Healthier Pumpkin Cakelets

One thing I inherited from my grandmother is her insatiable sweet tooth. I can eat candy for days and would love some coffee with my sugar in the morning if I could have it my way. But I know I can’t eat like this except once in a blue moon, for all the incredibly negative health effect that come from eating empty carbs and added sugar, not to mention weight gain and loss of muscle definition.

But what’s a girl to do for dessert??

I’ve been working to take common dessert recipes and make adjustments to make them healthy-er. I think it’s okay to treat yourself to a small amount of added sugar and empty carbs but that’s how it should come: in a small amount. Everything in moderation.

So I’ll be doing several upcoming posts on sweets where I find many added sugar alternatives and empty carb replacements. There will still likely be some all purpose flour and some sugar in the recipes, my goal is just to make it substantially less.

To start off, with my favorite of all seasons in full swing, these amazingly cute Healthier Pumpkin Cakelets!

To decrease the sugar, I use bananas which replace the sweetness with more complex carbs. Replacing more than half of the all purpose flour is almond flour which adds a little protein and primarily healthy monounsaturated fat along with omega-3 fatty acids. To replace half of the refined fat content of canola oil, I add nonfat greek yogurt (also adds some protein!)

This recipe has FOUR sources of protein in its ingredients: eggs, almond flour, greek yogurt, and chopped pecans.

This is the amazingly adorable cakelet pan I used. (Amazon.com)

Nutrition: (per 1/10th recipe: 1 slice or 4 cakelets)

For the recipe: