Christmas time is all about cookies. I am doing a cookie swap with a close group of friends on Wednesday night and I’m alllllmost ready!
Did you know refined sugar is the devil? I avoid it whenever possible and that means in my cabinets too. I don’t buy white sugar EVER. The closest thing I get to white sugar is sucanat or organic evaporated cane juice – Even then… I don’t really use much of that stuff either… You see there is little to no nutritional value in these refined sugars…Eating refined sugar is addictive, makes you fat, tired, depressed, age faster, makes your skin dull, weakens immunity and when consumed in excess causes all sorts of diseases… No thanks.
So how do I sweeten my desserts without the use of refined sugars and with nutrition?
Here’s my 3 favorite ways to sugar your sweets that won’t wreak havoc on your health…
Organic Coconut Palm Sugar – This type of sugar is a perfect 1 to 1 substitute for any recipe that calls for regular old sugar. One of the big pluses of coconut palm sugar – it’s completely unrefined and not bleached like typical refined white sugar, helping to preserve all of its teeming vitamins and minerals. It is naturally high in amino acids – has 10,000 times more potassium, 20 times more magnesium and 20 times more iron than conventional sugar. Converting to this type of sugar could also, lower your risk of developing diabetes because it’s glycemic index is half of that compared to sugar.
I’ve used coconut palm sugar in all my recipes this year and everything has turned out fantastic, including these gingerbread men! The flavor is more like brown sugar and it definitely adds a nice touch of richness to cookies and cakes.
Food Babe’s Sweet Blend – Obviously this is my favorite way to sweeten cookies and cakes. One of the first steps in any cookie or cake recipe is to blend the sugar component with the fat component. Using this blend of raw pitted dates, prunes, bananas and sometimes organic apple sauce or maple syrup together in the blender along with some fat – either organic coconut oil or melted organic butter kills two birds with one stone – all you have to do is add vanilla (or other flavorings) and the dry ingredients to make the most deliciously sweet cookies or cakes… I highly recommend this blend as much as possible when baking because it uses 100% whole organic ingredients – no processing and all nutrition. Enough said.
Try the recipe for Pumpkin Ice Cream Cake & Forever Cookies for the exact measurements of raw ingredients to fat…
So the next time you are itching to bake and make something sweet – think about how many nutrients you can pack into your bite! Imagine your body enjoying all the minerals and vitamins it is receiving instead of attacking itself destroying your immune system and causing disease. Ditch the refined sugar – you have no excuses.
Ok off to make more cookies! Do you have any healthy cookie recipes you’d like to share? Please send me some inspiration here or on my Facebook Fan Page!
Ciao,
Food Babe
P.S. For those who entered the contest for my last post on Holiday Party Eating – the first thing I put on my plate was BROCCOLI! Shilpa Malik won by being the first one to answer correctly. She will be receiving Food Babe goodies this week!
Great tips for more healthy sweeteners, thanks. By any chance have you heard or tried Sucanat (essentially pure dried sugar cane juice)? Some of the vegan recipes I’ve been making have called for it and its seem like a good alternative as well and I found some organic versions of it.
Yes I have – I used to use that for granulated sugar but then I found out how amazing coconut palm sugar is! Sucanat is still pretty devoid in vitamins and minerals unfortunately…
yep, i’ve been avoiding sugar since I read “sweet poison” by David Gillespie, its hard at this time of year though, I have done a little baking! I should follow your example and only keep more nutritious sweeteners in the cupboard, for special occasions, I’m still using up the white sugar I bought before I read the book (hate throwing out food!). Thanks for the reminder.
I hear ya – I hate throwing out food too. I need to check out that book – sounds interesting… Good luck in your journey!
I can’t wait for tonight!!
What a great post! I only wish those types of alternatives were available in Australia. I’ve tried about 5 different health food stores, online and forget about the regular supermarkets. You can get sucanat in some rare stores, 500g for about $10. I wish I could just make it all myself as the only option here is ridiculous white sugar!
The closest I can get is raw sugar.
That’s so sad!!! You all live so much closer to where they produce the most Coconut Palm Sugar too!!!! The Philippines! Maybe check to see if you can buy it on the internet somewhere…Good Luck with your search! Thanks for stopping by Alice!
I’m definitely going to do that! Thanks for keeping us inspired
I’m baking a yellow birthday cake for my son, and using a traditional recipe calling for butter, flour, sugar. Can I trade cup for cup refined sugar for the palm sugar you mention? Will it come out okay and not be too different for all my non-healthy eaters?
Thank you!
Absolutely! It’s a 1 to 1 substitution. You will love the taste – promise!
I only have one natural food store near me, and I couldn’t find coconut palm sugar there….but I did find ‘organic coconut crystals/sugar’. Is that the same thing and just as ‘healthy’?
Do you use Coconut Palm sugar for both brown and white sugar? Do you do anything different for a recipe that calls for both?
I just came across this post, but please check out this page (as well as many others out there): http://www.tropicaltraditions.com/coconut_palm_sugar.htm
While certain sweeteners may have 40x (!) the amount of certain minerals and “nutrients,” this certainly doesn’t mean they are nutritious! Have an orange for an actual significant amount of potassium.
I applaud everyone trying to make healthier food choices — but I hope people consider the health of the planet, as well.
http://www.tropicaltraditions.com/coconut_palm_sugar.htm an interesting article on pruduction and side effects of coconut palm sugar