The mention of Christmas reminds one of all the gifts, decorations, sparkles and yums! About baking cakes, cookies, snacks and chocolates. From the days leading to Christmas to long after, many binge on delicious rose cookies, tassies, kal-kals, logs, marzipan and more that grandmas and mums make from scratch, and today the friendly neighbourhood baker is up for the task. But as yummy as this festive feasting is, all these are high on sugar and fat, leaving many perplexed about how they will curb the urge to gorge away. Sugar, refined flour, butter and chocolate — health buffs are already getting sleepless nights. The city has the perfect answer — This Christmas season, city bakers are are offering healthy goodies using a variety of natural ingredients like honey, jaggery, nut flours, seeds, oats, etc, so you can eat without guilt.
Chaitali Raizada, a city-based baker has two versions of the classic plum cake — the alcoholic and the fruity one (soaked in natural juices). She says, “The dry fruits for the non-alcoholic cake are cooked in fruit rind, juice and jaggery. I don’t trust store-bought flour. For my cakes, I use in-house milled almond flour. For those with a nut allergy, we use oat flour. I also do vegan cakes, and use cooking olive oil.”
City-based baker Trishala Ashok has many goodies being baked in her oven. “Every Christmas, we play Secret Santa and people send anonymous goodie boxes to loved ones. These are low-cal and healthy. This time, I will be making oat chocochip cookies, peanut butter truffles and ragi brownies. I have substituted white or brown sugar with jaggery and honey instead of artificial sweeteners,” says Trishala.
Arati Badgandi, a city-based doctor does not have time to workout, so eating right is very important to her. This festive season, she has opted for low cal goodies to keep a check on what she eats. She adds, “Healthy and low cal is the trend now. I have bought a lot of dark chocolate ragi brownies frosted with peanut butter, oatmeal and strawberry cupcakes. The surprising thing is that even though they are made unconventionally, they are still moist and taste good,” she says.
For Shruthi SA, who is known for her granola bars and chocolates, the agenda is simple, “I make a lot of granola bars, nutcrackers and healthy chocolates. Cinnamon and cloves are spices that are perfect for the festive season. Keeping this in mind, this time, we are making dark chocolate barks. I have used a lot of nuts and seeds and also chia, flax seeds and millet. So if you were to eat a 40 gm granola bar, your calorie intake would be close to 120 cal.”
Nutritionist Dr Aruna Vijay elaborates on this endless tussle about eating yums or going healthy, “It’s definitely going to be low calorie if natural substitutes are used. But it also depends on how they make it low cal. For example, if sugar is substituted with jaggery or honey then it’s definitely welcome. If they are going to use artificial sweeteners then that is a big no-no. We all know how our body reacts to chemicals. People who want to indulge in these low cal goodies should go ahead, and let go of a meal rather than eating it along with their three meals a day. Even the low calorie and healthy snacks should be used in moderation. They can have it for a day, and then go healthy from the next day.”
