
Asked a friend of mine recently. I am a notorious recipe modifier. I'm usually trying to make my food a bit healthier by increasing veggies or decreasing sugar, or I am improvising because I don't have the actual ingredients. Even when I try to follow a recipe, I often end up changing it just a little.
So, my friend sends me the Pumpkin Bars recipe. The name of the recipe sounded like something I would like. But when I looked more closely at the recipe, I was very disheartened by the amount of oil, sugar and butter! I think it had more sugar than a usual chocolate cake. Point 1: don't be fooled by names. Muffins are a good example of this, often very high in calories but people think they are the healthier option.
Point 2: I tend to modify every day recipes. On special occasions, we do splurge (except when I can't bring myself to put in so much sugar in a recipe). If the Pumpkin Bars were a birthday cake, I'd say reduce the sugar just a tad and enjoy a small piece but if they were chosen as a healthier afternoon tea or lunch box treat then I would suggest a few changes...
Today I will share with you tips for healthier baking. Next week I'll focus on recipe modifications for main meals.
Kate's tips for recipe changes in baking:
1. Reduce the sugar
Here is how I changed the Pumpkin Bars recipe and turned it into something that would go into my kids lunch boxes. I think it is lucky that I never tried the original version as I did make quite a lot of changes:
So, my friend sends me the Pumpkin Bars recipe. The name of the recipe sounded like something I would like. But when I looked more closely at the recipe, I was very disheartened by the amount of oil, sugar and butter! I think it had more sugar than a usual chocolate cake. Point 1: don't be fooled by names. Muffins are a good example of this, often very high in calories but people think they are the healthier option.
Point 2: I tend to modify every day recipes. On special occasions, we do splurge (except when I can't bring myself to put in so much sugar in a recipe). If the Pumpkin Bars were a birthday cake, I'd say reduce the sugar just a tad and enjoy a small piece but if they were chosen as a healthier afternoon tea or lunch box treat then I would suggest a few changes...
Today I will share with you tips for healthier baking. Next week I'll focus on recipe modifications for main meals.
Kate's tips for recipe changes in baking:
1. Reduce the sugar
- You can usually halve the amount of sugar in a recipe without anyone noticing. I go a step further and try to use 1/3 to 1/2 cup of sugar (or whatever sugar equivalent you are using, such as honey) per batch or loaf (batch to serve 12 or more)
- Use dried or pureed fruit in place of some of the sugar. Try unsweetened apple sauce or apple puree, an over ripe banana or using dates in recipes
- Use low fat dairy in place of full fat dairy
- Use vegetable based oils and spreads (i.e olive, canola, sunflower) in place of butter
3. Reduce the fat
- Reduce some of the oil or butter in recipes and replace with low fat milk, yoghurt or apple sauce. I reduce to about 1/3 cup oil per batch as a guide
4. Increase the fibre
- Use half wholemeal flour and half white flour
5. Add more colour
- Increase the amount of fruit in baking (i.e more bananas in banana bread).
- Try adding an extra carrot to the amount the recipe states for carrot muffins or carrot cake
Here is how I changed the Pumpkin Bars recipe and turned it into something that would go into my kids lunch boxes. I think it is lucky that I never tried the original version as I did make quite a lot of changes:
Original re
4 large eggs
250ml sunflower oil --------- 1/3 cup sunflower oil and 2/3 cup lite milk
360g brown sugar -------------1/3 cup brown sugar (about 60 grams)
450g can of pumpkin puree -------1/2 a pumpkin pureed (this was about the same)
340g plain flour --------------- 1.5 cups plain flour, 1 cup wholemeal plain flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon mixed spice
1 teaspoon salt --------------- omitted salt
Instead of making the icing , I sprinkled some pumpkin seeds on the loaf before baking. The icing had 120g full-fat cream cheese, 50g butter, 200g icing sugar and 30g desiccated coconut. I could have used low fat cream cheese and reduced the sugar. But I am usually to lazy to make icing unless it is a birthday.
The recipe was not very sweet but my kids still liked it. Use 1/2 cup sugar if you prefer.
To make, I cooked and mashed pumpkin (you could use leftovers). It is quite a lot of pumpkin. I used half a small Jap pumpkin. Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees Celsius.
Combine eggs, oil, milk, sugar and pumpkin and beat with electric beaters until combined. Add dry ingredients and mix well.
Grease and line a slice tray or loaf tin with baking paper. Cooking time depends on tray used. The original recipe says 30 minutes (for a slice tray) but I used a loaf tin so it took about 50-60 minutes. Even once cooked it is a very moist cake.
My pumpkin loaf has now been cut into slices and frozen.
Are you a recipe follower or recipe changer? Do you have any recipe tips to share?