Flour packs a lot of calories, so for desserts like brownies, cookies, and bars, I began experimenting with ingredients outside the traditional sphere of flour. I found that beans and legumes make excellent structural replacements for flour. In fact, Japanese cooks use red beans all the time in their desserts. I have literally taken the calories out of baked goods by substituting beans—white cannellini beans, black beans, or red beans. I even used beets to replace flour in my Red Velvet Chocolate Squares (Now Eat This! Diet, page 263).
Try flour replacement for yourself. Keep in mind that 1 cup of beans equals 1 cup of flour.
CALORIES SAVED: 220
per recipe.
I always use whole wheat pastry flour over white flour when I need the structure flour gives.
CALORIES SAVED: 56
per cup.
That may not sound like much, but when it comes to counting calories, well, every calorie counts!
