Recipe Makeover: Peach-Mango Cake Squares with Stevia

One of the things I mentioned in yesterday's post to help you find your inner joy is cooking.

For me, it is baking specifically.

There is just something about it that I find very relaxing and therapeutic.  Especially when I am trying to give some of my favourite desserts a healthy twist.

I decided it was time for me to try my hand at baking with stevia, although I have to admit that I have never been stevia's biggest fan.

I had always found it to be quite bitter and I didn't really like it's licorice taste.  However, lately I have found that in very small quantities (like in a smoothie) it is almost undetectable and adds that bit of sweetness I am looking for.

So with stevia in hand, I tackled this Mango Cake recipe from Food.com.  Here are some of the changes I made:

• Omitted the sugar and replaced with stevia
• Ditched the eggs and used flax eggs instead
• Replaced half of the all-purpose flour with whole wheat and added some bran
• Lost the butter and added yogurt to increase the volume lost by losing the sugar
• Nixed the nuts

The verdict?

Not bad.  Not blow your mind fantastic, but not bad.

The stevia flavour was a little strong so I may reduce by a tablespoon next time.  They were also lacking somehow.  I am not sure what the missing ingredient is, so I may just tinker with the recipe again and see what I come up with.

Try them for yourself and let me know what you think!

Peach-Mango Cake Squares (Makes 20 Squares)

1 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup oat bran
2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup mango-peach puree*
1 cup vanilla yogurt
1/2 cup cream cheese
3 tbsp stevia
2 flax eggs
1 tsp vanilla

*I used a frozen blend, thawed out 2 cups and pureed in the blender

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and lightly grease a 9x13 pan.

Prepare your flax eggs and set aside.

Combine flours, oat bran, soda and salt.  In a separate bowl, mix puree, yogurt, cream cheese and stevia.  Blend until smooth and add flax eggs and vanilla.

Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet, blending with a hand held mixer for about 2 minutes until light and creamy.

Pour batter into greased pan and bake for 25-30 minutes.  Allow to cool and cut into squares.

As you can see, the made over version is much lower in fat and higher in protein and fibre!

Have you ever baked with stevia?  Please share your recipes and tips :)

Stay Healthy,
Tracy