Baking Healthy: Mother makes baked goods with alternate sweeteners, flours

Big changes in life often have a ripple effect, creating many small changes -- sometimes in unexpected ways.

She has developed recipes for cookies, muffins and other goodies that get rid of refined sugar and refined flour, and significantly increase the amount of whole grains and nutrients.

Steele first started baking this way for her children. This summer, she started selling her goodies at the Downtown Farmers Market.

Two experiences led Steele to rethink baked goods. The first was the 10 years that she spent in the Dominican Republic. Steele and her husband, Scott, worked with Young Life, a missionary organization that focuses on adolescents.

The couple's two children, Ellie, 9, and Perk, 8, were born there. And it was in the Dominican Republic that Jennifer Steele gained a deep appreciation for whole, fresh foods.

"The banana right off the tree tastes so good," she said. "Bananas here, they're just not the same."

Also, because processed foods were imported and expensive, she found herself cooking from scratch.

The second significant experience was her son's diagnosis of mild to moderate autism. That prompted the Steeles to return to Winston-Salem in 2003 to get Perk the therapy he needed.

As Steele learned about autism, she found that many parents put their autistic kids on a diet free of casein, a protein in milk, and free of gluten, a protein in wheat, oats, barley and rye. It is said to help some children deal with the disease, so she put Perk on the diet.

After four months, though, the Steeles decided that the diet didn't help Perk.

"But it opened our eyes to all the stuff that's in even a loaf of bread, something that you think is just yeast, flour, water, salt and little sugar," Steele said. "Now we're just much more aware."

The Steeles no longer eat a diet that's gluten- or casein-free. But the experience did push them to re-examine what they eat -- and to try to eat as many whole, unprocessed and nutritious foods as possible.

"I decided I didn't really want food made with things whose names I couldn't pronounce," Steele said.

She admits that part of her decision was based on the sentiment that processed food with lots of chemical additives didn't seem right. But her recipes also have many added nutrients, particularly fiber, compared to conventional recipes.

Steele replaces all the refined white flour in recipes with a combination of whole-wheat and spelt flour. Whole-wheat flour has considerably more fiber than refined wheat flour. Spelt is also a whole grain, and it has a high-protein content.

Her recipes often use oats and oat bran, which are good sources of iron, potassium, fiber, phosphorus and thiamin.

She also often replaces some butter or oil with flaxseed, which is high in healthy omega-3 fatty acid, fiber and lignans, which are plant hormones that are linked to the reduced risk of some cancers. And instead of plain oil, butter or margarine, she uses Smart Balance brand oil and a 50/50 buttery spread that has added omega-3 fatty acids.

Steele also replaces refined white sugar with either raw cane sugar, brown sugar or brown-rice syrup. The latter contains not only fiber, but also such essential nutrients as magnesium.

Steele wants to give her kids as much nutrition as she can, but she's not against the occasional pizza and ice cream. "If you eat well most of the time, I think it frees you up so you're body is better equipped to handle the bad stuff," she said.

"I don't want to be a fanatic. The point is to give your body the best nutrition you can.

"I think we have no idea of the long-term consequences of these pesticides or preservatives. Why is autism on the rise? If you look at Amish communities (where they eat little or no processed food), they don't have that rise. What is it? I feel like there is a genetic component, but I feel like there are also environmental factors. I think what we put in our bodies is more important to our health than we know."

Breakfast Cookie

Recipe from Jennifer Steele. If desired, these can be frozen before baking. To do so, scoop them into balls as directed. Then place balls on a baking sheet lined with wax paper and freeze until hard. Once frozen, roll up the wax paper so the cookie dough balls don't touch each other and keep in a resealable freezer bag. They can go straight into the oven frozen, but may take a minute or two longer to cook.

¾ cup ground flaxseed

¾ cup 50/50 buttery spread (such as Smart Balance) or butter

¾ cup brown sugar

½ cup raw evaporated cane sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 eggs

1¼ cups spelt flour

¾ cup whole-wheat flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

¼ cup oat bran

3 individual (single-serving) packages instant maple oatmeal

1 12-ounce bag chocolate chips

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees.

2. In an electric mixer, cream flaxseed, butter, brown sugar and raw evaporated cane sugar. Add vanilla and eggs; beat well.

3. In a separate bowl, stir together the flours, baking soda, salt, oat bran and instant oatmeal. Slowly mix dry ingredients into creamed mixture. Stir in chips. Chill until firm.

4. Scoop tablespoon-size balls. Place on ungreased cookie sheet, allowing room for cookies to spread. Bake 7 to 10 minutes or until edges are golden brown. Cool on wire rack.

Makes 5 to 6 dozen cookies.

Gingerbread Spice Muffins

Recipe from Jennifer Steele, adapted from Deceptively Delicious (Collins Living, 2007) by Jessica Seinfeld.

1 cup whole-wheat flour

1 cup spelt flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1 teaspoon cinnamon

¼ teaspoon ground cloves

¼ teaspoon allspice

¼ teaspoon salt

¾ cup firmly packed light or dark brown sugar

¼ cup canola or vegetable oil (or Smart Balance blended oil)

1 large egg

1 cup broccoli puree (See Note)

½ cup carrot puree (See Note)

½ cup nonfat plain (or vanilla) yogurt

¼ cup molasses

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1 tablespoon grated orange zest

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease mini-muffin tins or line with paper liners.

2. In a bowl or resealable bag, mix the flours, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, allspice and salt.

3. In another bowl, beat sugars, oil and egg with electric beater until smooth. Then add veggie purees, yogurt, molasses, vanilla and orange zest, slowly mixing as you go. Slowly add in flour mixture until smooth.

4. Pour into prepared tins. Bake until it rises in middle, top springs back to touch or toothpick inserted comes out clean, 12 to 15 minutes. Keep an eye on your first batch and then you'll have a better idea. Watch carefully to avoid overbaking. Cool on wire rack.

Makes 5 to 6 dozen.

Note: To make the vegetable purees, first steam the veggies until they are very soft. Then puree in a blender or food processor, adding a bit of the steaming water if needed to make the puree smooth.

For more of Steele's recipes, see www.journalnow.com/dishingitout.