how to improve your nutrition by removing certain daily elements
How to replace butter?
How to replace butter in cooking in this guide to food substitution? This is the first topic of my guide to food substitution. How to replace butter in cakes? To know the answer, you must already know what it is used for, what its role is and what it brings to a recipe. The butter in a cooking recipe brings the fondant side to a cake. The typical case of a cookie for example. The cookie thanks to the butter will have its soft and melting side thanks to this one. A cookie without butter or substitute ingredients is likely to be brittle and dry.
In this case the ingredients to replace the butter are:
• The compote: yes, as strange as it may seem, the compote will bring this fondant touch. An example of a recipe is that of my pear chocolate cake without butter. You can clearly see in the photo that it is far from dry! In this case, choose homemade compote without added sugar.
• Avocado : is a fruit that can easily replace butter. In this case it must be very ripe and then reduced to a puree. Smooth and homogeneous. With this trick you can make chocolate fondants, cookies or even pancakes.
• Oils : in general can also bring the fondant and “wet” side. I actually used it in this pie crust recipe. You can use hazelnut oil in cakes, coconut oil in pancake batter or waffles or also olive oil to replace butter.
• Banana: once mashed the banana will replace the butter. An example recipe is this cake without cocoa butter. Count approximately 50 g of banana for 50 g of butter. Remember to adapt the cooking time of the recipe and check the cooking of it with the blade of a knife.
• Zucchini: just grate it to add it to your cakes. She is undetectable, I assure you. Besides, last winter I made chocolate cakes with this trick. They were super melty and chewy
• Oilseed purees: I've been using this trick for a long time now. I also make my homemade peanut butter and almond puree. This ingredient thus makes it possible to replace butter in a way Healthy for making your pastries such as cakes, biscuits, crumbles and waffles for example.
• Margarine or vegetable butter: can replace butter in these cases. Besides, if you want to make a puff pastry, it is with this butter that you can do it too.
• The egg yolk: is the “fatty” part of the egg. It is also for this reason that athletes wanting to consume protein with little fat and that they often remove the egg yolk
• In this case, potato, corn or arrowroot starch will replace butter. A mousseline cream without butter will then be made with milk, egg yolks and starch to finish thickening and binding the cream.
How to replace sugar?
Sugar, a big topic for me in this guide to food substitution! Personally, I no longer consume white sugar at all. Several studies have been done which prove that white sugar, in addition to being useless for the body because it is too stripped of its nutrients, would represent a drug from which we must wean ourselves. Stunning isn't it? This is why some do sugar detoxification.
The role of sugar in addition to giving flavor, helps to develop yeast during cooking. It is this that gives a golden color and helps to make the cake or bread rise. Finally, it is also the sugar that helps to emulsify the mousses.
Have you ever whitened eggs? Experiment with beating egg yolks and sugar for a long time. You will see that little by little a very firm foam will form. This is the basis of savarin, by the way, and I used this technique to make the sponge cake for my pistachio log.
I'm not going to give you an exact amount to replace the sugar. For my recipes I taste the preparations and add sugar according to my tastes as they are made. Do the same. Sweeten your preparations and taste. Depending on you will see if you can add more or not.
How to replace white sugar?
• Fruits (fresh, stewed or pureed): they contain fructose so it is a healthier way to substitute sugar. For example in an apple pie. You don't need to add more sugar to enjoy it. I even find that by adding more, it denatures the dish more than anything else.
• Whole sugar (integral, Rapadura, Muscovado): this one undergoes less processing, so it is more interesting from a nutritional point of view and gives a taste of caramel to your preparations. Finally, it is not necessary to put as much as sugar because its sweetening effect is greater. This is why in my recipes you will rarely see a cake containing more than 50g of whole sugar.
• Sweeteners (xylitol, stevia): I don't really use any in my recipes, but know that they exist. Stevia now is on sale in almost every supermarket. Its sweetening power is also greater than white sugar. For xylitol, it comes from the bark of birches. They are mainly found in organic groceries.
How to replace milk?
Another important point of this guide to food substitution. The milk moistens your preparations and brings the fluffy side. Thus a brioche dough will be made with milk while bread with water. The milk in the first case will bring the softness and the brioche crumb.
There are several types of milk
Before telling you what it is possible to replace milk with in this guide to food substitution. I think it is useful to give a little reminder about the 2 types of milk that exist in this guide.
Plant-based milk: plant-based milks are starting to really become more popular. I see more and more in supermarkets and on the web.
In any case, in this guide to food substitution, for those who do not know, I recommend that you taste them. These vegetable milks offer you a multitude of possible combinations and flavors. To give you an idea of the best-known plant milks there are: soy milk, rice milk, oat milk, spelled milk, chestnut milk, almond milk, hazelnut milk, coconut milk..
Milk of animal origin: the most famous is of course whole, semi-skimmed, skimmed cow's milk. But not only you will also find goat's milk (strong in taste), mare's milk and cow's milk. donkey. Afterwards if you know of others, do not hesitate to tell me in the comments so that I can add them
How to replace milk?
•The water. Some of the milk can actually replace water. On the other hand, I do not recommend replacing it completely with this one at the risk of changing your recipe.
• Liquid cream + water: if you don't have milk, you can replace it with cream mixed with water to make it more liquid. There are several types of cream for cooking, cream of animal origin or vegetable origin such as soy, oat, coconut cream.
• Cottage cheese: in some cases for cakes or pastry, I used this trick. The pasta is then softer and more elastic, as in this turnover recipe. For cakes, they are softer and softer, like here with this apple cake.
• Eggs: definitely eggs again! Yes if you want to replace the milk because you don't have any more or because you have lactose intolerance. It is also possible to substitute milk with beaten eggs. In this case, add a little water to obtain a slightly more liquid result.
• Banana: it can be used as a substitute ingredient for milk. I already mentioned it above with butter. It is a multi-faceted fruit that I appreciate very much. On the other hand, if you don't like the taste of bananas, avoid this trick. Because even in a cooked recipe, the taste of the banana remains very present.
• The oil: it will bring the binding side of the egg white as well as the liquid such as milk. However, be careful with this trick. You don't have to choose just any oil. Because all the oils in addition to their flavors do not have the same uses. I talk about it in my article on the different cooking methods and oils.
Why replace milk?
Another important point in this guide to food substitution to make a recipe healthier. In any case, if you need a large quantity of milk, this tip should be avoided because your recipe will be too fatty.
How to replace wheat flour?
You all know wheat flour which is the most widespread. With food intolerances and the many gluten-free diets more and more present, it was impossible not to talk about it. Gluten is present in many flours such as wheat, oats, spelled, kamut, rye, barley… This is why it is not easy to eat when you have an intolerance or celiac disease.
The non-exhaustive list of gluten-free flours are the flours of:
• buckwheat (I made you a gluten-free pancake recipe.)
• rice
• coconut (a good pancake recipe containing it here)
• lupine
• chestnut
• amaranth
•Chickpeas
•split peas
• lens
•soy
•but
• millet
• teff
•quinoa
What ingredient can you replace flour with in this food substitution guide?
• Lentils: In my book/ebook of 50 healthy recipes on sale in the shop, I made delicious pear and chocolate tartlets with this trick. Cook your lentils until tender. Then drain them well so that they do not release water. Mix them and you will have a good substitute for flour.
• White or red beans: I have used this trick many times. Especially in fondants, brownies or even in a healthier chocolate spread that can be found in my read/ebook. Once melting and cooked or drained and washed (for those in cans), they must be reduced to a puree and you can thus replace the flour.
• Gluten-free flours: I told you about this above to give you some ideas. Recently I made this flourless banana cookie with chickpeas and it was super good!
• Chickpeas: There, same thing, I made on the occasion of my ebook a delicious chocolate cake with this trick. I prepared them like lentils.
• Powdered almonds: Here it's very simple, roast your almonds or not and then mix them. The powder obtained will also replace the flour. Be careful, your cake will be more greedy .
• Powdered hazelnuts: Same as for almonds.
