I Want to Try These Cookies, but I have Allergies… Now What?

If you have dietary restric­tions or aller­gies of any kind, flip­ping through a cook­book can be a frus­trat­ing pas­time as you drool over the glossy pho­tos of food you can’t eat. The good news is, it can be eas­i­er than it looks to make some quick ingre­di­ent swaps so you can enjoy new and excit­ing food options!

Eggs

One of the eas­i­est things to sub­sti­tute is eggs, with sev­er­al options. Gen­er­al­ly speak­ing, if a bak­ing recipe calls for 2 or few­er eggs, you can use a sub­sti­tute with sim­i­lar results. Com­bine 1 table­spoon of flax or chia seeds with 3 table­spoons of water and allow it to sit for 5–10 min­utes. Mirac­u­lous­ly, the seedy good­ness will form a gel that you can use just like an egg for your bak­ing enjoyment!

Buttermilk

Swap­ping out dairy milk for non-dairy is pret­ty straight for­ward, but see­ing the word “but­ter­milk” on a recipe may give you pause. Fear not – it’s just as easy! Com­bine 1 table­spoon of lemon juice or vine­gar with 1 cup of non-dairy milk. Put it aside to sit for at least 10 min­utes and voila! Buttermilk!

Butter

Whether you are avoid­ing dairy or just try­ing to lim­it your but­ter intake, it’s easy to boost the nutri­tion con­tent of your favorite baked goods with my favorite food of all time – the avo­ca­do! Swap ½ table­spoon of mashed avo­ca­do for every table­spoon of but­ter and enjoy deli­cious delights full of heart-healthy fats. If you want to avoid a green­ish hue, be sure to use this sub­sti­tu­tion in baked goods with cacao (anoth­er nutri­ent pow­er­house!) to mask the color.

Oil / Fat

You can eas­i­ly lim­it your oil intake AND bump up your nutri­tion by replac­ing the oil in a bak­ing recipe with pureed pump­kin. You can swap an equal amount of but­ter or oil with pureed pump­kin or start with half to see how you like the taste. Pureed pump­kin is full of fiber, vit­a­min A, beta-carotene and potas­si­um… not the typ­i­cal nutri­tion pro­file of your aver­age piece of cake!

Sugar

Look­ing to reduce your refined sug­ar? Check out this brand-new Hatch Health and Hap­pi­ness exclu­sive video for some quick and easy ideas, many of which you can already find in your refrigerator!

sug­ar­FI­NAL