent upon your personal tastes. If you ask me, whole grain chocolate chip cookies are way better than the original!

*Credit to King Arthur Flour website (their whole wheat flour is what I use and recommend!)

Check out my yummy Banana Bread recipe make-over here, using the suggestions above, and see how the fat, calorie and even fiber content changed!

View Original Post at rebeccascritchfield.wordpress.com

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