Baking at home is one of those simple joys in life. Everyone loves fresh baked treats from toddlers to grandmothers. And they don’t even take that long to make. Whether you cook from scratch or are perfecting your box mix technique, the result is always warm, delicious, and oh so rewarding. Of course, home baking isn’t always as healthy as it is wholesome. Whether you’re trying to stick to a diet or keep your little one eating healthy, there are a few ways to make your home cooking a little healthier and more guilt-free with every warm iced or buttery bite. This is the perfect way to enjoy delicious homemade baked goods with the family while also giving your children a taste for healthy baking early in life.
Use Applesauce Instead of Butter or Oil
Plain unsweetened applesauce adds moistness and natural sugar to your baking without the fat content. Replace oil with applesauce in a one to one ratio in most recipes, including box recipes, for a much healthier result. As long as your recipe is intended to be sweet or at least slightly sweet, this substitution is a great mild addition and subtle natural flavor.
You can also make thick and creamy chocolate icing for those dessert recipes by substituting applesauce for butter or shortening. Applesauce can give your icing a silky smooth texture without overpowering the cocoa powder or adding a lot of fat to the recipe. With some creative use of applesauce, you can make your home baking projects significantly healthier.
Embrace Oats and Oat Flour
Not every tasty breakfast or dessert baked good has to be loaded with refined quick-metabolism ingredients. Oatmeal-raisin cookies, for instance, feature whole oats and dried fruit to get you through the day. Oat-flour pancakes in the morning are a little heavier while just as delicious and will keep you energized for longer into the day. Start experimenting with grain and flour alternatives to refined white flour to find heartier and more diverse baking options.
When cooking from scratch, this is easy to do. You can even start easing in your flour alternatives in portions. Try 1/3 oat flour, and then 1/2. Almond flour, arrowroot flour, and rice flour are also popular but really there are dozens of ways to mix up your flour types when baking at home.
Throw In Fresh Fruit
Everyone knows that banana bread is better when you use delicious mashed ripe bananas right in the batter. We also know that blueberry muffins are better with real blueberries and that strawberry tarts are delicious with fresh tangy strawberries on top. But what you may not realize is that the recipe doesn’t control when you can add fresh fruit to your baking and when you can’t.
Fresh fruit is always delicious baked into healthy muffins and breads, and experimenting is a great way to discover whole new flavor combinations you’ll love. Mixing fresh chopped or pureed fruit into your home baking recipes is a great way to increase your fruit intake and make your baking much healthier in the long run. We also recommend experimenting with crushed nuts which add protein, fiber, and an enjoyable crunchiness to your baking.
Switch to Skim Milk
Many people who grew up on whole milk have trouble acknowledging that skim milk is real. It really does have all the same nutrients and cooking value as whole milk, just a lot less fat. Even if you’re not happy drinking skim milk, keep some around for your baking to reduce the unnecessary stacking of calories into your warm baked treats. Skim milk bakes just the same as whole but does not bring any of the milk fat into your healthy new recipes.
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With just a few baking replacements, you can significantly increase the healthiness of your home baked goods. From dinner rolls to birthday cupcakes, your entire family will benefit from these subtle and tasty upgrades to traditional recipes. There are even ways to ‘hide’ pureed vegetables in classic baked treats, but we’ll leave the real experimentation to you and your kitchen.
