Winter Baking for Good Nutrition and Ambience

Don't you love all of the foods we cook in the winter time? All of the cookies and
heavy stews and sauces. It's so great, the ambiance those foods provide. But these
foods tend to not be the most heart healthy foods. If you're thinking about your
health, but also want the sights and smells from your favorite winter foods, then
you'll want to follow these five steps to nutritious winter baking.

Five Steps to Nutritious and Traditional Winter Baking

1. Get your fruits and veggies into your baking. Adding nutrient-rich foods like
spinach, zucchini, avocado, blueberries, raspberries, and apples will make your
winter baking more nutritious. These foods are easily added to muffins, for
example. And with apples in season an apple muffin tastes great. Don't discount
those vegetables either. Zucchini makes a great bread or muffin.

2. Use flax meal or chai seeds. These seeds are a great source of fiber, nutrients
and Omega-3 fatty acids. You can use this as an egg substitute in your baking. This
isn't a perfect egg substitute, though, so for light airy desserts such as angel
food cake or many pastries this isn't the best option. However, for hearty winter
baking like breads and brownies this will make for a much better substitute for an
egg.

3. Reduce the sugar. Yes, we know, the best part of the baked good is the
sweetness. And beyond that, sugar does do many other things for baking which you
don't want to lose. However, it can still be achieved by using some different and
healthier substitutes. Here are some great ways to substitute with some natural
sweeteners.

* Honey � Use � cup plus 1 tbsp of honey per 1 cup of sugar. Reduce the other
liquid ingredients by 2 tbsp when doing this, though. Honey makes things moist and
dense and will brown faster. So this is better suited in cookies as a sugar
substitute.

* Maple syrup � When baking, go for the Grade B which is thicker and darker in
color than Grade A syrup. Replace the sugar in recipes with � cup for every cup of
white sugar and reduce the liquid ingredients by 3 tbsp.

* Molasses � This isn't as sweet as refined sugar. And it will make baked goods
darker and with a strong taste. Use 1�1/3 cup of molasses for every cup of sugar
and reduce the liquid by 5 tbsp in the recipe. But because molasses is acidic, you
will also need to add an extra � tsp of baking soda for every cup of molasses used.

* Use fruit juice concentrate � This makes for a really great sugar substitute and
adds an interesting taste to baking. Use � cup for every 1 cup of sugar and reduce
the liquid by 3 tbsp.

4. Reduce the fat with a fruit puree or low-fat yogurt. You don't want to remove
all of the fat, though - some fat is helpful and healthy as it helps us digest food
slower and keeps us full longer. Plus, fat just makes things tastier. But replacing
the butter or oil with applesauce and pumpkin puree is a great way to bake
healthier and still maintain some moist and tasty baked goods. If this frightens
you, then just use 2 eggs whites in place of every whole egg to reduce the fat in
baking.

5. Use low-fat dairy products. When a recipe calls for sour cream, use the low-fat
version of it instead. Use 2% milk instead of whole milk or cream. You likely won't
even notice a difference with these changes.
Baking with these recommendations will make it much easier to get into that
swimsuit once the winter is over. So try it out the next time you're baking a cake
and let us know how it goes.