Healthier Christmas baking: simple swaps for flour, sugar, butter and eggs
Christmas baking is half the fun of December: shortbread for the neighbours, gingerbread with the kids, a fruit cake that somehow lasts until February. It is also the time of year when someone at the table is gluten free, someone is cutting back on sugar, and someone else has just gone vegan. The good news is you do not need a new set of recipes. With a few well chosen swaps, most family favourites can be made a little more wholesome, or adapted for guests with different needs, without anyone noticing anything except how good they taste.
A word before you start: change one thing at a time. Baking is chemistry, and swapping the flour, the sugar and the butter all at once is the quickest way to a tray of crumbs.
Flour swaps
- Almond meal. The easiest upgrade. Replace a quarter to a third of the plain flour in shortbread, cakes, crumbles and biscuits with almond meal for a richer, moister result with more protein and fibre. Recipes made entirely from almond meal work well too, but they need eggs or another binder because almonds have no gluten.
- Spelt or wholemeal flour. Swap up to half the white flour for a nuttier flavour and more fibre. Spelt contains gluten, so it is not suitable for coeliacs.
- A 1-to-1 gluten free blend. For guests who must avoid gluten, a good cup-for-cup blend with xanthan gum already added is the most reliable choice for biscuits and cakes. Our gluten free shopping guide explains how to keep a kitchen safe for coeliacs, which matters as much as the recipe.
- Coconut flour. Very high in fibre and very thirsty. It is not a one-for-one swap: use about a quarter of the amount of flour and add extra egg or liquid. Best used in recipes written for it.
- Buckwheat flour. Despite the name, it is gluten free and not related to wheat. It has an earthy flavour that suits gingerbread, spiced biscuits and dark fruit cake. Mix it with a lighter flour so it does not overpower.
Sugar swaps
Most less refined sugars are still sugar, and your body treats them in much the same way. The case for them is flavour and a little less processing, not health miracles. Still, a few swaps are worth knowing:
- Rapadura or coconut sugar can replace brown sugar one for one. Both are less refined, with a deep caramel flavour that suits gingerbread, fruit mince and anything spiced. They make baking a little darker.
- Maple syrup is a liquid, so if you swap it for white sugar, use about three quarters of the amount, cut the other liquids in the recipe slightly, and lower the oven by around 15 degrees, as it browns faster.
- Dates are a whole food sweetener with fibre included. Soak them in hot water and blend to a paste for fruit cakes, slices and bliss balls.
- Monk fruit and erythritol blends measure like sugar and add almost no kilojoules. They do not caramelise in the same way, so biscuits spread less and stay paler, and some people notice a cooling aftertaste. Our sugar alternatives guide goes through each option in detail.
Watch out for the dog. Xylitol, a popular birch sugar, is safe for people but highly toxic to dogs, even in small amounts. If you bake with it, keep the treats well out of reach, and tell guests not to share them with pets. Chocolate, sultanas, raisins and macadamias are also dangerous for dogs, so the Christmas table needs a watchful eye.
Butter and egg swaps
- Butter. For a dairy free shortbread or crumble, use solid coconut oil or a good plant butter. Coconut oil can taste of coconut unless it is the refined, flavour-free kind. In cakes and muffins, a light olive oil can replace melted butter.
- Eggs. A flax egg (one tablespoon of ground flaxseed mixed with three tablespoons of water, left for ten minutes) replaces one egg in biscuits, brownies and muffins. It works less well in recipes that rely on lots of eggs for lift, like sponge.
- Raising agents. Aluminium-free baking powder works exactly like the standard kind. Check it is fresh: a teaspoon in hot water should fizz straight away.
An easy no-bake: Christmas spice bliss balls
When it is too hot to turn the oven on, which in Sydney is most of December, these take ten minutes and keep for a week in the fridge.
- 1 cup (about 150g) pitted dates, soaked in hot water for 10 minutes and drained
- 1 cup (100g) almond meal, or sunflower seeds blended fine for a nut free version
- 2 tablespoons cacao powder
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger and 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- a pinch of nutmeg, cloves and salt
- the zest of one orange
- desiccated coconut, for rolling
Blend everything except the coconut in a food processor until it clumps together. If it is too dry, add a splash of the soaking water; too wet, add more almond meal. Roll into small balls, roll in coconut and chill. Pack them in a jar with a ribbon and you have a gift sorted. Our Christmas gift list has more ideas.
Christmas baking picks from our shelves
Find more in Baking and Raw Un-Baking, Sugars and Sweeteners and our Christmas range. If you are baking for someone with a food allergy, always check every label, every time, as recipes and manufacturing can change.