Baked goods may be oh so good, however they usually comprise oh a lot saturated fats, sugar and sodium. Listed below are some methods to avoid wasting the flavour however lose the unhealthy culprits, plus a scrumptious recipe for lemon brownie bites with a secret ingredient you will have to go to the child aisle to search out.
Saturated fats vs. unsaturated fats
In baked items, the saturated fats usually comes from butter, lard or vegetable shortening. The fats helps to mix flavors, present moisture and enhance tenderness. However an excessive amount of saturated fats can increase your LDL (dangerous) ldl cholesterol the danger for heart disease.
You’ll be able to substitute saturated fats with an unsaturated fats akin to vegetable oil or margarine. One other trick is slicing a portion of the fats and changing it with a pureed fruit like applesauce, mashed bananas, or pureed pumpkin. This gives moisture, sweetness and a few nutritional vitamins and minerals. Utilizing much less fats could make baked items a bit chewier and fewer fattening.
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Sugar vs. pureed fruit
Sugar and different pure sweeteners like honey, maple syrup and molasses might help to retain moisture in baked items. It additionally gives energy with none actual vitamins. Usually, you’ll be able to minimize the quantity of sweetener by one-third and nonetheless retain some sweetness. Use much less sweetener in case you use pureed fruit instead of the saturated fats.
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Sodium vs. low-sodium substitutes
Sodium in baked items comes from salt, baking soda or baking powder. Salt enhances the flavour of different substances and controls yeast exercise in sure baked items. Baking soda and baking powder present leavening. Sodium ought to be used sparingly for folks with hypertension, kidney illness and congestive coronary heart illness. However, you’ll be able to nonetheless get the required leavening motion from low-sodium baking soda and baking powder. Scale back the salt by one-half, and you must nonetheless have flavorful meals.
Lemon Brownie Bites
In immediately’s recipe for Lemon Brownie Bites, we changed the fats with mango child meals. We selected mango child meals for its gentle taste and pale shade, however applesauce works simply as nicely.
These easy-to-make treats have the feel of a dense brownie and the candy pucker of a lemon bar – because of the lemon juice and zest. One chew of those brownie bites ought to fulfill any candy tooth at your subsequent picnic.
Makes: 16 servings / Prep time: 20 / Whole time: 45 minutes
- Vegetable oil cooking spray
- 4-ounce jar pureed mango child meals
- 2 Tablespoons vegetable oil
- ¾ cup flour
- ¾ cup sugar
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 2 eggs
- 4 tablespoons lemon zest, divided
- 4 tablespoons lemon juice, divided
- 1 cup powdered sugar
Preheat the oven to 350 levels.
Spray an 8-inch-by-8-inch baking pan with vegetable oil cooking spray.
In a bowl, combine the pureed mango, vegetable oil, flour, sugar and salt in a bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk collectively eggs, 2 tablespoons lemon zest and a couple of tablespoons lemon juice. Add the lemon combination to the flour combination and beat with a hand mixer on medium velocity for two minutes.
Pour the combination into the baking pan and bake for 25 minutes. Permit to chill. Combine powdered sugar and a couple of tablespoons lemon zest in a medium-sized bowl. Slowly add reserved lemon juice to get the specified consistency. Unfold the glaze over the brownies. As soon as the glaze has set, minimize into 16 bars and serve.
115 energy (18% from fats), 2.5 grams fats (0.5 grams sat. fats), 23 grams carbohydrates, 1.5 grams protein, 45 mg sodium, 26 mg ldl cholesterol, 4 mg calcium, 0 grams fiber. Meals exchanges: 1 ½ starch, ½ fats
Bethany Thayer is a registered dietitian nutritionist with Henry Ford Well being. For extra recipes and well being data, go to henryford.com/weblog. For questions on immediately’s recipe, e-mail HenryFordLiveWell@hfhs.org
