My love of traditional style baking is at odds with my desire to eat healthily. Really my desire to have Burrito eat healthily. I limit her sugar and white flour intake, she doesn’t have candy, and she never eats fast food. The only chips I let her eat are Sun chips. Her juice has no sugar added and no artificial coloring. And after a disturbing article I read about children entering puberty younger and younger, I’m considering switching her to almond milk. So all the butter, flour, and sugar that go with baking are the antithesis of what I’d like to be feeding her.
I read years ago that the FDA limited the amount of red food dye that could be in food because it was a known carcinogen. Because of that I’ve always tried to avoid it. Now there are studies that show ALL food dye to have harmful effects on the body. But then how are we supposed to tint icing? Burrito turned two in April and I wanted to frost her cupcakes with pink icing. So I thought back, how did they tint things before food dye existed? Berries was the answer I came up with. Then I remembered my Aunt K’s strawberry glacé pie recipe. The glacé part is essentially an extra thick strawberry glaze. It would make the perfect shade of pink icing, plus I had tons of strawberries from our weekly produce box delivery. The glaze is made from boiling down mashed strawberries in some water, straining, adding sugar and thickening over heat with a little bit of corn starch. It’s so delicious and tastes just like candy. To make the icing I used my regular buttercream recipe but cut the sugar by half. It turned out perfectly. I figure I can do a similar thing with other kinds of berries to make different colors (and flavors). Like trying blackberries or blueberries to get a shade of purple or blue. I have a feeling they might all just turn out to make various shades of pink...
I do, however, know that there is a big difference between something I bake at home and something I buy from a store that’s either “ready-to-bake” or prepackaged. Mine has no preservatives, or only the preservatives found in the milk and butter I used to bake which she has almost everyday anyway. And the only chemical used in my kitchen is baking powder.
I think the next step in my baking to start using a whole wheat flour, or some other type of grain flour. I know lots of people use applesauce instead of butter or oil (which can be just as unhealthy as butter if your not careful about the oil you use), but I’ve never done it. I’ve been reading about sugar alternatives, and while stevia seems like it might be the best one, I’m still on the fence. There are some nectars that seem good, but how do you adjust old recipes to go from having a solid sweetener to a liquid one? I’m sure all these questions would easily be answered if I took the time to google it , or take the time to comb through “alternative” cookbooks. But hey, I think by this point we all know that I’m pretty lazy. I mean, I’m writing this blog instead of packing for my next trip.
