Baking with low calories: alternatives to sugar, flour and butter

These ingredients are unhealthy in the long run

Sugar, white flour and saturated fatty acids, such as those found in butter, are known to be high in calories and should therefore only be consumed in moderation if you want to lose weight. These ingredients, which form the basis of most baking recipes, are also bad for health for other reasons. Various diseases and ailments are favored by excessive consumption. Hobby bakers – or those who want to become one – are therefore well advised to replace one or the other unhealthy ingredient with a better alternative.

Butter alternative saves calories

If you want to replace butter, you can basically only improve the energy balance of your cake, muffin, or biscuit. Butter has an average of over 700 calories per 100 grams namely one of the biggest calorie bombs ever. However, it is not that easy to replace butter when baking, because if too little butter is used, the dough will quickly become dry and crumbly. In most cases it is therefore advisable not to completely replace butter – however, the recipe and of course the selected substitute product are very important here. Even if you only replace part of the butter to be used with other ingredients, you can save a few calories.

Replace butter with quark

Quark, especially low-fat quark , has only a very low fat content and is therefore all the richer in Protein. It therefore sounds strange at first, that this is exactly what is supposed to be used to replace butter. In fact, this variant is not suitable for all doughs. You can replace half of the butter in the recipe with twice the amount of quark. Instead of 100 grams of butter, you only use 50 grams of butter and an additional 100 grams of quark. This saves a lot of calories, depending on the variety. Because even the edible quark with a fat content of 40 percent has only 143 calories per 100 grams, with 20% quark there are only 94 calories and low-fat quark has only 67 calories per 100 grams. In addition, quark has a very high protein content, namely up to 12 grams (for low-fat quark). The quark makes the dough a little more liquid than butter, which is why you should extend the baking time a little.

Use apple sauce instead of butter

Apples contain the Dietary fiber pectrin. This not only makes you feel full in the long term, but also ensures that unsweetened applesauce has certain baking properties that can replace butter in the dough – and that with only 68 calories per 100 grams. Even this substitute does not work with all types of dough, as it changes the consistency of the dough and makes it more fluid. Therefore, if in doubt, simply bake the dough a little longer or use less liquid than indicated in the recipe. Apple sauce replaces butter in the same ratio as with quark: Replace half of the butter to be used with twice the amount of applesauce, i.e. use 100 grams of applesauce and 50 grams of butter instead of 100 grams of butter. Not only do you save a lot of calories here, but you also add many other nutrients to your dough. The natural sweetness of the fruit also has the advantage that you can also save sugar.

Replace butter with banana

Bananas can replace up to 200 grams of butter. For this purpose, the ripe to very ripe fruit is crushed with a fork and added to the dough. So you can replace butter in a 1: 1 ratio, i.e. 100 grams of bananas for 100 grams of butter. This substitute works best in cookie and brownie recipes. Another important requirement is that you like the taste of banana, because you can clearly taste it. Even more than when replacing butter with applesauce, when replacing butter with banana, you can save further calories by reducing the specified amount of sugar. The ripe banana itself sweetens the dough so well that – depending on the recipe – you can even do without additional sugar.

With natural fat of bake avocado

Avocado is also suitable as an oil or butter substitute. Avocado can even replace butter 1: 1 in cookie dough or brownie recipes. This is due to the high fat content of the green fruit. You still save a lot of calories, because the avocado only has 160 calories per 100 grams. Since avocados contain unsaturated fatty acids, you are swapping an unhealthy fat for a healthy one, saving some calories and especially cholesterol. Avocados have no LDL cholesterol, which can lead to hardening of the arteries and, in the worst case, to a heart attack or other heart diseases. Instead of the specified amount of butter, you can easily use 50 percent avocado puree and 50 percent oil in almost every recipe. You replace 100 grams of butter with 50 grams of avocado and 50 grams of oil.

Use protein-rich nut butters

Nut butter is an exception when it comes to butter substitute products, because you can almost always completely replace butter with peanut, cashew, almond butter and the like. Due to the high protein content of nuts, you not only add a lot of protein to your dough, but also a delicious nutty note and valuable nutrients. You also save calories here. Nut butters also contain a lot of – but natural – fat and are therefore high in calories, but have fewer calories than butter. Peanut butter has an average of 588 calories per 100 grams, Cashew butter to 587 calories and Almond butter to 614 calories. Usually, when replacing butter with nut butter or nut butter, a little more baking powder is required. The dough may also be a little more runny. It is therefore advisable to use less liquid than stated in the recipe.

Replace sugar: Artificial & natural sweeteners

White household sugar has 387 calories per 100 grams . In addition, it is considered to promote inflammation, favor tooth decay, diabetes, obesity and numerous cardiovascular diseases. Many people consume a lot of sugar because sugar is found as a flavor enhancer in many processed foods. Saving sugar as soon as you have the opportunity is therefore very advisable. For example when baking. For this you can either use artificially produced sweeteners or natural sweeteners.

In front – and disadvantages of artificial sweeteners

Xylitol , also called Xucker, is Birch sugar , i.e. a natural product. However, this was processed so heavily that it can no longer be referred to as a natural product. Xylitol has a significantly lower energy density with 240 calories per 100 grams than household sugar and has only a slight effect on blood sugar as it is broken down independently of insulin. Instead of attacking the teeth, xylitol can even be beneficial for dental health. Birch sugar can replace sugar 1: 1 in a recipe because it is just as sweet. Erythritol is a polyvalent sugar alcohol, a product chemically produced through the fermentation of sugar, which is based on 100 grams of 0 Has calories. The substitute has 70 percent of the sweetening power of table sugar, which means that you cannot use sugar 1: 1 through You can replace erythritol , but have to use a little more. You can replace one hundred grams of sugar with 130 grams erythritol . Overall, however, erythritol should only make up a fifth of the dough mass. If this doesn’t work, you can top up the rest with normal sugar or natural sweetness. Excessive amounts of erythritol can cause digestive problems. Stevia is made from the subtropical plant of the same name. Thus the source of this substitute is a natural one, but the processing into a sprinkle sugar substitute is highly industrial. Therefore one speaks with Stevia also not of natural Sweetness, but from a sweetener. This has 371 calories per 100 grams and should be dosed carefully as it is about 300 times as sweet as table sugar. How erythritol harms Stevia does not harm the teeth and Baking with stevia saves you tons of calories because you have to use so much less of the substitute sugar to get the same sweetness as industrial sugar. Overall, when it comes to replacement, it depends a lot on which stevia product you use – there are, for example, granules, extract or liquid stevia. 20 grams of the pure stevia powder (extract) are enough to sweeten a whole cake, i.e. to replace around 200 grams of household sugar. However, this means that a considerable amount of volume is lost in your dough. For this purpose, stevia products that are especially suitable for baking are offered in stores, which then contain fillers. The liquorice taste inherent in stevia can falsify the taste of the baking result, which you should bear in mind when replacing it. Replace sugar with natural sweeteners Artificially produced or heavily processed sweeteners are in Clean Baking just as a no-go as table sugar and white flour. Instead, they rely on the sweetness of fruit and vegetables. Replacing industrial sugar with fruit and vegetables not only saves calories, but also enriches cake, biscuit or muffin dough with valuable vitamins, minerals and fiber. Coconut blossom sugar is made from the nectar of the coconut palm. It is just as sweet as table sugar and can replace it 1: 1. You have to like its caramel-malty taste, but it fits perfectly in many recipes. You don’t save calories with this sugar substitute, because at 100 grams natural sugar has a similar number of calories as white industrial sugar. Unlike normal sugar, coconut blossom sugar however, it has a low glycemic index and therefore no negative effect on blood sugar levels. Strong fluctuations in the blood sugar level can cause food cravings and have a negative effect on trying to lose weight ken. Natural liquid sweetness through maple syrup, date syrup, agave syrup or Honey have fewer calories than refined sugar. In addition, a smaller amount is often sufficient here. Instead of 100 grams of sugar, you can use 80 milliliters of honey or maple syrup, for example. With liquid sweeteners, however, the amount of liquid in the recipe must be adjusted so that the dough does not become too thin. You can then use a little less milk than intended.

Bake with the sweetness of fruit, fruits and vegetables

When sweetening with fruit such as bananas or dates you bring valuable vitamins and other nutrients into your dough. In addition, some types of fruit and vegetables can also act as a substitute for butter – such as the banana -, flour or eggs. Since fruits and vegetables contain a lot of water, they make the dough nice and juicy and deliciously aromatic. A popular example of this is dates. One hundred grams of sugar can be replaced with 125 grams of dates. This doesn’t save quite as many calories, but it is significantly healthier. Dates can actually pass as a superfood. They aid digestion and have loads of antioxidants. The adhesive properties of the dried fruit make the cake or brownies deliciously juicy. Grated carrots are also suitable for baking. They make the batter airy and naturally sweetener so that you can use less sugar. On top of that, butter and oil can be partially replaced. You can make particularly good brownies with sweet potatoes. Thanks to the sticky consistency, less sugar and less flour and butter can be used. Beetroot makes goes well in chocolate cakes or muffins. They make for a slightly earthy sweetness. The proportions of fruit and vegetables that can act as substitutes depends very much on the recipe in question. The basic rule is that the baking time and temperature must be adjusted when baking with vegetables and fruit. However, it is advisable to look for specific recipes for baking with carrots, sweet potatoes and the like instead of replacing the ingredients in a conventional recipe.

replace wheat flour

White flour has 364 calories per 100 grams and a high glycemic index . It does not result in sustained satiety and has a negative effect on the inflammation levels in the body. All of this makes it the most unhealthy of all flours.

Use protein powder instead of flour

If you want to lose weight, you should not only pay attention to the calories you eat, but also to the macronutrients. It is particularly important to get enough protein through your diet, as this stimulates muscle growth, saturates you for a long time and thus also boosts fat burning in the long term. A popular variant is therefore to make wheat flour through protein powder to replace. Who bake with protein powder would like to, but has to consider a few things. Whey protein powder has an average of 374 calories per 100 grams. However, you should never replace flour 1: 1 with whey powder, as it does not contain the necessary adhesive properties. Instead, use protein powder for a quarter of the specified amount of flour, a maximum of 50 grams. With an average of around 20 grams of protein per 30 grams of protein powder, you enrich your cake with 33 grams of protein. The best thing to do is to add a moist ingredient such as applesauce, banana sauce, mashed sweet potatoes or the like to your dough to improve the consistency. If you replace flour in your recipe with flavored protein powder, you can also reduce the amount of sugar in the recipe. This is not possible with tasteless protein powder.

Replace wheat flour with other flour

In terms of energy balance, if you replace wheat flour with another flour, you save, not because the alternative has fewer calories per 100 grams, but because you have to use less flour. In addition, the nutritional profile of the alternatives shown is significantly better than that of wheat flour. Light spelled flour (type 630) is particularly suitable to replace wheat flour in baking, as it has very similar baking properties and also tastes similar. With 343 calories per 100 grams, this flour does not have significantly fewer calories than wheat flour, but it is a lot healthier. It contains more high-quality protein, more vitamins and minerals, has a higher fiber content and is therefore fuller for longer. It’s a little more difficult with whole wheat flour. If you choose this variant to replace wheat flour, you will need more liquid for your dough. To add to your cake gluten-free you can use almond flour, chickpea flour or coke flour. Almond flour 100 grams has 350 calories, but contains a lot of high-quality protein. However, it has poorer binding properties than wheat flour and absorbs significantly more moisture. In recipes with yeast you can therefore only replace around 20 percent of the wheat flour with almond flour, in other recipes the full 100 percent – however, other other ingredients have to be adjusted here. Since almond flour has twice as much volume as wheat flour, you only have to use 50 grams of almond flour to replace 100 grams of wheat flour. Coconut flour has even more volume than almond flour. You can therefore replace one hundred grams of wheat flour with just 35 grams of coconut flour. This variant is accompanied by a strong taste of its own. So make sure that the coconut note goes well with your recipe. Chickpea flour also contains a lot of high-quality vegetable protein and also a lot of fiber, but is not low-carb. Similar to almond flour, you can only replace 20 percent of the flour with chickpea flour in yeast recipes, the full amount of flour in all others. However, the ratio is not 1: 1, you replace one hundred grams of wheat flour with 70 grams of chickpea flour. The selection of gluten-free flours is great. It’s best to just try out what you like in the respective recipe. This article appeared first on fitforfun.de