Anyone who wants to keep an eye on their figure during the Christmas season will quickly shy away from cookies, gingerbread and other sweet temptations. The mixture of carbohydrates and fats in particular signals to the body that it would like to have more of the goodies. Resisting is getting harder and harder. In order not to have to do without anything, you can replace some or all of the ingredients with other, lower-calorie ingredients when baking cookies. We show how to do it.
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Alternatives to butter and margarine
With about 9 kilocalories per gram of fat, butter, margarine and oil are the largest calorie suppliers among baking ingredients. Part of the fat can easily be replaced with other ingredients. One option is to use low-fat or diet margarine or butter that has been enriched with yogurt. While 100 grams of conventional butter and margarine have around 740 kcal, half-fat margarine only has around 370 kcal. Even avocado can be used in place of butter or margarine. It contains healthy fats, provides valuable nutrients and has only 160 kcal per 100 grams.
Fructose or sweetener instead of table sugar
White table sugar gives the dough firmness and consistency. However, we often use more of the small crystals than we actually need to. Especially with biscuits and cakes that are decorated with icing or chocolate, half of the sugar can often be omitted or replaced with sweeteners, xylitol or erythritol . This saves around 400 kcal per 100 grams of omitted sugar.
Substitute cream and sour cream
Cream and sour cream have a lot of calories due to their high fat content, but these can easily be reduced with other dairy products. Low-fat quark, Greek yoghurt and natural yoghurt have significantly fewer calories than cream or sour cream and can be replaced in a 1:1 ratio. Low-fat quark in particular also contains a lot of protein, which makes the pastry even more nutritious and keeps you fuller for longer.
- Calories per 100 grams
- Sour cream: 241 kcal, 40 g fat
- Cream: 292 kcal, 30 g fat
Can be replaced with: - Low-fat quark: 67 kcal, 0.2 g fat
- Greek yoghurt: 135 kcal, 10 g fat
- Plain yoghurt: 61 kcal, 1.5 g fat
Oatmeal instead of nuts
Although nuts are very healthy, containing lots of good fatty acids and nutrients, they are also very high in calories. To save a few calories with bronwies or cinnamon stars, you can also replace some of the nuts with oatmeal . These also give the dough stability and ensure a coarse-grained consistency. However, they only have about half the calories of nuts per 100 grams.
Buttermilk or almond milk instead of regular milk
Full-fat milk with 3.5% fat has 65 kcal per 100 ml, low-fat milk with 1.5% fat has 47 kcal. To save a few calories here too, you can use buttermilk or milk alternatives such as B. Use almond milk . Buttermilk gives the dough, e.g. B. of sponge cake, a fluffy consistency. The slightly sour note also takes away the sweetness of the dough a bit and that with only approx. 37 calories per 100 ml. Almond milk, on the other hand, gives dough an almond or marzipan-like note. Unsweetened almond milk only has 13 kcal per 100 ml, while sweetened almond milk has 35 kcal per 100 ml.
Replace flour with protein powder
Wheat flour in particular contains few nutrients and does not fill you up for long. Compared to protein powder, wheat flour has about the same number of calories. Nevertheless, it can make sense to replace part of the flour with protein powder. On the one hand, it binds water and makes the dough firm and, on the other hand, ensures a higher protein content in the baked goods. As a result, the blood sugar level does not rise as quickly, you feel full longer and cravings are prevented. Protein powder comes in a variety of flavors, so there’s a flavor for everyone.
Molds and baking paper instead of greasing
A little trick to save some fat: Bake muffins or cakes in a muffin tin with paper cups, in silicone molds or line the cake pan with baking paper. This saves you from greasing and flouring the molds. If molds still need to be greased, use baking spray, which only sprays a thin film of oil onto the baking molds.
