Need Healthier Desserts this Christmas?

Fall and winter are the seasons of the year when we consume the most desserts. By New Years, we may feel heavier, have less energy, and are more sluggish. Some of us may even have a weaker immune system from all the rich food, high stress, and little sleep. The good news is that there are ways to satisfy your sweet cravings and enjoy your favorite desserts without compromising your health. Try these health tips to creating guilt-free desserts.

Choose Healthy, More Natural Sweeteners
Pre-made desserts and candies are often made with highly-refined sweeteners such as high-fructose corn syrup and refined white sugar. Whether you are buying it pre-made or preparing it yourself instead, choose desserts and candies that are made from natural, less refined sweeteners such as maple syrup, agave nectar, honey, stevia, fruit juice, and evaporated cane sugar.

Maple syrup, agave nectar, and honey have a syrup consistency and are good for wet or moist desserts. They can also be used in other recipes which normally call for sugar including pies and cakes. You would just need to slightly adjust the dry ingredients to compensate for the extra moisture from these syrupy sweeteners. Stevia is a wonderful healthy sweetener for beverages as you need only a small amount and it has no calories. If you have to use cane sugar, then organic evaporated cane sugar is the healthier option as it is less refined, and contains nutrients which are not found in white table sugar.

Try Egg-less Desserts for Less Fat and Cholesterol
You can reduce a lot of cholesterol from desserts by simply choosing egg-less. Just about any recipe that calls for eggs can be made egg-less by using the proper egg substitute. Click on this article (http://vegetarian.about.com/od/vegetarianvegan101/f/eggsubstitute.htm) for a simple easy guide to using egg substitutes. And the good news is that the dessert recipes on our website are all egg-less!

Enjoy Fruitful desserts
Fruits are high in fiber, low in fat, and contain vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants. They also contain natural sugars which sometimes require less sugar in a recipe. Therefore choose desserts that are made with fruits such as apples, berries, cranberries, peaches, bananas, mangos, etc.

Use Low-fat or Fat-free Dairy
Many dessert recipes call for butter and milk. To reduce the fat, choose non-hydrogenated margarine (available at DTE) in place of butter and low-fat or fat-free milk in place of full fat milk.

Use Slightly Less Sugar than Usual
The easiest and simplest thing to do is to use a little less sugar than the recipe calls for. For example, instead of 4 cups of sugar for a batch of cookies, use 3½ cups. Cutting the sugar down a little will make it healthier and most likely you won’t even notice the difference.

Try these yummy desserts and more from our website:

Old-Fashioned Gingerbread Cake

This recipe is from “Becoming Vegetarian” by Vesanto Melina. This moist, dark, nutritious favorite is so easy to make, and it’s low in fat.

Ingredients:

• ¼ C. vegetable oil
• ¾ C. soymilk
• 2 Tbsp. ground flaxseed
• ¾ C. maple syrup or honey
• ½ C. blackstrap molasses
• 1/8 tsp. sea salt (optional)
• 2 ½ Tbsp. ground ginger
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 1 tsp. cloves
• 2 tsp. baking soda
• 1 C. boiling water
• 2 C. whole-wheat flour

Instructions:

1. In a large bowl, mix all the ingredients well except for the baking soda, water and flour.
2. In a small bowl, combine the baking soda and boiling water, and immediately stir into the other bowl, mixing well.
3. Using a spoon or whisk, gradually and lightly blend in the flour to prevent lumping.
4. Pour into a greased bundt pan (cooking spray works well) or a 9”x9” cake pan. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
5. Cool and glaze with lemon icing if desired.

Yields 12 servings

Raw Apple Pie

This is a Soneea original - a team member from our Kahului Down to Earth store.

Ingredients:

Crust:

• ½ cup pitted dates, chopped
• 2 cups of your favorite nuts (macadamia, almond, walnuts and pecan are good)

Apple Pie Filling:

• 3-4 apples (½ Gala apples and ½ Granny Smith)
• 1/3 cup maple syrup
• ½ – 1 Tbsp. cinnamon

Instructions:

1. For the crust, place the dates and nuts in a food processor. Process until dates are well-blended and make a nice sticky mixture.
2. Press the mixture evenly into a pie pan, along the bottom and up the sides.
3. For the filling, peel half of the apples and chop them all into 1-inch pieces.
4. Mix with syrup and cinnamon. Make sure all of the cinnamon is mixed evenly.
5. Pour apple mixture into pie crust. If you have any extra crust you can sprinkle it on top.
6. For best results chill before serving.

Yields 6 servings