Baking Holiday Treats? Easy Ways to Savor the Flavor and Purge the Fat

Dr. Mitchell is co-author of Fat is Not Your Fate, Eat to Stay Young and I’d Kill for a Cookie.
Visit her websites: http://www.susanmitchell.org and http://www.fatisnotyourfate.com

Hello Everyone, I hope you had a fabulous Thanksgiving. Did you cook a turkey? I plan to for Christmas. If you need a refresher on basic turkey prep ‘how to’, read Orlando Sentinel Food Editor Heather McPherson’s blog from last week.

Every year during the holidays my girlfriend from Austria and I get together and spend the day baking homemade treats. She brings her favorite recipes that she loved from her childhood growing up in Austria and I bring mine from my years in Tennessee. We laugh, talk, reminisce, share ideas, and bake, bake, bake. When her Mother is visiting from Austria, she bakes with us as well and makes homemade strudel!

I admit it. I may be a nutritionist but I have a definite sweet tooth, especially for chocolate--the darker, the better. But I’ve learned a number of tricks that allow me to savor the flavor while purging the fat, particularly the saturated fat. Here are some of my favorite tricks:

Ingredient                                                  Replace With

Sweetened condensed milk                   Fat free sweetened condensed milk
Sour cream                                        Light sour cream
Evaporated milk                                  Skim evaporated milk
Ricotta cheese                                   Park skim ricotta cheese
Cream cheese                                    Neufchatel or light cream cheese
Artificial vanilla extract                        100% pure vanilla extract or vanilla pod/bean
Butter                                               Butter/canola spread
Eggs                                                 Eggland’s Best eggs
Yogurt                                              Low fat yogurt 
Cheese                                             Cheese made with 2% milk

Now some of these you may do already and others you’ve heard of. All work nicely in most any recipe without changing the flavor profile. For example, I use fat free sweetened condensed milk in a pecan bar that calls for the regular. When making cookies, I always use the butter/canola blend. You get part real butter and the marvelous flavor and part canola oil for the health benes.

Same with the eggs. I like the nutrition profile of Eggland’s egg—more omega 3s, vitamin E and less saturated fat. There are many light cheeses on the market today that are yummy with lots of flavor. Try Cabot’s 50% light cheddar for one that comes to mind.

Pure vanilla extract or the beans/pod add an aroma and flavor that can’t be missed as well as fresh herbs and spices which can replace part of the salt and even some of the fat when it comes to seasoning vegetables

Do you have great tips to share? Post them for us all to use.

Dr. Susan