Desserts often confound even the most health-conscious cooks. Traditional dessert recipes contain generous amounts of sugar, fat and sometimes even salt. But by using sugar substitutes and low-fat and low-sodium products available on the market and employing healthy cooking habits, you can serve your family sweet treats which enhance a meal's nutritional value, rather than undermine it.
Ingredients and Methods
Stocking your pantry with healthy versions of traditional dessert ingredients helps you reduce the fat, sugar and sodium in your cooking. Use applesauce or pureed prunes rather than butter in cakes and brownies. Substitute skim milk, low-fat yogurt and sour cream or part-skim ricotta for the whole-milk versions, and replace eggs with egg whites or egg substitute. Use artificial sweeteners, honey, agave syrup and molasses in place of sugar. To cut sodium, avoid prepared desserts and pie fillings, which often contain a high amount of salt as a preservative. Invest in vanilla, almond and fruit extracts, as well as sea salt, cinnamon, ginger, allspice, cloves and other baking spices. When baking, reduce the amount of salt a recipe calls for and increase the other seasonings. Investigate old-fashioned recipes which relied on ingenious tricks to reduce the amount of then-expensive sugar and cream. For example, adding angelica leaves to rhubarb and citrus dishes cuts through the tart taste of the fruit, which reduces the amount of sweetener needed in a recipe.
Fresh Fruit Desserts
Make chopped or diced fresh fruit the star of the show as different varieties come into season. Rather than pound cake or buttery shortcake, use angel food cake to anchor the dessert. The Mayo Clinic notes that angel food cake, which uses only egg whites, is naturally low in fat and can even be grilled during the summer months. Top cake slices with blueberries, strawberries, rhubarb, peaches or other sweet fruits of your choice and a dollop of reduced-fat whipped cream. If you wish, pair fresh fruit with fruit sauce by combining 4 parts berries or fruit pieces with 1 part artificial sweetener, a few tablespoons water, cinnamon and vanilla. Heat briefly.
Creamy Desserts
Skim milk, egg whites, low-fat cottage cheese and unflavored gelatin can make desserts taste more luscious while reducing the fat content. Spiking the dessert's flavor with vanilla and lemon zest allows you to lower the amount of sweetener and salt used in the recipe. If you have an ice cream maker, substitute yogurt, honey, canola oil and vanilla soy milk for heavy cream, sugar and eggs. Mix the ingredients together and follow the directions of your ice cream maker. The American Diabetes Association suggests using the natural creaminess and sweetness of certain fruits to create puddings and custards low in fat and sugar, and which contain no sodium. Bananas, sugar substitute and low-fat sour cream combine for a healthy banana pudding, while ripe peaches, low-fat whipped cream, sugar substitute and egg substitutes can be combined for peach custard.
Baked Sweets
Including applesauce or pureed prunes in baked goods helps you cut back on both the sugar and fat content by replacing butter, vegetable oil and sugar. Mayo Clinic's reworked zucchini bread recipe relies on applesauce and canola oil rather than butter and some of the sweetener. The zucchini, walnuts and raisins in the recipe boost the dish's nutritional content further. The American Diabetes Association suggests a chocolate cookie recipe which relies on skim milk, non-fat dry milk and natural peanut butter to lower the saturated fat content. In place of white sugar and corn syrup, use honey or agave syrup and sugar substitute. Natural peanut butter also contains less sodium than regular peanut butter.
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