Posted on July 7th, 2016

As foods are becoming more heavily processed and food intolerances are becoming more prominent, going back to making your own baked goods can be an easy way to counteract these problems, while improving your overall health. The more processed foods such as; white flour and white sugar, compromise our immune system function and create unnecessary inflammation within our bodies. Cow’s milk dairy products are also more processed than ever before and our bodies can struggle with their digestion.

Quick Simple Swaps

• White Flour – wholemeal spelt, wholemeal rye, oat flour, quinoa flour, buckwheat flour, amaranth flour, millet flour, brown rice flour, almond meal, coconut flour and besan flour. If using almond meal, coconut flour or besan flour please refer to specific recipes as they often require additional liquid to get the desired result.
• White Sugar – coconut palm sugar, xylitol sugar, stevia, rice malt syrup, raw honey, grade B maple syrup or medjool dates.
• Margarine – grass fed butter or coconut oil.
• Cow’s Milk – almond milk, oat milk, coconut milk, rice milk, macadamia milk and hazelnut milk. You could also make your own seed milks as well (i.e. pumpkin seed milk) To make use 1 cup raw pumpkin seeds soaked overnight, rinsed and blended with 4 cups of filtered water and a teaspoon of vanilla paste. Strain and store in glass bottle for 4 days.
• Cheese – cottage cheese, ricotta, feta, goat or sheep cheese.
• Cream – coconut cream.
• Yoghurt – natural yoghurt, Greek style yoghurt (low sugar), coconut yoghurt, goat milk yoghurt and sheep milk yoghurt.

I often use mashed pumpkin and sweet potato, chickpeas, beans and grated zucchini in recipes to reduce flour content while providing added nutritional benefit.