You don't have to be a chocoholic (although I think that I come close!) to enjoy a tender slice of chocolate cake or a chewy cookie. Well, unfortunately, in traditional recipes, a good portion of the calories in these foods come from sugar and fat--and not the good kind! However, in my book, that does not mean that chocolate and other desserts are off limits completely.
There are a couple rules of thumb to follow and a few tricks to keep chocolate recipes yummy yet a bit lower fat.
I have to start with the rules of thumb:
1. Just because you have 'made over' a dessert recipe does not mean that you get to eat the whole thing without going way overboard in your calorie consumption. Although I will give you a few ways to enjoy chocolate desserts a bit more healthfully, they will not magically turn into spinach or blueberries (food that it would be very difficult to overdo).
2. Food is meant to be enjoyed but not taken advantage of. I am sure that you have heard people say, 'you should not live to eat, you should eat to live.' Well, in our society that philosophy will just not fly for most people. We are food people! We include special recipes in our traditions, celebrations, and even look forward to the weekends because of the opportunities to go out for a nice dinner. Most of us enjoy eating--and I say we should! However, that does not mean that we have to enjoy in excess. If we are really enjoying our food, we are tasting it, savoring it, and not eating so much of it that it causes a backlash of guilt.
Okay, now that we have that covered, I can move on with a couple of baking light tips for chocolate desserts.
Think baking cocoa. This powdery substance is the residue produced when cocoa beans are pressed and processed into chocolate. Most of the cocoa butter (the main fat in chocolate) is removed from the powder. Here's how you can use it:
1. Replace one square of melted unsweetened chocolate (1 ounce) with 3 tablespoons of cocoa plus 1 tablespoon of water, milk, buttermilk, or applesauce. You will reduce the calories by 80 and total fat by 13 grams!
2. To replace 1/2 cup of semisweet chocolate (3 ounces), use 3 tablespoons of cocoa powder, 2 tablespoons of the liquid and 3 tablespoons of sugar. You will save 200 calories and 23 grams of fat!
3. When you replace certain chocolates with the cocoa powder, make sure that you add the powder to the dry ingredients in the recipe and the liquid to the liquid ingredients. Stir all ingredients well, especially the dry since cocoa tends to clump. Oh and one more thing, cocoa is considered acidic. So, you may have to add a little more baking soda into the dry ingredients to neutralize it (about 1/8 of a teaspoon for every 3 tablespoons of cocoa).
I hope that these tips find their way into your recipe box and that you are able to enjoy your chocolate indulgences knowing you have made the recipes a bit lower calorie and lower fat!
