Baking? Try These Healthy Substitutions

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Baking? Try These Healthy Substitutions

April 15, 2007

I really enjoy baking and the weekends are a great time to make sweet things with my sweet things. My girls do love baking. When I am baking I do try to substitute with healthy ingredients when I think I will not sacrifice the texture and flavor too much.

I found this list of substitutions at the American Heart Association and I think they are great. Definitely worth giving a try if you are trying to reduce your intake of fat, particularly the saturated kind which can increase your LDL cholesterol.

Ingredient	Healthy Substitution
Whole milk (1 cup)	1 cup fat-free or nonfat milk plus one tablespoon of unsaturated oil like safflower or canola
Heavy cream (1 cup)	1 cup evaporated skim milk or 1/2 cup low-fat yogurt and 1/2 cup plain low-fat cottage cheese
Sour cream	Low-fat cottage cheese plus low-fat or nonfat yogurt (fat-free sour cream is also available)
Cream cheese	4 tablespoons margarine blended with 1 cup dry low-fat cottage cheese; add a small amount of fat-free milk if needed
Butter (1 tablespoon)	1 tablespoon polyunsaturated margarine or 3/4 tablespoon polyunsaturated oil like safflower oil
Shortening (1 cup)	2 sticks polyunsaturated margarine
1 Egg	1 egg white plus 2 teaspoons of unsaturated oil (canola or safflower) or commercially made, cholesterol-free egg substitute
Unsweetened baking chocolate (1 ounce)	3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder or carob powder plus 1 tablespoon polyunsaturated oil (like safflower or corn oil) or margarine. Carob is sweeter than cocoa, so reduce sugar in recipe by 1/4

14 Comments

SarahElaine 6 years 2 weeks

I've started using flaxseed meal mixed with water to replace eggs, and it works really well.

brighteyes097 6 years 3 weeks

Ellie Krieger from FoodNetwork always makes healthy substitutions when baking and I've always been more than satisfied with her recipes. Besides, when you substitute certain ingredients like whole wheat flour for white flour, the end result is denser and fills you up faster, which precludes overeating.

SU3 6 years 4 weeks

I always use the substitution of sour cream whenever I need it. But I've never heard of the cream cheese substitution - interesting! I will definitely try out! Thanks for posting this!

Butrfly4404 6 years 5 weeks

While I agree with you that people tend to gorge on "diet" sweets, puddinpie, I still think it's great to replace stuff like white flour and oil when you can. Like in my Applesauce Oatmeal Muffins, I can't find anything bad for me! Even if I do have two muffins, I'm still WAY under the calories I would consume eating a muffin from a typical bakery...and they are actually GOOD for your heart instead of BAD for it...which they would be with vegetable oil and white flour. joyofadventure...THANK YOU!!! I couldn't remember the specifics and couldnt' find it on the net! Found some banana-nut muffin recipes I want to try for The Man, but all call for oil and such...blech.

Twinkle 6 years 5 weeks

I agree puddinpie.

Twinkle 6 years 5 weeks

I agree puddinpie.

puddinpie 6 years 5 weeks

I cook/bake for a living, and can't imagine using these substitutions. If you want something that's "unhealthy", just eat a smaller portion of it. Most of the time, ppl gorge on the "diet" stuff anyway and still gain weight from the calories.

brielleblonde 6 years 5 weeks

i use applesause instead of using eggs. it actaully makes baked goods more moist, but tastes exactly the same.

joyofadventure 6 years 5 weeks

i just thought of something you didnt have on the list which i use all the time.. when a recipe calls for oil (half cup or so), like in cake mixes, instead use one single serving cup (ya know the individual things you can buy at the store) of apple sauce

joyofadventure 6 years 5 weeks

awsome!... those cookies in the pic look delicious!

Fancy04 6 years 5 weeks

Thanks for sharing Fitsugar. Maybe this will help a lot of people out. I've always eat healthy-some people call me a health nut :ROTFL: But seriously more people should try to eat the right things, and chocolate isn't on the list. Sorry :(____________________My Opinion!

Fancy04 6 years 5 weeks