Well, come on in: Our Christmas bakery smells of cinnamon, vanilla and cardamom. Here you can enjoy Christmas treats without a guilty conscience. Because the healthy cookies and hot drinks are free of butter, sugar, egg and white flour - and still taste fantastic. Just the right thing for nutrition-conscious gourmets and sportsmen and women who don't want to do without cookies, gingerbread and mulled wine during the Advent season.
Delicious cakes and tasty pastries are usually high in calories. But there is a way to make it lighter - and gluten-free and vegan! But if we leave out eggs, lard, sugar, milk, flour, there is not much left to work with. How can we make a good pastry without them? Don't worry, there are many healthy ingredients that make cookies and biscuits a treat. We'll introduce them to you and also have some delicious recipe ideas for your Christmas baking.
Instead of sugar: Healthy baking with dried fruit, bananas and honey
During the Christmas season we eat a lot of sugar. After all, sugar is in almost everything: cookies, gingerbread, cinnamon stars, vanilla crescents, marzipan, cocoa and mulled wine - hardly any Christmas treat can do without refined sugar. The problem: with every little cookie and every sip of mulled wine, the insulin level rises. This slows down the burning of fat and promotes fat storage. But there is another way.
There are many healthy alternatives for industrial sugar. Honey, maple syrup, agave syrup and birch sugar are natural sweeteners. They also have a taste of their own, which gives classic recipes a new note. Or try it with unsulphurised dried fruit: Dried dates, apples or apricots are naturally sweet, taste pleasantly fruity and go well with winter spices such as cinnamon and vanilla. Simply chop finely and add to the baking mix instead of the usual household sugar. Dried fruits also provide valuable potassium as well as vitamins and minerals.
By the way, if you like to bake without sugar, you should always have some fresh bananas in the house. They are a practical substitute for household sugar. The longer bananas are allowed to ripen, the sweeter they become. Overripe, almost brown bananas are therefore ideal for baking cookies.
Instead of white flour: finely ground nuts and wholemeal flour
Those who prefer to do without white flour when baking can also use nutty wholemeal spelt flour, millet, quinoa or wheat meal. Finely ground nuts, such as peanuts, almonds, walnuts or cashews, are also a fine thing. Grind and mix the nut varieties to your taste and use them just like normal flour. Such a nut mixture not only tastes better than white flour, but is also rich in vitamins and minerals.
Instead of egg: Vegan cookies with applesauce, banana or chia seeds
You can easily do without eggs in your Christmas cookies. Eggs do ensure that the dough is bound. Fortunately, there are many other ingredients that do just as well.
For example, mix a teaspoon of oil with apple pulp (or a ripe, crushed banana) to replace a whole egg. Two tablespoons of soy flour mixed with two tablespoons of water have the same effect. Or mix two tablespoons of ground chia seeds with four tablespoons of water and let it swell briefly: A binding and at the same time fibre-rich mixture.
Christmas recipes
Raw vegan cookies without baking
These cookies don't need an oven.
Coconut-Cocoa-Balls: Simply mix ground nuts (for example cashew and peanuts) with one and a half cups of soaked dates, coconut flakes and cocoa powder. Shape everything into small balls and chill for two hours.
Almond Date Balls: Mix 200 grams of almonds, one and a half cups of soaked dates, vanilla and gingerbread spice and form into small balls. Done!
Sweet oatmeal balls
Dried fruits and ripe bananas provide the sweetness in this recipe. Simply soak 70 grams of dried plums (or apricots, apples, mango ...) briefly in hot water and then puree them together with two ripe bananas. Add 160 grams of oat flakes, vanilla and cinnamon. Bake everything for 10 minutes at 175 degrees.
Dried apples
Strictly speaking, this is of course not a cookie recipe. But it is a healthy, Christmassy treat without any flour, sugar or egg. For this pure raw vegetable snack, cut apples into thin rings and refine them with cinnamon and vanilla. Then let them dry for a few hours - and enjoy.
Healthy drinking: sugar-free mulled wine & Christmas spiced milk
If it is cold and grey outside, why not warm up with a hot drink? Extra Christmassy: A homemade mulled wine without sugar. It is quickly made and smells heavenly. Simply boil dry red wine, aniseed, cinnamon and cloves briefly. You can add freshly squeezed orange juice for a fruity note. The Christmas spices boost the metabolism and warm from the inside.
Or how about a hot spiced milk: Season the milk (optionally almond milk or soy milk) vigorously, for example with cardamom, saffron, turmeric, nutmeg, cloves, cinnamon, pepper or (dried) ginger. If you like, you can also add a little honey. A delight!
Bild: istockphoto | Mizina, istockphoto | Christian Horz
