Healthy Baking Swaps: Portion Sizes

Fall baking season is still here! Every Tuesday in November, we'll go over a few ideas to make your homemade baked goods HEALTHIER than store bought! 

Making your own treats at home gives you so much control over them and increases how satisfying they are. It is so much more enjoyable when you know you have put in the love that results in a delicious treat!

This week, we are looking at portion sizes. Have you ever gone to a bakery or deli and seen cookies bigger than your face? That is certainly not a single serving, yet most people will eat the whole cookie themselves in one sitting! Thankfully, if you are making them yourself you can decide exactly how big the portion size is- for any treat! 

Portioning out your treats into single servings can help regulate how much you eat at one time. 

If baking in smaller portions, adjust the time down accordingly, and you may have to decrease your oven temperature as well for certain items. Begin checking for doneness at 1/3 the cooking time recommended by the full-sized recipe. 

Cookies: Try using a smaller scoop to make your cookies smaller. Most standard cookie scoops come in 1, 2, or 3 tbsp, with the most common scoop being 2 tbsp. Try a 1 tbsp scoop for cute little cookies! 

Muffins: Invest in a mini muffin pan. Mini muffins are less likely to require liners to come out of the pan easily, and are less likely to break when coming out of the pan. A recipe for 12 full sized muffins will yield 36 small muffins. Make sure to chop your mix ins (like fruit or chocolate chips) extra small to make sure enough batter will fit in the mini cups to hold the muffin together. 

Breads: Treats like banana /zucchini/ pumpkin bread or cornbread (like the picture above) can be made in muffin pans to predetermine portion sizes. If you're making the recipe to share, it's a lot more presentable to bring your neighbor 6 muffins, rather than a half of a loaf. 

Cakes: You can buy smaller cake pans (a 6 inch pan is a fun size for a smaller group of people). You'll probably have to scale down your recipe. Some websites have a feature that you can adjust your ingredients to scale, but sometimes you'll have to do a little math. You can also pour your whole recipe of cake batter into 2 smaller pans and bring one to a neighbor or friend! Making your favorite cake recipe into cupcakes is another way to size out individual portion sizes. 

Pies: Pies can be made into individually sized baby pies using muffin pans. Roll out your crust thinly and really heap up the fruit (which will cook down) to get your ration of crust : filling correct. 

Remember to fully engage all your senses, remove distractions, and slow down to fully enjoy your treats. This can help you from going back for seconds! Stay tuned for next week to talk about staying present when indulging in treats.