1. Whole-wheat pastry flour can be substituted 1:1 for white or unbleached flour in most recipes (except for yeasted breads requiring a high gluten content). For gluten-free baking, use brown rice flour, buckwheat flour, coconut flour or almond meal, or search for the wonderful recipes on glutenfreegirl.
2. Upgrade your fats. For me this means organic, cultured butter from pastured cows (such as that from Straus family farm), real lard in pie crusts, coconut oil or coconut ghee, and olive oil (yes, in cakes and cookies).
3. Sugar. Can’t live with it, can’t live without it at the holidays. Less refined sugars such as organic, fair trade evaporated cane juice, coconut sugar, palm sugar, maple syrup and molasses will bake up well but improve the nutritional profile of your treats.
4. Spices. As research uncovers the incredible health value of culinary herbs and spices (see http://whfoods.org/ for great articles on the health benefits of individual foods and spices), I’ve been increasing their use in all of my cooking. Holiday treats are traditional showcases for spices—spice it up for extra anti-oxidant power, cancer prevention and more! I usually double the amount of spice called for in recipes.
5. Cinnamon. The queen of holiday spices has been linked to helping curb blood sugar spikes, slow gastric emptying and increasing satiety (American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 2007 Jun;85(6):1552-6). It works well in almost any holiday recipe.
6. Nuts are another holiday baking staple which are seasonal and high in fiber, beneficial fats, antioxidants and flavor. Work them into baked goods whenever possible, or serve in-shell, roasted or spiced nuts instead of or alongside high-sugar treats.
7. Dried fruit: ditto.
8. Chocolate. Upgrade the health benefits by choosing the darkest (fair trade and organic) chocolate you can. This article gives a nice little recap of the health effects, (especially cardiovascular protection) of chocolate. I like to sub in some carob powder for cocoa powder in recipes for natural sweetness and to reduce the sugar content in recipes, see the following biscotti recipe.
9. Upgrade quality, downplay variety. When confronted with more choices, most people choose more. I focus on making one or two kinds of knockout cookies or candies rather than making many types which tends to encourage sampling them all.
Chocolate Cherry Almond Biscotti
Packing these cookies with flavorful healthy ingredients and baking them twice produces a crunchy treat with great satiety and keeping qualities. The addition of carob powder adds flavor and sweeteners, reducing the need for sugar.
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
2/3 cup palm or coconut sugar or evaporated cane juice
2 eggs
1 teaspoon almond extract
2 cups whole wheat pastry, white whole wheat flour, or brown rice flour
¼ cup cocoa powder
¼ cup carob powder
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon cinnamon
Pinch salt
2/3 cup coarsely chopped almonds
½ cup dried cherries, chopped
2 tablespoons cacao nibs
3 oz unsweetened baking chocolate
3 oz semisweet baking chocolate
1 tablespoon coconut oil
Cream the butter and sugar together with an electric mixer until light and fluffy, beat in the eggs one at a time, and then add the almond extract. Mix the flour, cocoa, carob and baking powder, cinnamon and salt together in a separate bowl, and mix into the batter a little at a time. Stir in the almonds, cherries and cacao nibs, by hand if needed, until you have a stiff dough (you can work in a little water at this point if the dough is too crumbly). Place a piece of parchment paper onto each of two cookie sheets and divide the dough in half, forming each into a log about 2” wide and ¾” thick. Place a log on each sheet and bake at 375 degrees about 30 minutes, until beginning to crack slightly on top. Remove from oven. When the logs are cool enough to handle, cut each on the diagonal into 1/2” thick slices, using a serrated knife. Place the slices on the cookie sheets and bake at 250 degrees until completely dry and crisp, turning once, for about 45 minutes. Cool on wire racks. Chop the chocolate in small pieces and melt together with the coconut oil. Spread this on one side of each cookie and allow to harden completely before storage. These will keep several weeks tightly sealed in a cool place.
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