Homemade desserts are always a delight, but how can we make them healthier and lighter? For example, we can replace some ingredients with more nutritious and natural alternatives, as well as less caloric. Here's what to use instead of butter, refined flour, white sugar and eggs when we want to make cakes, biscuits and other desserts at home.
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I homemade desserts they are always a delight, but how can we go about making them healthier and light? For example we can replace some ingredients with more nutritious and natural alternatives, as well as less caloric.
Here's what to use instead of butter, refined flour, white sugar and eggs - and more - when we want to prepare cakes, biscuits and other desserts at home.
Index
Substitute the white sugar
Lo white sugar it is very high in calories, but does not provide the body with beneficial nutrients. The easiest way to replace it is to use whole cane sugar in equal quantities. Other white sugar substitutes can be the malt (e.g. corn or rice), lo Maple syrup, agave syrup and stevia. You will have to learn to adjust with the quantities to obtain the desired degree of sweetness. Cakes, biscuits and creams will lose the typical cloying taste of white sugar and will taste much more natural. Keep in mind that, for example, for the dough of a cake or a plum cake of 250 g of flour you will need at least 60 g of corn or rice malt.
Vegetable butter
The common butter can be replaced with del homemade vegetable butter to obtain healthier and lighter desserts. It is a useful solution for those desserts where it is necessary to use an ingredient of the same consistency as butter that cannot be replaced by oil. There are various recipes online for prepare the vegetable butter at home with l 'olive oil, or non-hydrogenated vegetable margarine, thickened with soy lecithin (read Thu the recipe of A V in the Plate), which is thus completely different from industrial margarine. Here is a video of Veggie Channel to prepare vegetable butter at home quickly and easily:
Avocado pulp
An interesting and healthy substitute for butter or margarine industrial is the avocado pulp. You can use it to make lighter desserts, making sure that it replaces at least half of the butter or margarine indicated in the recipes you will follow. The creamy texture of avocado and its mild flavor won't make you miss the butter. Try using mashed or pureed avocado pulp to make cakes, pies and cookies.
Read also: Avocado: 10 ways to use it in the kitchen or for beauty
In order to be
Agar agar is a vegetable thickener derived from algae. It is used to replace the commune cooking jelly o gelatine, which is produced using animal fats. Agar agar is suitable for the preparation of jellies for pies, puddings, vegetable cheeses, jams, sweet creams and for all preparations that require the use of normal jelly. It is sold in powder or flakes. Usually 1 teaspoon is enough for every 500 milliliters of liquid ingredients. To use it at its best, simply follow the instructions on the packaging.
Read also: Agar agar: the vegetable gelatin from algae. properties, uses and where to find it
Natural vanilla
Replace the XNUMX teaspoon vanilla extract liquid or powder with natural vanilla. Vanillin is a artificial flavor which has nothing to do with real vanilla. You can use ground vanilla pods, which are on sale in organic food stores in jars, to replace vanillin in cakes (half a teaspoon is enough), in creams or biscuits. To flavor the vegetable milk, you can add a small piece of vanilla bean and heat it to prepare a cream for the filling of the cakes. Or you can prepare a liquid vanilla extract letting a berry rest for two weeks in a bottle with 500 milliliters of food alcohol or rum. You will use the liquid vanilla extract in drops, as in the case of vanillin in vials.
Homemade orange blossom water
Lorange blossom water is another of the classics artificial flavors that we can find in supermarkets, together with vanillin or fake almond flavor. You can replace it with the grated peel of organic oranges or with some real orange blossom water, natural and homemade. You will need 2 teaspoons of orange blossom, baking soda, water and 50 grams of brown sugar. Orange blossoms are harvested between April and May. Prepare it by following the instructions of the Verdiana recipe step by step.
Read also: Orange blossom water: how to prepare it to flavor desserts
wholemeal flour
use the wholemeal or semi-wholemeal flour in the preparation of desserts it allows to make them more nutritious. So try to replace the classic 00 flour with wholemeal flours of various types. Not only whole wheat flour, but also spelled, rice or oats to obtain sweets richer in beneficial and original properties. The 00 flour, due to refining, is deprived of the vegetable fibers essential for the correct functioning of the intestine, as well as the vitamins and mineral salts contained in the wheat germ.
Replace the eggs
Eggs are very easy to replace in baked desserts, such as cakes, plumcakes, muffins and cookies. In place of each egg add to your recipe 1 tablespoon of water or vegetable milk e 1 tablespoon of rice flour, potato starch, or corn starch, trying to choose organic products as much as possible. Eggs are also not needed for sweet creams based on soy milk or almond milk. Small amounts of rice flour or corn starch will be enough to thicken them. Other egg substitutes are the mashed banana pulp or the pureed pumpkin pulp, to be experimented especially in cakes and plumcakes in small quantities, to obtain softer desserts.
Natural yeast
How to replace the classic yeasts in sachets? The common yeasts sold in the supermarket swell the dough quickly, guaranteeing an immediate but unnatural leavening. Alternatively you can use the mother pasta, perfect for preparing brioche, pandolce, pancakes and sweet focaccia. For cakes, plumcakes, biscuits and other preparations to be baked in the oven you will use the cream of tartar (or the organic yeast with cream of tartar), a natural yeast in powder, sold in sachets in organic food stores, which is obtained from grapes and which makes the desserts very soft and light.
Homemade chocolate cream
For the filling of cakes, pies, biscuits and other desserts you can replace the classic cocoa and hazelnut cream with our Nutella Vegan. It is a decidedly healthier alternative version to the commercial product. In fact, it contains less sugar and less fat. It is free of butter and palm oil, as well as flavoring and preservatives. It is excellent for enriching home-made brioches.
