How can I make recipes healthier?

[NurseSunshine]

I mean cake and biscuit recipes. Can I substitute fruit for sugar? Low fat natural yoghurt for butter/margarine?

Would that work?

Any other ideas?

Anything with oats in - oat biscuits, even flapjacks - slow release carbohydrate. I make these for my diabetic daughter. Google low-glycaemic biscuits/cakes.

I have tried to substitute healthier things before but it hasn't always worked properly, mainly because I am never quite sure about quantities. Other bakers may be more intuitive than me about this but I've had too many "healthy failures" in the past to take the chance! I now tend to subscribe more towards the "moderation" side of things - if I bake, I'll make something outrageously unhealthy but only have a very small amount, freeze some to save us all from ourselves, and take half to work to fatten up delight my colleagues. I guess I'd rather have a small sinful slice of cake than 3 slices of something that is a bit more virtuous.

That being said, I do sometimes have to cook things for relatives who have various healthy dietary requirements, and after bitter experience of leaden cakes and cookies as hard as rocks, I now know that I have to start with a recipe that uses healthier ingredients if I want to make something that's a bit healthier.

The website 101 Cookbooks is useful for cakes and biscuits that are made with ingredients like whole-wheat flours, agave nectar or applesauce instead of sugar, etc. The writer is an author of healthy cookery books and you can trust her recipes will work because she's tested them. The many different cakes made using yogurt on Smitten Kitchen are healthier and always come out perfectly for me.

Another thing you can do is make cakes which use vegetables to keep moisture in and lets you cut down on the fats somewhat - Nigel Slater does a gorgeous chocolate beetroot cake in the Tender cookbook, and you'd never know there was any beetroot in there at all.

I made a recipe for Anzac biscuits from a book I have. They have oats and coconut in them along with the usual flour, butter and and sugar.

The first time I made the recipe I put in the full amount of sugar but they were way too sweet so I reduced the sugar by an oz each time. I now use a third of what was recommended (2oz instead of 6oz) and the biscuits are lovely and much better without all that unnecessary sugar.

I've tried this now with a few different biscuit recipes and they all work fine with less sugar.

There is a recipe I have made from the recipe section here that uses banana and depending on how much banana you use you reduce the sugar accordingly. I'll see if I can link.

hth

recipe here

I think cakes and biscuits are spoiled if you try to make them healthier. They're just not meant to be staples - they're meant to be occasional treats. Make them with the right ingredients so that they have the best texture and flavour.... and then eat them far less often and in much smaller amounts.

Don't compromise. It's pointless

I made peanut butter flapjacks with fructose sprinkled on top and melted maple syrup, olive oil, a little treacle,I used gluten free baking powder. They were not hard and ALL the DCs LOVED them!

I always cook successfully without wheat; spelt,rice and kamut flour are good, and I use almond or olive oil instead of butter, the best method is the 'melt in the pan' for this recipe.

I'd have to agree with chil- I prefer to leave them unhealthy and eat them less or in smaller portions. I try to avoid dairy and eggs but rarely manage to make something anywhere near as good as the real thing.

Packing in lots of molasses and dried fruit is a good way to boost the iron content. Flourless cakes will have more protein and less carbs (egg/ground almonds).

I don't know much about the calorie difference, but you can use agave nectar to replace some of the sugar.

Thanks for all the suggestions

There is a fantastic book that is all cakes and bakes most of them are fat and wheat free, they use vegtables instead. It is called Red velvet and chocolate heartbreak by Harry Eastwood.

This is the best cake cookery book I have, I use it every week, everyone loves them.