Healthy Desserts For The Holidays

Dec 16, 2020, 17:56 PM by Tara Cuffe

Delicious and healthy desserts to enjoy over the holidays

Mince pies with snowflake pastry

Why miss out on all the fun this Christmas?

Thanks to our healthy, delicious dessert recipes you can both stay on track towards your goal of being healthier and enjoy some tasty treats over the holidays!

Read on to discover how the BodySlims team make holiday dessert recipes healthier and discover our top two scrumptious healthy desserts to make during the festive season!

Why choose healthy desserts over the holidays?

We know it’s really tempting to give up on your healthy diet over Christmas. ‘Just for the holidays’ you might think, but why set back the fantastic progress you’ve made so far when you can enjoy healthy bakes and treats and maintain your healthy eating regime at the same time?

Moreover, if you suffer from a food intolerance, it’s of the utmost importance that you maintain an appropriate diet over the holidays in order to avoid some of the nasty symptoms that come along with it.

Enjoying food is a key part of human life, and something that shouldn’t be denied to anyone, especially over Christmas. Delicious doesn’t necessarily mean unhealthy, and thankfully there are plenty of delectable delights out there that you can whip up at home over the festive season.

Easy ways to create healthy desserts

It’s not as hard as you might think!

Swap out ingredients

Substituting traditional baking ingredients for lower-calorie, healthier alternatives can make a huge difference to your healthy holiday desserts!

Instead of...	Use...
Wheat flour	Spelt flour, oat flour or ground almonds
Cream	Greek yoghurt
Butter	Margarine or low calorie spread
Sugar	Stevia or maple syrup
Toffee	Dates
Chocolate	Cacao nibs
Full-fat milk	Low-fat or skimmed milk
Ice cream	Frozen banana

Portion control

This one is simple. Simply eat your favourite holiday desserts in moderation: one serving or half a serving maximum! It’s very tempting to go overboard during the festive season, but it can easily set your progress back. Enjoying sweet treats in moderation means you don’t have to miss out on anything.

Add plenty of fruit

Fruit adds both sweetness and bulk to desserts, it’s healthier than the likes of chocolate and cream and it’s pretty delicious to boot! Look out for healthy holiday dessert recipes, like our mince pies below, that use plenty of fruit in the recipe.

Opt for good quality ingredients

Choosing high-quality ingredients will not only leave you with a tastier dessert, it’ll be more filling and satisfying, so you’ll be less likely to want more.

If using flour, for example, choosing a wholemeal flour will keep you fuller for longer after you’ve munched that mince pie. Opt for organic milk, high-quality oat milk and dried fruit that’s kept in water, rather than syrup. Even better, go for organic dried fruit that’s in a bag rather than a tin!

Our favourite healthy dessert recipe

One of the BodySlims team’s top healthy dessert tips (for all year round, not just the holidays!) is to combine chocolate with avocado. Chocolate avocado brownies are absolutely a winner, but by far our favourite recipe, and the one that impresses the most at the dinner table, is a chocolate mousse made with avocado. It’s gluten and dairy free, too.

This fruit-packed, chocolatey wonder satisfies every cocoa craving, but it’s far healthier than you would ever think!

Chocolate, peanut and avocado mousse

Chocolate avocado mousse

Time: 5-10 minutes

Calories: Approx. 208 calories per serving (serves 4)

Ingredients

Flesh of 2 large ripe avocados (320 cal.)
2 ripe bananas (180 cal.)
2-3 tablespoons of peanut butter (200 cal.)
50g cocoa powder (115 cal.)
30-40ml oat milk (18 cal.)
Fruit to garnish

Preparation:

This one is just too easy: simply add the ingredients to a food processor and blend until smooth! If the mousse is too thick, add a little extra oat milk. If it’s too runny, some extra cocoa powder should help. You can also swap out peanut butter for any other kind of nut butter!

We like to garnish this delicious dessert with slices of banana, fresh strawberries, or raspberries.

Healthy dairy free desserts to enjoy over the holidays

Avoiding dairy or lactose doesn’t have to be a drag over the Christmas holidays; many of your favourite holiday dessert recipes can easily be made minus the lactose by swapping out a few ingredients for non-dairy alternatives.

What can I use instead of dairy?

Instead of...	Use...
Milk	Oat milk
Cream	Oat cream or coconut cream
Butter	Margarine
Cream cheese	Oat-based or lactose-free cream cheese

Gluten-free dessert ideas

As we’ve mentioned, swapping out any ingredients in your holiday dessert recipe that contain gluten and replacing them with gluten-free alternatives means you can make just about any of your absolute favourite recipes, minus the suffering after you eat them!

Swapping wheat flour for gluten-free flour, oat flour or any other flour alternative shouldn’t have too huge an effect on your recipe, but if it calls for self-raising flour make sure you don’t forget your baking powder!

Check out our gluten and dairy free mince pie recipe below – it’s too tasty to miss!

Dairy and gluten free mince pies

Dairy free mince pies

A Christmas staple, what would a cosy evening on the couch be without a mince pie? Although they’re still a little high in calories, their small size means it’s easy to have just one, and with a few recipe substitutions mince pies can become healthier and suitable for dairy-free diets. This is one of our absolute favourite healthy hot desserts for Christmas time.

Time: 1 hour 45 minutes

Calories: Approx. 280 calories per mince pie (serves 12)

Ingredients

For the mince meat:

2 apples (100 cal.)
160g raisins (300 cal.)
160g sultanas (300 cal.)
20g blanched almonds (115 cal.)
40g plain hazelnuts (250 cal.)
Juice and zest of half an orange (20 cal.)
Juice and zest of one lemon (40 cal.)
1 tsp. Clove powder (7 cal.)
1 tsp. Nutmeg powder (12 cal.)
1 tsp. Cinnamon powder (6 cal.)
2 tsp. Vanilla extract (24 cal.)
Approx. 200ml water

For the pastry:

200g ground almonds (600 cal.)
200g spelt flour (720 cal.)
110g margarine (800 cal.)
125ml oat milk (75 cal.)
4 tbsps. Honey (21 cal.)

Preparation:

Simmer all ingredients for the mince meat along with 100ml of water for around 45 minutes until gooey. Add more water if needed. Preheat your oven to 180 °C (or 160 °C if using the fan). Mix the flour and ground almonds in a bowl. Chop the butter into chunks and mix through until combined; it should be a crumbly texture. Add the milk and honey and mix thoroughly.

Sprinkle a little extra flour on the dough and on your work surface. Roll the pastry out thinly and use a circular cutter to cut out 12 bases. Use a star shaped cutter to cut out 12 tops. Pop these into a muffin tray (line it with baking paper first!) and fill three quarters full with mince meat. Cover with the tops and bake for 20 minutes until golden brown on top.

Finally, support always helps!

If you think you might struggle to keep a healthy diet over the holidays, or you’re looking to become healthier overall, why not check out one of our programmes?

A little support can go a long way in motivating you to stick with your healthier lifestyle! Take a look at some of our success stories and sign up now for advice and recipes galore...and most importantly, Merry Christmas!

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