Healthy baking for kids

2024-11-6

Enjoy baking with the little ones

Discover our tips & tricks for baking with children and enjoy the Advent season!

Biscuits and other Christmas biscuits sweeten the Advent season. And if you do it right, there's no need to hold back: There are numerous ways to opt for healthier ingredients. This doesn't detract from the flavour - and it's not just the children who are happy about it.

Delicious flavour, healthy ingredients

It is an understandable trend to use healthier alternatives when baking. Sugar-free, gluten-free, vegan or wholefood recipes don’t have to be boring – quite the opposite. With the right ingredients, you can conjure up delicious, healthy biscuits that the whole family will love. In this blog, you’ll find tips and ideas on how to bake healthier.

Sugar-free: there's another way to be sweet

Many people want to reduce the amount of sugar in their baking, leave it out completely or use sugar alternatives, especially when young children are also eating. Of course, one thing needs to be said at the outset: Sugar alternatives are not inherently healthy, but they are often chosen because, unlike highly processed white sugar, they are a more sustainable and vitamin-rich alternative. If you really want to bake healthier, don’t just substitute sugar, halve the amount of sugar in the recipe.

The best-known sugar alternative has always been available: honey. Honey is the classic sweetener in gingerbread and adds a lovely flavour to any other baked good. However, please use a little less, as the sweetness of honey is much more intense than that of sugar.
Maple syrup or agave syrup are also wonderful for biscuits. They are the best choice, especially when there is a large proportion of oats or nuts.

Some foods are naturally sweet on their own: ripe bananas or dates, for example. In puréed form, they are an excellent way to sweeten baked goods and add valuable nutrients at the same time. You can also use apple sauce in many recipes. If you are baking for children, dates, bananas or apple sauce are the best choice – as fruit is probably the healthiest alternative.

Gluten-free: Perfectly tolerated

Gluten-free baking is becoming increasingly popular – and not just for people with coeliac disease. Gluten-free biscuits taste just as good as those made from conventional flour, but they are often even easier to digest. There are now numerous gluten-free flour blends on the market that can be used in exactly the same way as normal flour.
However, you can also use almond or coconut flour. These flours are not only gluten-free, but also give the biscuits a wonderful nutty flavour. Coconut flour binds strongly, so it should be used sparingly and mixed with other flours.
You can also use gluten-free rolled oats as a base for muesli biscuits or other crispy biscuits.

Wholemeal: more nutrients

Wholemeal flour is a great way to add fibre, vitamins and minerals to baked goods. Our recommendation: Try using wholemeal wheat or spelt flour for a strong flavour that is particularly suitable for the Christmas season. But be careful: wholemeal flour absorbs more liquid than white flour. Therefore, add a little more liquid to the dough.
Of course, you can also experiment with buckwheat flour or millet flour – but these flours have a distinctive flavour of their own.
You can always replace some flour with ground nuts. Nuts or seeds are rich in healthy fats, proteins, and nutrients and add flavour to your dough.

Vegan: enjoy plant-based flavours

Anyone who says that you absolutely need butter and eggs to bake good biscuits is completely wrong: you can also make delicious Christmas biscuits without any animal ingredients. Oils in particular play a major role in vegan baking: try coconut oil, a well-known butter alternative. You can use it 1:1 like butter. Nut butter – almond or peanut butter, for example – is particularly suitable for biscuits and gives your baked goods an excellent flavour. You can also use cashew butter, which has a very neutral flavour.
If you are replacing eggs, it is important to know what properties the substitute should have. If you are looking for moisture and binding, you can use apple sauce. A mashed banana also works well – although you can replace an egg with half a banana.

For drier Christmas biscuits, try linseed soaked in a little water for a few minutes. Linseed is a perfect plant-based binding agent.
If milk is included in the recipe, you can easily replace it 1:1 with plant-based milk.
Please note that not every recipe will work if you change the ingredients – this is especially true for vegan alternatives. Just slowly try out the healthy ingredients and find out what works for you and what tastes good. Good luck!