Healthy baking recipes please :)

[Marley&Me]

I love to bake! Cakes, slices, muffins, the lot But with the combination of not working and baking all the time I seem to be bulging out of my pants But I just can't give it up! So what are your favourite relatively healthy sweet recipes with everyday ingredients? I'm not keen on coconut oil or spelt etc. Just regular stuff.

Oh and I'm thinking of using a sugar substitute like stevia or similar

[Bloom]

Just throwing some ideas out there:

scones and pikelets (only a little sugar as long as you don't top with jam!)
fruit based muffins
things with healthy stuff like nuts, coconut, oats in them.

I always use wholemeal flour in my baking.

[Lenny]

Carrot pikelets.
Apple muffins
Muesli bar slice. (It has lots of sugar in the form of dried fruit).
Zucchini bread (like banana bread)
Cheese crackers ( mine are always too crumbly)

Just cut up fresh fruit and carrots and put it in a bowl and snack on it. If it's pre done, you'll find it gone in no time. And then you are a bit more filled up.

[Marley&Me]

Thanks I have an oat slice recipe that I put 1/3 cup brown sugar in and 100g butter/marg. I'd like to omit the sugar, but it already has sulatanas and honey too. So not sure if it would be sweet enough. The original recipe has 1/2 cup sugar and 130g butter, but I tweaked it a bit.

Hmmm, scones are a good idea. Wholemeal flour, pumpkin yum. Not huge on dried fruit, bit of sultana is ok lol

[nothing2lose]

I guess it depends on what you classify as 'healthy'

I don't think any grain or starch or general polyunsaturated fat is 'healthy'. I could give you lots of recipes without those things if you like.

[Ladylove]

I'd just reduce sugar and use raw instead of white or even cut the sugar, use unrefined wholemeal or wholegrain flours etc instead of white, try coconut oil instead of part or all of the butter. Little things like that

[JLeigh29]

I'm getting into a different type of baking these days - coconut oil, nuts and seeds, dairy free, wheat free and even raw 'baking' (paleo foods). Not all the time, but I'm really enjoying the change and it's no harder than baking 'normal' stuff. My regular baking always uses Wholemeal flour, low or no refined sugar and I add fruit, seeds, oats and nuts where I can. I don't use sugar substitutes, just try and keep things natural and in moderation).

My suggestions:
Look up Emily Rose recipes - she uses no white flour, no sugar, but bakes with 'normal' ingredients. I make her choc chip bikkies all the time (I decrease the choc chips and add sesame seeds, flaxseeds, oat bran or whatever else I have on hand)
Wholemeal honey banana muffins (uses honey to sweeten and you can replace the banana with other fruit eg apple cinnamon)
Replace white flour with Wholemeal (you might need to add a touch more liquid)
Apple, banana or date purée can replace some sugar in most recipes. Vanilla essence does the same.
Gradually decrease the sugar you put in recipes so your taste buds will adjust.
Try a 'good' oil instead of butter - coconut oil, macadamia oil, sunflower seed oil or rice bran oil. But an unsalted butter isn't bad in itself.
Replace choc chips with 70% cocoa dark choc.
Bake muffins, scones, bikkies and loaves rather than cakes and slices that need icing.

[Ladylove]

Also check out Sarah Wilson's I Quit Sugar website.

[nothing2lose]

Just as an aside, butter is much healthier than a seed oil. Similarly, unrefined sugar and wholemeal flours have the same effect on your body as the 'white' refined versions. Better to use nut flours or coconut flour.
Fruit purees are concentrated fructose - especially date purée, which is extremely high in sugar. You may as well use the white stuff.

[Marley&Me]

But I don't want to go to a speciality store or buy weird ingredients! Or pay too much and i hate the idea of 'raw' foods with seeds etc. Asking too much ?

Thank you so much ladies! I guess it doesn't have to be totally healthy, just not AS fatty. So sugar substitutes are out of the question?

Ok maybe give me some good substitutes for:
Sugar
Butter
Oil

I can handle a bit of flour, I prefer the taste of wholemeal flour actually. I looove oats too Maybe some websites I can visit ( a few mentioned already, thanks )

Oh and N2L, do your recipes have stuff I can get from the supermarket? If so I'd love some

[nothing2lose]

There is nothing wrong with butter - repeat after me.... There is nothing wrong with butter!!!
Margarine is what is unhealthy.

For sugar substitute I use erythritol and/or stevia. Both are 100 per cent natural. You can buy Natvia or Norbu from the supermarket (although I buy erythritol in bulk from iherb in the US). I don't use fruit to sweeten because I don't eat fructose (except the occasional handful of berries). But, apple and banana are good alternative sweeteners.

Oil is fine too. Just not seed oil. So no vegetable, canola, sunflower oils. Use olive oil or coconut oil for baking. Or butter!

[nothing2lose]

Peanut butter cookies

Makes about 15 cookies:

1/3 cup smooth peanut butter
1 Tbl tahini paste
3 Tbl coconut oil
1 egg
1 Tbl granulated stevia powder
1/4 tsp salt
2/3 cup flax meal (ground flax)
3 Tbl coconut flour
1/2 oz 99% dark chocolate, chopped

Combine all the wet ingredients into a medium bowl and stir well. Add the stevia, salt, flax meal and coconut flour and stir until a stiff dough forms. Roll into balls and place on a cookie sheet. Press down with your thumb or the back of a spoon and place a small piece of dark chocolate in the center of the cookie. Alternatively you could mix the chocolate directly into the dough like chips. Or you could use an OVEN PROOF mold to press half the dough into, then the chocolate in the center, then the rest of the dough on top. Bake at 350 degrees (F) for 15 minutes. Pure peanutty, chocolately goodness!
Approx nutrition info per cookie: 135cals, 11g fat, 1.5g net carbs, 4g protein