Healthy Baking Shopping List

Baking Doesn’t Have to Be Unhealthy!

Most people associate baking with lots of white sugar, white flour and butter or margarine. It doesn’t have to be this way.  Are you looking for a healthy biscuit or a cake recipe that will satisfy your sweet tooth and still be good for you? Or maybe you want a healthy muffin recipe that will jump start your day? How about a healthy bread recipe? Let us provide you with various healthy recipes to choose from.

Healthy baking is easy, you just need to select the right ingredients, that’s all. It gives many people satisfaction to make a batch of healthy muffins for example with all sorts of healthy add-ins such as nuts, seeds, fruits and grains. I hope you enjoy making and eating these tasty recipes as much as we do.

Before you start to make some of the recipes listed on this page, please read over the healthy baking shopping list so that you will have the essentials you need to get started.

These are the basic ingredients you will need to have in your pantry in order to make several of the healthy recipes listed here. Keep the ingredients in clear containers and label them well. Be sure to only buy small amounts and watch out for bugs!

• Whole wheat flour or spelt flour
• Brown rice flour
• Honey. (we have our own beehives)
• Unrefined Sugar (evaporated cane juice crystals)
• Frozen fruit juice concentrate
• Apple sauce
• Rice bran oil (or a vegetable oil like grape seed or sunflower)
• Rolled oats (not instant, buy whole grain organic)
• Ground flax meal

Good Health Food Store Items To Get

• Organic fruits and vegetables
• Brown rice, wild rice (black in colour)
• Quinoa, millet
• Coconut cream
• Coconut oil for baking, frying and even massaging- very versatile.
• Organic tofu
• Stevia powder or liquid, agave syrup (natural sweeteners)
• Xylitol
• Cashew nut butter- to alternate with almond butter.
• Any gluten free cereal if you had limited choice at supermarket
• Ground linseed is also known as ground flaxseed, (keep in fridge). Sprinkle on many foods.
• I mix ground linseed with ground sunflower and ground almond, it is called LSA mix. Flax is a source of omega 3 fatty acids , lignan (an antioxidant), and fibre. It has been shown to lower cholesterol and help in disease prevention.You can buy ground flax meal at most health food stores and some supermarket stores even in their bulk bins. If you want premium quality, buy whole flax seeds and use a coffee grinder to make flax meal.
• Health food shops also generally have a variety of gluten free breads and biscuits- but watch your wallet!!
• Gluten free/ aluminium free baking powder
• A variety of other flours e.g. Buckwheat, Amaranth, Quinoa, etc

Whole Wheat Flour, Whole Wheat Pastry Flour, or Spelt Flour

• Why use flour that has been bleached and stripped of all nutritional value when you can make great baked goods with spelt flour or whole wheat flour? Look for stone ground or certified organic, Bio-dynamic (Demeter status), etc.
  You can use white flour, just use less and blend with other flours – experiment. Go for the “unbleached” variety.
• Try using spelt flour if you have a wheat allergy, it works for some people I know. When using spelt flour, substitute 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons spelt flour for every cup whole wheat flour.

Honey, Unrefined Sugar, and Fruit Juice Concentrate

• These are my preferred sweeteners because they are not as refined as conventional white sugar and still have some nutritional value. The most nutritional out of all three is honey (when it is raw and from a local source; if you get it at the store, it has been processed and lost some of its nutrition). The next best sweetener would be fruit juice concentrate, followed by stevia or xylitol. Last but not least, unrefined sugar (which is about 50% less processed than plain white sugar).
• Why should you stay away from white refined sugar? Check out “the sweet danger of sugar“.
• For example, refined white sugar depresses your immune system, making you more vulnerable to toxins, bacteria and viruses
• Refined white sugar is stripped of all nutrition. Therefore, your body must borrow vital nutrients from healthy cells to metabolise this incomplete food. So not only are you depriving your body of the nutrition it needs, you are also taking you are using what it has stored, stored minerals like magnesium, zinc and many others.

  Olive and Coconut Oil

• Olive oil (regular and extra virgin) and coconut oil I use in all of my cooking. These oils have light and delicate flavours and a high smoke point, making them versatile with cooking. In addition, olive and coconut oils also have the following health benefits including:
• Proven cholesterol reduction
• High antioxidant levels
• Low allergenic
• Anti fungal and bacterial
• No preservatives
• Non GMO

Rolled Oats

You will find rolled oats in quite a few of the recipes listed. They add in extra fibre and texture to the baked goods. Use good quality whole oats, and your health food shop with have better quality than your local supermarket.

Apple Sauce

I substitute applesauce for part of the oil in most of my baking recipes. If you have a baked good recipe that you would like to lighten up, simply replace half of the oil with applesauce.

Sugar Substitute Chart

Here is a handy chart on how to substitute white sugar for a more natural sweetener. I have always tried to reduce the amount of sugar used in baking, and with a bit of practice you too will be able to successfully substitute white sugar for a more agreeable and natural source of sweetener.

Sweetener	Substitution for 1 cup sugar	Reduction of total liquid
Honey	3/4 cup	1/8 cup
Maple Syrup (pure)	3/4 cup	1/8 cup
Molasses	1/2 cup	–
Barley Malt	1 1/2 cup	slightly
Rice Syrup	1 1/2 cup	slightly