Baking and Books discussion

I love to bake. I love working with flour, butter, sugar, and all the lovely things you can make with them. So many people now days are on diets. They don't want to be tempted by the sweet creations.

I will always love making the calorie filled creations, but I'm looking for some ways to make things healthier.

I hate using artificial sweeteners, so that's not an option for me. One thing I'm going to do is look into using more whole grains.

Anyone else working on the 'healtier' sweets?

In some ways, yes. Like you, I don't think the answer is stuffing your treats full of sweeteners, and I think you do have to be careful about eg switching to soy or coconut or whatever is the fad of the week. I'd much rather bake with real butter once a fortnight than use a substitute every day.

My mother used to bake a lot and when she was diagnosed with high cholesterol she went a bit nuts and switched to using cholesterol-friendly spreads in her baking. The outcome was horrible. The children wouldn't eat it and we couldn't either - it really wasn't worth the substitute. Actually my kids are spoilt rotten, they won't eat the shop-bought cakes they bring home from birthday parties because they're used to the good stuff!

There are some switches you can make which don't affect the taste so much, though. Obviously there are the rice flour/ground almond/veg cakes I do a lot of for my gluten-free friends - they dramatically decrease the fat with no loss of taste or texture. You can also look at substituting, say, thick yogurt or cream cheese when something like mascarpone is called for. It's not perfect but it does help.

I love to bake, too, and a year ago was diagnosed with high cholesterol. I've given up cheese and ice cream, and have started using coconut oil in some places in my cooking. And I'm trying to lose weight (nearly 10 lbs lost!).

I review the recipes I prepare at www.cookbooker.com, using the name "queezle_sister", and you can see my recent attempts to find healthy brownies. Black bean, white bean, etc. All were failures.

What do you think about breads? Healthy yes or no? So many people - not just celiacs - are avoiding it these days.

Leslie wrote: "I love to bake, too, and a year ago was diagnosed with high cholesterol. I've given up cheese and ice cream, and have started using coconut oil in some places in my cooking. And I'm trying to los..."

I'm always cautious when there is a whole section of people avoiding something. Celiac's obviously have a reason to avoid it. I haven't read enough information on why people think it's bad to form an opinion.... but humans have been eating bread in one form or another for thousands of years.

I agree, Jute. And there is something that is just so comforting about home-made bread that is fresh from the oven. Even if I cannot spread it with butter, it is just fabulous and makes me feel like I am taking care of my family.