Baking with Health in Mind

Most days, I find it easy to make healthy choices when it comes to food.  I actually like vegetables a lot and can make a meal out of a bowl of steamed green peas and feel satisfied.  But, some days, when the weather is dreary or nothing seems to be going well I cannot help but crave baked goods.  There is just something comforting about all that fat and sugar.  Though pastries are still not an ideal meal for a person who wants to lead a healthy lifestyle, there are simple substitutions for some ingredients that can make your favorite baked goods a little less unhealthy and even provide you with useful nutrients.

For starters, using low fat or fat free Greek yogurt in place of milk or cream will reduce the amount of carbohydrates and add a significant amount of protein to your scones, biscuits, breads, and muffins.  You can also replace sugar with raw local honey.  Eating local honey can reduce reactions to environmental allergies because of your slow ingestion of the pollen in the plants around you.  Raw honey also contains bacteria that can improve the health of your digestive system.  And, of course, there is always the option of replacing refined white flour with whole wheat flour.  I must admit, I like my white flour.  So, I often use half white and half whole wheat flour while baking.  I also buy high quality flour that is unbleached and has no added aluminum (excessive aluminum in the body is a suspected link to Alzheimer’s)

The greatest advantage of baking and cooking your own food is that you control what goes into it.  Homemade pastries lack excessive sugar and preservatives.  And, of course, a scone hot out of the oven tastes much better than one that has been sitting in a pastry case for a couple of days.

 

Goat Cheese and Cranberry Scones

 

Ingredients:

2c flour (white or whole wheat)

1tsp baking powder

¼ tsp baking soda

½ tsp salt

¼ c raw honey

½ c Greek yogurt

1 large egg

8 tbsp unsalted sweet cream butter (very cold, even frozen)

Handful of dried cranberries

¼ c fresh crumbled goat cheese

 

Preparations:

Preheat the oven to 400F.  Mix the dry ingredients together in a medium mixing bowl.  Cut the butter into ½ in cubes and rub into the dry ingredients until the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs.  Whisk together the egg and yogurt.  Stir the honey and the yogurt mixture into the dry ingredients.  The dough should be firm and somewhat elastic.  If it is still crumbly, slowly add water until the desired texture is acquired.  Then stir in the cranberries and goat cheese.  Press the dough into a scone pan or form it into biscuit shapes and place on a greased baking sheet.  Bake at 400F for 15-20 min, or until golden brown on top.  Enjoy them while they are hot.

*I believe they are quite good with an Irish coffee on a Sunday morning ;)