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Holidays are revving up, which means baking + sweet treats to celebrate.  With just a few key ingredient swaps, however, it’s easy to make-over your favorite recipes to slash the carbs + calories without sacrificing flavor or quality.

 

5 low-carb ingredient trade-outs for the next time you’re baking:

 

Brown Sugar => Brown Swerve

  • Saves 836 calories & 213 grams of sugar per cup

 

All Purpose Flour => Almond Flour (GF)

  • 75% fewer carbs and 50% more protein than white or whole wheat flour
  • Use more almond flour than original recipe calls for – up to 50% more almond flour
  • Almond flour is higher in moisture (heart smart fats) so use less liquid, as much as 50% less
  • Xanthan gum is key to add to gluten-free baking to for texture, structure and volume of gluten free breads, cookies, and cakes.

 

All Purpose Flour => Beans [red beans, white beans, black beans]

  • Cup-for-cup, beans have 50% less calories and carbs and 4x the fiber of white flour
  • One cup cooked, pureed beans to replace one cup of flour plus two tablespoons of fat.
  • Match the bean color to the finished product (e.g. black beans for brownies, kidney beans for red velvet cake, and white beans for cookies).

 

All Purpose Flour => Protein Powder

  • Protein powder can be used to replace up to 1/3 of the flour in a recipe
  • ¼ cup protein in place of ¼ cup flour can mean the difference of 20 grams MORE protein and approximately 25 grams LESS carb.

 

Chocolate => Coconut Oil + Cocoa Powder + Swerve

 

  • Milk chocolate and even many ‘dark’ chocolate varieties have 16 grams added sugar in every ounce.
  • Instead: DIY chocolate & chocolates sauce with Cocoa powder + coconut oil + Swerve for zero sugar.
  • Ratio can vary by preference, start with ¾ cup coconut oil (melted/softened) with ¾ cup cocoa powder + 1/3 cup Swerve.

 

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