No matter where you turn, you hear something about ways to eat healthier. All too often that talk centers on eliminating things from your diet that you really enjoy, particularly Baked goods. But treats are part of healthy diet—when enjoyed in moderation and, most importantly, when they are made with real ingredients.

Of course the way to ensure that you are getting backed goods of the highest quality is to make them yourself, or to buy them from House of Bread! The love, care and quality of ingredients we use in our breads and pastry items are the same that you would put into your own home baked items. And naturally House of Bread’s treats are head and shoulders above what is put into mass-produced baked goods.

Sugar and Fat

Where a mass-produced baked good uses high fructose corn syrup, House of Bread uses real sugar or pure honey as a sweetener, just like you would at home. If you are looking for ways to lighten up the sugar of your baked goods you make, try substituting unsweetened applesauce for the sugar in many baked items (just be sure to reduce the liquid in the recipe). Another substitution is Stevia. This natural sweetener is 300 times sweeter than sugar, but it can be expensive.

If you are baking at home and want to reduce the fat in your baked treats, there are also some options to try. Again applesauce can be used in place of half of the recipe’s normal fat content, and it works really well in sweet breads or muffins. Other options include avocado or bananas. When pureed or mashed both can be used in the place of butter in cookies and brownies without altering the taste.

Flour

Where the big manufacturers of bread and pastry items use flours with additives or that have been bleached, at House of Breads, our Flour is always the highest quality, from the freshest wheat and white flours available that have been milled utilizing an all-natural steel cut milling process. Interested in trying to use more wheat flour in your home baking? The general rule is replace 25 percent of the white flour a recipe calls for with wheat flour, spelt or various nut flours.

Want to go even further? The only way to find out the ratio that you like in terms of taste and texture is to gradually increase the amount of non-white flour in the recipe. Maybe go up by five percent each time to see what you like. If you do opt for a nut flour, remember nut flours are heavier than regular white flour, so you may even need to include more of a rising agent to keep your baked good light and fluffy. Finally, if you are making brownies, you can put in pureed black beans in the place of the flour.

Enjoy your baked treat!

Whether or not you love baking at home, or simply love indulging in the finished product, enjoying the occasional sweet treat or slice of warm, fresh bread is something we all deserve now and again. When it comes to baking—at home, from a manufacturer or at House of Bread—you get out goodness from the goodness you put in. You know what you are using in your home baking, and you know that House of Bread is using the same high-quality ingredients you would pick, but what about the mass-produced baked goods? Do you trust that they have the same standards?

At House of Bread, we know that it is more convenient to buy mass-produced baked items in a grocery store. But if you want to enjoy your baked treat more, and feel less guilty about the occasional indulgence, than House of Bread is the best solution. The taste and nutritional value of House of Bread’s bread and pastries simply is superior.