Donut is one dessert that can be made healthy when baked. Like these chocolate glazed donut scones that are jammed… as in raspberry jam.
Chocolate and raspberry are a decadent pairing and can be made healthy. Raw cacao and organic raspberries are loaded with polyphenols that are anti-inflammatory good.
Chocolate pairs well with almost any flavor, and many of them are healthy like nuts, fruits, and spices.
And in our flavor choices… once upon a time, I ate my last cream filling donut (…well, that was not healthy)…
Why?… The donut showed up on my arm the next day. 😀
I don’t think I’ve had a store-bought donut since. Even though I love how cute they look and glossy glazed. And don’t get me started about the fresh bakery scent trail it leaves.
Kidding aside, I found other store-bought ways to get the sweet taste without the fried-ness in traditional donuts. …because like sugar, fried foods are addictive.
You can’t have JUST ONE and be satisfied.
…So if you eat smaller bites and healthy sweets, then there’s no guilt.. and there’s NO eat now, pay later after effect.
Those are all heathy moves.
And when there’s an emergency sugar craving 😊… (for me, that’s daily and often)… low-sugar snacks like this healthy baked donut do the trick.
Oh, and there’s no butter in this recipe, so you save on fat calories. Healthy fat foods like coconut oil (that’s minimal) is a good alternative.
And if you’re someone who likes variety, you can zhugh and flavor each baked donut with different looks and tastes.
Like rose and rosewater, pistachio, coconut and other plant-based foods. 🌹🥥🌱
They’re good healthy food substitutes. And if you’re looking for a good sweet food substitute, give this baked donut a GO!
Combine donut cake ingredients by hand. Use enough milk to get the consistency closest to a cake batter (not too liquid and not too dense). Grease your pan with coconut oil and pour batter into the pan. Bake until top looks baked and a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool. Cut out with round cookie cutter (easier to do before completely cooled).
Make melted chocolate glaze and dip donut top side in glaze.
Zhugh with coconuts and pistachio bits while glaze is still wet.
Keep the donuts out in a cool spot for 2 days or for longer lasting, refrigerate in a covered container.
Sugar cookie is one cookie that I get along with. It’s my kinda pairing. …Maybe yours too?
And with strawberry (or any berry), that’s berry good! 🍓 Like this plate of cookies is made low-sugar, gluten-free… and tasty good. Recipe below 👇
How this low-sugar sugar cookie recipe is different and can be cookie controversial is that there is no white sugar (or sugar crystal substitutes like Stevia that alters tastes).
With an optional light strawberry chocolate glaze at the end, you can keep this naturally low-sugar without missing a sugar beat! 🎉
Think of the strawberry seeds as sugar seeds 😊 And the gluten-free cookie crumbly bits falling off as sugar bits to please your sweet cravings.
This is a cookie challenge because with sugar in the name, NO table sugar doesn’t make sense… but if you’re like me, you’re up for the low-sugar challenge for your healthy body!
It’s a good balance FOR sweet taste buds with a healthy mix so there’s NO compromise.
And this is an EASY challenge because there are only 3 wholesome ingredients needed for this one-bowl sugar cookie to come together.
But it was not easy to come up with this on my end…
This was a journey… because I remember the crunchy hard sugar cookie vividly with sugar crystals on top shaped in dainty flowers with a whole in the middle that I once happily dreamed about. 🧒🏻
I had a sweet relationship with sugar.
…Never in my wildest dreams did I think making and eating my own cookies would be a typical Day in the Life that I’m happy about.
…And I never thought I’d graduate to making my own sugar cookie… without sugar crystals.
Maybe you get it because you too ate spoonfuls of sugar (and enjoyed every sugary food thing out there) like those of us who have a sweet tooth (or a full set of sweet teeth 😊)?
Thankfully for us who also aspire to healthy… the less sugar we eat, the less we crave and the fewer sweet taste buds as we get older.
That helps us align happy and healthy living.
Happy living is good for mental health.
And so if you want to add a glaze top to cookies and desserts, you can balance the healthy and happy ways (…and that’s what pleases my healthy and ex-catering self 😊).
Here on this plate I use a melted chocolate. I chose strawberry chocolate, but white or dark chocolate would work great too.
But in reality, most people use powdered sugar with a flavored liquid for a quick sweet glaze.
And that’s where sugar amounts can be over the top (in more ways than one!). ☹️
Because powdered sugar glazes are using another form of potent table sugar and even more white sugar, that’s not good and can tip the scales.
…AND you need a-lottta powdered sugar to make very little glaze. About 1-3/4 cup of powdered sugar is needed to replace 1 cup of granulated sugar… UGH!
So finding healthier ways like melting real chocolate is a smart and sweet tasty idea…
And you can happily smear the melted chocolate glaze on tops as you anticipate your cookie plate.
That’s one glaze that will go far! A mere 2 oz. of chocolate with a teaspoon of coconut oil will give the shine and get the job done for half-a-dozen cookies.
…You can make this no-guilt, low-sugar cookie batch in minutes when you get the sweet hankering!
Frozen cacao beverage…whaattt? Cold cocoa (vs hot cocoa) is probably not what you think of when you think of cozy Christmas-y holiday vibe drinks in December. ❄️
And not a beverage you would hold with mittens around a dreamy outdoor cozy fire.
…But before you turn away the idea, a frozen HYGGE-cozy flavored and FUN layered cocoa variety can be a welcomed chiller! 🧊 Think of it like an unusual frozen smoothie. And that is great for cooling any stress-irritated moods that can sink in.
Like this one I share how to easily make…
…It’s layered, and looking like a sand art glass (yes?). And one you can imagine maybe finding at a Christmas market or art show.
Oh, except this one is deliciously drinkable made with drink slip away ingredients (and not slipping sand)! 🧋
And this frozen cacao beverage is inspired by dairy-free spumoni ice cream flavors dreamt up from a childhood travel experience in Italy. 🇮🇹
Each layer is frozen and when the drink melts, it’s more fun to watch than a snowman melting. ☃️
You can use anti-inflammatory cocoa like I did with Hershey 100% raw cocoa, and then layer with cherry juice… and then add almond milk with a few drops of Pandan (for natural mint green color) and pistachios.
If you’ve never tasted Pandan 🌱, it’s a plant-based ingredient with a vanilla-nutty vibe that taste mixes well with plant-based milks like almond or cashew milk.
For healthy cocoa, instead of going to the cocoa mix beverage aisle of the grocery store, visit the baking or seasonal aisles instead to find the pure multi-purpose cacao.
The cocoa can be used to make a drink like hot or cold cocoa, or used to bake with and make desserts like healthy chocolate cake, brownies, and cookies.
You want to find an unsweetened, raw cacao that is not alkalized (processed or Dutched cocoa) for the healthy tastes. And this is the best kind to bake with too!
Most marketed drinking cocoa coming in packets or pouches with the options of marshmallows are the processed kind often loaded with sugar.
You can always sweet treat yourself with marshmallows (sugar) ontop at the end. Or simply zhugh with coconut chips or pistachio crumbles.
And then after you’ve made your frozen cocoa beverage artwork 😁, you can serve with cocoa desserts like this cocoa brownie cake with cashews and dried raspberries.
Which btw, polyphenol-rich cacao and raspberries are an anti-inflammatory power couple.
…But me-thinks 🧒🏻 that a frozen cacao beverage is just what these healthy un-iced and faceless molasses gingerbread men ordered. The mystery remains… 😊
Oh, and they’d be good to dunk in the your frozen cacao beverage.
Lemon cookie in a recipe is one tasty way to brighten up your holiday and Christmas cookie baking fun. 🎄And even better to brighten up a Christmas in July! Basically a lemon cookie is great year round and when you pair with strawberries you’ve got a heavenly tasting pairing!
Around the holidays, it may sound strange to bake in lemon.
…Because when we think of Christmas cookies, we traditionally think of chocolate, pistachio, or spices for Christmas-y vibes… and not summery lemon-y ones.
…But actually lemon is a winter fruit as most citrus fruits are. So think year-round lemon cookie!
Tip: you can buy lemons in the grocery stores in the winter months and freeze them for year-round use. You can save money this way as lemons are abundant in winter and when their price falls.
And these two healthy-inspired lemon cookies warm up the holiday baking season and festivities…
How to make this lemon strawberry and lemon cookie with rosemary is easy to divide up!
…So now that we’ve established lemons 🍋 are great, tasty year-round ingredients, they’re also super healthy.
Lemons are loaded with Vitamin C and full of limonene that’s an antioxidant.
And not only body healthy, the sunny lemon yellow is going to put anyone in a good happy mood… while brightening up tastes.
…Just ask those in the Mediterranean regions where cooking lemon into the daily diet for longevity reasons is a happy way of life.
Healthy Lemon Cookie
And so… in search of making one happy, anti-inflammatory lemon cookie, I was inspired by using healthy oils (no butter) and more healthy, natural sugar sources that have vitamins.
…But that was waayyy before I started baking all of my own sweets including cookies (my favorite!) for consumption…
Actually, I used to play a game with myself in the cookie grocery store aisle where I would find the healthiest cookie in a package with the smallest amount of sugar for the tastiest effect.
That was how I defined high cookie value.
Those were the day before I discovered how easy it is to bake your own cookies (that’s faster than if you go to the store and back).
And if you’re trying to lower your sugar intake (that’s a good idea! 💡) but love cookies, tart lemon is a great ingredient dimension add to cookies so the focus isn’t on sugar.
…The sour taste buds are doing a front row Radio City Rockettes happy dance with the secondary sweet buds behind. 👯
Like in this celebrational plate of healthy cookies with a strawberry lemon drizzle dessert surprise (made of Greek yogurt and buffalo mozzarella) in the middle.
Clockwise from left to right: lemon strawberry cookie, lemon almond thyme cookie, spiced cookie
Baking in healthy ingredients is anti-inflammatory for skin and gut heath.
And making a cookie without butter or white sugar of any kind — that’s also deliciously tasty, holds together, and is crunchy (wow, that’s a mouthful!) — similar to store-bought cookies, is a dream come true! 💕 ..
And these lemon cookies with strawberries 🍓 fit the bill. They’re zesty and sweet in every way…
…Maybe that’s where zest-for-life came from?
And you can make lemon cookies like these with mostly healthy ground almond flour where you can save money by chopping your own whole almonds with a machine.
Recipe below.👇
…Or you can make a thyme-rosemary lemon cookie that’s Mediterranean-diet-lemon-and-olive oil healthy.
Since you’re using oil instead of butter for this cookie, you don’t need to refrigerate or cool the dough before rolling out as an added bonus.
For the flour for those lemon cookies, use gluten-free flour like coconut or almond flour (again).
And for the sweetness, use a tablespoon of honey or maple syrup.
Those sweet ingredients also act as binders along with the olive oil. Honey is great for moisturizing in dry, winter months and maple syrup for cooling down in hot months. But either are great year-round!
You can measure the healthy EVOO, but it’s much more fun if you look at cookie making as a new adventure like the wonder you had as a kid. 💭
…In your wonder, you can take a cup of flour and make a mound. Then, make a small well in the middle (like you would if you were making pasta) and add a tablespoon of olive oil in the well and start combining… and see what happens.
You’ll probably see that you need more oil to hold the flour together.
Try another tablespoon of EVOO. Then add a tablespoon of honey (or maple syrup).
Then add lemon zest from one lemon, and you can also add your herbs like rosemary and thyme.
Keep combining and adding a little bit more of the ingredient amount you need, like more olive oil…
Cookies are super forgiving. 😋
When the cookie dough can hold together with crumbly bits falling off, that’s when you know you will have a good cookie crunch when fully baked.
Place a piece of plastic wrap or parchment paper on top of your dough, and roll out the dough (or flatten dough with the palm of your hand for imperfect cookies).
Then you can form your cookies into the shape you like by hand or cookie cutters.
Bake on 325°F on the higher baking shelf for about 12 minutes. I like to flip the cookies (from bottom to top) about 5 minutes before they’re done so they are baked more even as the bottoms get brown faster.
Lemon cookies also tend to burn quicker than darker color cookies like gingerbread cookies, another favorite for this ‘lil Miss Cookie Monster! 😋
Use a chopping processor machine to chop almonds to a fine almond flour or use store-bought almond flour. Combine with all ingredients except bench flour to make the cookie dough.
Add bench flour to your working surface and roll out the dough to about 1/4 inch thick. Cut out shapes and add to a baking cookie sheet with a non-stick surface (Silpat or use baking spray).
Bake on 325°F for about 12 minutes or until sides are golden brown.
Fruit roll up is a happy memory from when I was a kid. 💭
They were a sweet and light snack from the grocery store that melted in the mouth.
It was (and is) a cross between fruit + candy.
They came wrapped up in their own packaging and were attached to cellophane that I liked to play make things with when I was young. They were rolled up like scrolls.
Almost like the Dead Sea Scroll minus the ancient writing.
…And not that far back, my young days was when posters were the rage so anything rolled up meant happy entertainment or enjoyment.
Playing around, I haven’t had a fruit roll up like those until now as an adult. 😋
Decades later and these parchment paper looking treats are naturally preserved…
These were like the ones that ruined me to never want any other fruit roll up wannabes. 😅
These are the REAL DEAL.
Making these fruit roll ups bring me joy (...and maybe for you too?) because they resembled packaged old-fashioned fruit roll ups that you would buy at the store… minus additional sugar that’s not needed for these.
As thin as they are like sheets of music, these stack up nicely! 🪵…
Thin as paper and pretty as rice paper too.
They’re as durable as leather.
Technically they fall in the leather fruit category but are as smooth and supple as suede.
My mom was a dressmaker, so she played a role in influencing my fabric choices where I learned lighter materials are usually higher quality.
And I’d agree about that with this light leather fruit material…
These feel light and feathery (not leathery) and are very apple healthy! 🍏
Plus, they last for weeks at room temperature.
Made with apple they are a great fall snack that can be made year round.
It’s almost like wrapping paper… or maybe it’s an old map or a key to hieroglyphic history. However you want to call it, it’s a SWEEET fruit roll up.
Oh, and kidding aside, the BEST part is (…can you tell I’m getting excited that it just gets better? 😊)…
You can make these in your home oven in one hour and 20 minutes with just 5 minutes of prep time.
How’s that for predictability?
…Seriously it’s that easy!
They are fun (and dare I say relaxing) to make and everyone of all ages will love them! 💕
They make a great sweet snack without any artificial ingredients.
And actually just 2 sweet and natural ingredients that make a perfect duo. 🍏🍯
Using applesauce, you don’t even have to turn the stove on to cook down apples and de-core them… and they will turn out even better. Because for one, the apple fruit roll up will be more even.
…The first time you make them, don’t freak out because they turn transparent on a baking sheet.
Don’t worry, it’s there. 😀
…I tried that once with Aquafaba because I heard you could make meringues that way… and POOF! I wish I could say that was magic, but it was more like a trick. 🪄
They dissolved into thin oven air… but I digress.
These fruit roll ups will turn out… I promise.
These are the proof…
I’m so happy to share these with you through the screen. And I hope they make your day like they did for me the first time I made them. 🍥
(And maybe this will keep the kiddos staying happy and cavity-free as low-sugar goodies with plenty of sweetness… that are substitutable for a certain candy holiday 🎃).
And if you’re into experimenting (like I am gladly doing with sweets), you can try other flavors.
Keep in mind they will take longer to bake with more complex ingredients.
You will know when you touch or look at the baked fruit roll up whether it’s dry and done, or half-baked and almost there….
In this one, you can see here that the dry section is on the upper right area and the rest of the fruit roll up is not done… simply pop it back into the oven.
Change the time but don’t mess with the temperature.
This one took another 20-25 minutes to finish… and was worth the wait. ⏲️
These are no fuss-no muss apple fruit roll ups you can bake in under 2 hours. This will make 4 - 4 inch roll ups that are about 9 inches long.
Course Snack
Cuisine American
Author Brandy @ Healthy Happy Life Secrets
Equipment
Silpat silicone baking mat on sheet pan
Ingredients
24 ounceapplesauce cups, unsweetened
2tbspraw honey (high quality)
Instructions
Thoroughly combine apple sauce in a bowl and add honey. Tip: use a high quality honey with a smooth consistency.
Smear the mixture into a thin layer on a Silpat (silicone sheet) laid out on a baking pan. Tip: Use different light to check that there are no "holes" that show up with shadows.
Bake on 200°F/100°C for 80 minutes. Tip: if you add or experiment with other more vibrant colors and flavors, they can take significantly longer. You'll know it's completely done, when the fruit roll up is one uniform color and dry throughout to the touch.
Let cool completely and then start to peel at one corner and then slowly peel up the entire fruit roll up. Roll up, slice, and enjoy!
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