I’m all about eating sweets. I’m against any “diet”/”lifestyle” that doesn’t include indulging in dessert every once and a while (or like…every day). However, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that most pre-packaged and store-bought desserts are loaded with fat, sugar, preservatives, and ingredients you may not be able to pronounce. Making your desserts at home is always the way to go in my book. That being said, it’s entirely possible to create a homemade dessert with an insane/unnecessary amount of butter, sugar, fat, and calories. Luckily, there are ways to incorporate desserts into your meal plan without overdoing these less-than-desirable ingredients. Enter: healthier sweets. With a few simple swaps, you can honestly feel good about eating dessert. Some of my favorite substitutions include swapping out all-purpose flour for white whole wheat flour or oat flour, using greek yogurt for butter, applesauce instead of oil, flax “eggs” instead of eggs, and pure maple syrup/honey instead of sugar. I still included some traditional not-so-healthy ingredients, like vegetable oil, vegan butter, and raw sugar because sometimes a “healthier” recipe will still call for these ingredients, and they are perfectly okay to use in moderation. Also, you still want your healthier dessert options to truly taste like a dessert and not like cardboard. I am a firm believer that there is such a thing as “too” healthy when it comes to dessert. If it doesn’t taste good or isn’t satisfying, all it’s going to do is make me want more sweets. Some of these ingredients may be on the pricier side, but I promise that they last a long time and are a good investment to make. I have a lot of luck buying some of these on Amazon for a better price (like the cacao powder, hemp seeds, and nuts in bulk). So without further ado, here is my list of Healthy Baking Essentials.
Healthy Baking Essentials white whole wheat flour (or gluten free, if necessary) rolled oats (regular and/or gluten free) vanilla extract turbinado sugar/coconut sugar pure maple syrup honey/agave nectar natural peanut butter natural almond butter bananas applesauce coconut oil vegetable oil vegan butter (like earth balance; or regular butter) plain greek yogurt (or vegan yoghurt) organic, certified humane eggs non-dairy chocolate chips (I prefer mini) whole raw nuts: almonds, cashews, walnuts medjool dates dried fruit: raisins, cranberries cacao powder/cocoa powder ground cinnamon flax seeds chia seeds
hemp seeds
TRY SOME OF THESE HEALTHIER DESSERT RECIPES:
Zucchini Cake (V) with Greek Yogurt Frosting
Cinnamon Maple Brownies (V)
Red White and Blue Cheesecake Cupcakes
Cookie Dough Bars (V)
Almond Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies (V, GF)
Two-Layer Raw Brownies (V, GF)
