Do you have a cookie exchange or holiday party to attend soon? Maybe you’re planning to bake cookies to give as holiday gifts? With trays of cookies seemingly everywhere you turn, December might as well be cookie month! All those sprinkles and chips and crushed-candy toppings—how can you resist?
What if you could swap out ingredients to make your cookies and baked goods a little bit healthier without sacrificing taste? It’s not only possible, it’s easy to do. Here are some of my favorite ways to healthify holiday recipes:
- Instead of 1 cup oil, use ½ cup oil and ½ cup applesauce or mashed banana or cooked pumpkin.
- Instead of 1 cup sugar, use ¾ cup sugar. No one will even notice, and that’s 4 tablespoons less sugar!
- Instead of 1 whole egg, use 1 tablespoon ground flax plus 3 tablespoons water. Mix and set aside for 5 minutes to allow flax egg to gel. This adds extra fiber and cuts down on fat.
- Use less-processed sugars such as raw honey, maple syrup, turbinado sugar in place of refined white sugar. This is a 1:1 swap.
- Use gluten free all-purpose baking flour with 3 grams fiber per serving instead of all-purpose white flour.
- Use fresh or frozen berries in recipes instead of dried fruit to cut back on added sugars.
- Replace ½ cup of baking flour with rolled oats or quinoa flakes for extra nutrition, protein and fiber.
- Use ½ cup of mini chocolate chips instead of 1 cup of regular-sized chocolate chips to reduce sugar and fat.