Unless you are completely dedicated to your health, you probably associate dessert with sweet, fatty, unhealthy desserts. That does not have to be the case! There are plenty of low fat snacks and fat free recipes that make for delicious and guilt free healthy dessert ideas.
The most obvious choice for healthy, simple desserts is fruit. Fruit is already sweetened with natural fructose, which when consumed in fruits, is thought to help control blood sugar levels. Healthy dessert ideas using fruits are berries with yogurt, non fat fruit frozen yogurt or sorbet, baked apples with cinnamon and nutmeg, and bananas fried in honey. All of these healthy dessert are easy to make, and only use two or three ingredients.
Another simple healthy dessert idea is making cakes and cookies with low fat and low sugar ingredients. When you are baking, there are many substitutes you can make to make healthy dessert ideas. Applesauce and avocados, as odd as it sounds, can often be substituted for butter and oil. Avocados also make a surprisingly delicious, although green, frosting. You can also use whole wheat flour instead of white flour, as long as you are not making pastries. If you want to bake pastries, use whole wheat pastry flours, as regular flour is too heavy for delicate pastries. Sugar can also be substituted with honey. Honey has more calories than table sugar, but you use less of it in baking. Honey may also have extra nutrients and antioxidants that make it a healthier option than sugar.
Eggs are fairly high in cholesterol, but are often used in baking. Some healthy dessert ideas to cut the cholesterol are substituting your eggs with high pectin content fruits like bananas. Pectin is used as a thickening agent in jams, and will mimic the binding proteins of an egg fairly well. Other healthy dessert ideas to substitute eggs are, pumpkin puree, tofu, ground flaxseed mixed with water, and, again, applesauce.
Obviously, a healthy dessert idea might involve skipping dessert altogether, but who wants to do that? It is much more fun, and much more delicious to come up with healthy dessert ideas that use fruits, nuts, and whole grains to get rid of the unhealthy parts of desserts. Using the healthy dessert ideas I have listed here will help you reach you health goals without sacrificing taste.