[BlessedBe]

I hope this is the place to put this. I was wondering if they are any healthy things I can substitute in this recipe, besides going organic on some things. And if I do, how will it change the recipe as a whole? Like more liquids, cooking time, etc.

1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup plus 2 Tbs white flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 cup olive oil
3/4 cup orange juice
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cloves
pinch salt

1 cup honey
1 cup water
5 whole cloves
1 cinnamon stick
1 slice orange
1/2 tsp almond extract

1 cup walnuts, finely chopped
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cloves

[baffled111]

Hmmm. I hope that makes alot of something: there are tons of calories in that recipe!

The flour you pretty much have to leave as is. You can increase the fiber by altering the white-whole wheat ratio in favor of whole wheat, but that won't really change the calories much. I've found that if you want to add more whole wheat to baking recipes, it's advisable to use the whole wheat pastry flour, as it is lighter.

An obvious place to start making substitutions is with the fat. I often sub apple sauce for butter or oil. You can do an equal exchange on those two. You can also sub flax seed meal for fat in baking recipes (at a 3:1 ratio, I think), but flax seed meal, while very healthy, is still quite calorific.

Honey...well, you could just halve it, and have a less sweet product. Or you could sub half the honey for some splenda if you wanted. Personally, I hate the taste of splenda, but lots of people are fine with it.

The other big calorie punch here is the walnuts. At least 785 cals!!! I'd be inclined to eliminate those or cut waaaaayyyy down on them unless this recipe is going to make 40 servings or something.

One thing I've found is that when you sub out the fat, or add extra fiber to a recipe, you do compromise texture. That's the main thing. No whole wheat apple sauce concoction is going to be as light as a white flour/butter or oil concoction. That's just the nature of the beast. But, if you can live with that, it does make it possible to eat treats that might otherwise be outside your calorie budget.

Good luck!

[BlessedBe]

I looked at the recipe, and the nuts are just for topping. So I can cut them out entirely. And the recipe is for spiced honey cakes and make about 15-20. Not sure what size, but before you bake them they are the size of a large walnut.

[nelie]

You could use whole wheat pastry flour instead of the white flour.

You could also try agave instead of the honey but that honey is adding a lot of calories.

How about orange zest instead of orange juice and then add water to compensate?

I would also agree to using unsweetened applesauce instead of olive oil.

[BlessedBe]

Does Agave come in a honey flavor? I've never seen a honey flavor addative, but I've never looked. This was just something I wanted to bake up for the holidays. Not as something I would cook all the time. But I still wanted to try to make it healthier. Thanks for the ideas though. I've never really baked before, ever, so I'm kind of new at it.

[ronlu]

Here in Canada, ED SMITH has a substitute maple syrup made from grape juice which has 60 calories per 1/4 cup which you can substitute 1:1 for the honey. If this is unavailable in your area, a health food store may give you some suggestions.