Healthy Baking Products and Swaps

June 09, 2015
These heart-healthy baking essentials will help you trim fat and sodium, plus boost fiber, antioxidants, and whole grains in favorite dessert recipes. Stock up to bake tasty, wholesome goodies.
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Reduced-Fat Swap for Margarine

Baking product: Unsweetened applesauce

Baking tip: Cut fat and boost vitamin C in baked goods by using unsweetened applesauce to replace half or more of the margarine, shortening, or oil.

Recipe that makes the swap:

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Antioxidant-Rich Swap for Unsweetened Baking Chocolate

Baking product: Naturally unsweetened cocoa powder

Baking tip: Use 3 tablespoons of natural, unsweetened cocoa plus 1 tablespoon of canola oil to replace 1 ounce of unsweetened baking chocolate.

Recipes that make the swap:

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Cholesterol-Lowering Swap for Flour

Baking product: Oat bran

Baking tip: Add cholesterol-lowering soluble fiber to your recipes by replacing a few tablespoons of flour with oat bran. It keeps baked goods moist, too.

Recipe that makes the swap:

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Reduced-Fat Swap for Cooking Oil

Baking product: Bananas

Baking tip: Mashed ripe bananas work as a healthy and flavorful fat substitute. Mashed bananas infuse baked goods with their flavor, so only make this swap in recipes that have strong enough flavors to mask the banana or that you want tasting like banana. Start by replacing half the amount of oil for banana and adjust as needed.

Recipe that makes the swap:

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Healthier Swaps for White Flour

Baking products: Whole wheat flour, white whole wheat flour, whole wheat pastry flour

Baking tip: Higher in fiber and antioxidants than all-purpose flour, whole wheat flour can replace up to half the refined flour in recipes. White whole wheat flour bakes like traditional whole wheat flour but is light in color because it's from white wheat.

Recipes that make the swap:

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Good Fat Swap for Regular Canola Oil

Baking product: Spectrum organic canola oil

Baking tip: This all-purpose canola oil is obtained by a mechanical (expeller-pressing) rather than chemical method. It's high in good monounsaturated fat.

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Lower-Sodium Swap for Baking Powder

Baking product: Sodium-free or reduced-sodium baking powder

Baking tip: Replace your baking powder with a sodium-free version, such as Hain Featherweight Baking Powder or Rumfod Reduced-Sodium Baking Powder, to save up to 480 mg of sodium per teaspoon.

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Reduced-Calorie Substitutes for Sugar

Baking product: Sugar substitutes such as Splenda, Sweet'N Low, Truvia, and Nevella

Baking tip: Save calories by substituting traditional cane or brown sugar with a sugar substitute. Follow the substitute package directions to use an equivalent product amount.

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Healthier Fat Swap for Butter

Baking product: 60% to 70% vegetable oil spread or olive oil spread

Baking tip: Many vegetable oil spreads are trans-fat-free and have heart-healthy EPA and DHA omega-3 fats. They also have less saturated fat than butter.

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Bonus! Add Antioxidant-Rich Walnuts

Baking product: Chopped walnuts

Baking tip: Add chopped walnuts to your baking recipes to boost your intake of heart-healthy antioxidants and omega-3 fats.

Recipes that include walnuts:

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