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Foods 1020 Lessons

Contemporary baking for wellness

Lesson Questions

  • How can we adapt baking recipes to make them more healthful?

Lesson

We would like to eat more nutritionally but don’t want to throw out all our family favorite recipes. We can adapt recipes to use real food ingredients that can increases the flavor and intensity of each recipe as well as making them more healthful.

Some strategies and an example. Choose a recipe that is relatively healthy to begin with, one that contains fruit and/or gets much of its flavor from spices

  1. Reduce the sugar content. In most cases you can do this without changing the rest of the recipe at all. You can half the sugar, then taste the batter before baking and add a little more if it needs it.
  2. Replace refined white wheat flour. Wholemeal flour, or gluten-free flour blends are tasty and nutritious, you just may need to add a little more liquid.
  3. Make other adjustments as you go. For example in the recipe below, the apples are grated with their skins on. Another trick is to increase the quantities of spices.
  4.  Adding nuts or seeds is also a good idea and adds texture. Both are high in calories but full of goodness, which is much more important.
  5. Skip icing, sugary toppings etc. 

Apple-Date Cake

Ingredients (Original)

  • 2 green apples, peeled, cored and cut into chunks

  • 1 cup chopped pitted dates

  • 1 teaspoon bicarbonate soda

  • 1 cup boiling water

  • 125g butter

  • 1 cup caster sugar

  • 1 egg

  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

  • 1 1/2 cups plain flour, sifted

TOPPING:

  • 60g butter

  • 1/2 cup brown sugar, firmly packed

  • 1/2 cup shredded coconut

  • 2 tablespoons milk

Method

  1. Place apples, dates and soda in a bowl. Pour over boiling water. Allow to stand until cool.

  2. Beat butter and sugar together in another bowl until thick and creamy. Blend in egg and vanilla.

  3. Fold flour and apple mixture (including all the juice) alternately into creamed mixture.

  4. Spread into a greased and lined 23cm springform tin.

  5. Bake in a moderate oven (180ºC) for 45 minutes.

  6. To prepare topping: place butter, sugar, coconut and milk in a small saucepan. heat, stirring, until butter is melted and sugar is dissolved

  7. Remove cake from oven. Spread topping evenly over the top of cake.

  8. Bake for a further 15 minutes or until topping is golden and a skewer inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean. Allow to cool completely in the tin. Carefully remove sides of the tin. Transfer cake to a serving plate.

 

Ingredients (Healthy adaptation)

  • 2 apples, stalks removed, grated (skin on)

  • 1 cup chopped pitted dates

  • 1 teaspoon bicarbonate soda

  • 1 cup boiling water

  • 125g butter

  • 1/2 cup caster sugar

  • 1 egg (free range and ideally organic),

  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

  • 1 1/2 cups plain flour, sifted

  • 1/4 cup chopped walnuts

Makes enough for 12 muffins or a 23cm cake.

Method

  1. Place apples, dates and bicarbonate of soda in a bowl. Pour in boiling water and stir. Allow to stand until cool.

  2. Beat butter and sugar together in another bowl until thick and creamy. Blend in egg and vanilla.

  3. Fold flour and apple mixture (including all the juice) alternately into creamed mixture.

  4. Fold in the walnuts.

  5. Spread into a greased tin or cupcake cases.

  6. Bake in a moderate oven (180ºC or 160ºC fan oven) for about 50 minutes for a big cake or 25 minutes for cupcakes or until the cake is golden and a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean. Allow to cool completely (or as long as you can wait) in the tin. Enjoy.

 

 

What to do

Complete the Lesson Assignment. Click here.