Nothing compares to the flavor of a freshly baked cookie. There are hundreds of different cookie recipes out there for you to try. However, the only downside with cookies, is that the majority of them aren’t very healthy. This is an issue if you are careful with what you eat.
You might be pleased to learn that there are methods for making your favorite cookies healthier just by a few modifications. There is no denying that a cookie should still be considered a treat. However, you can make them healthier and they will still taste amazing.
In this article, we have provided 5 tips for baking healthier cookies that everyone will love.
Tip 1: Limit The Amount Of Sugar
A lot of the best cookie dough recipes contain a lot of sugar. This is because cookies are known for being a sweet treat. This amount of sugar isn’t ideal if you need to limit your sugar intake. As a result, the first way you can make your preferred cookie recipe healthier is by reducing the amount of sugar you are adding.
By reducing the amount of sugar, you can enjoy a cookie that contains far fewer calories. The cookie may not be as sweet, but you can still enjoy the flavor. If the flavor is different, then you could add healthy add-ins to boost the flavor back up.
In addition to this, if you want to keep your cookies moist as you reduce the sugar, you might need to increase the liquid in the recipe.
Tip 2: Whole Wheat Flour Instead Of White Flour
You may replace all or a portion of the white flour in many recipes with whole wheat flour, which adds additional fiber. Compared to conventional whole wheat flour, whole wheat pastry flour, and white wheat flour usually perform better for cookies.
In the beginning, substitute just half of your white flour for wheat flour to see how the taste and texture are affected.
Tip 3: Add Fruit
We know that everyone loves the traditional chocolate chip cookies, but these contain a lot of sugar. In cookie recipes, fruit can be a terrific substitute for many ingredients like chocolate chunks.
Bananas offer sweetness and can replace eggs or butter, so you require less sugar overall. Butter or oil can be swapped out with unsweetened applesauce or puréed pumpkin. Then, instead of using sugar, add sweetness with dates or puréed prunes.
Thus, not only can fruit provide flavor to your cookies, but they also reduce the amount of other unhealthy ingredients needed. You can choose from a wide variety of both fresh and dried fruits to add to your cookies.
Be careful if you plan to add fresh fruit to your cookies as they contain much more moisture, which can affect the cookie dough.
Tip 4: Swap Out Butter For Greek Yogurt
Try substituting full-fat Greek yogurt for approximately half of the butter that a recipe calls for. The cookies you make are still going to be soft and chewy. However, they will contain significantly less saturated fat and more protein and probiotics.
Also, the Greek yogurt adds a pleasant tanginess which works well with the natural sweetness of the cookie.
You do need a small amount of butter to create the cookie dough. Thus, you need to be careful about how much butter you do remove from the recipe.
Tip 5: Add Nuts And Oats
Nuts and oats are beneficial ingredients to add to your cookies.
The inclusion of chopped nuts may improve almost any cookie. They boost the recipe’s fiber, protein, and healthy fat content in addition to adding flavor. You must chop the nuts so that they are small bite-size pieces. Otherwise, they may not be very pleasant to eat.
Even though it isn’t suitable for every cookie recipe, you can frequently decrease the amount of flour required by using oats. This will increase the amount of nutrients within each cookie.
Final Thoughts
Cookies are a delicious treat that everyone likes to eat. However, a regular cookie recipe isn’t very healthy as it contains lots of saturated fats and is high in sugar. With that being said, as we have outlined above, there are a few ways in which you can bake far healthier cookies.
By following the 5 simple tips above, you can bake healthy cookies. They are still full of flavor and contain that desired soft but chewy texture. No longer will you feel guilty when you bake a batch of cookies.
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