What if eating desserts with family & friends is not so bad for us?
Healthy desserts for the holiday season
Hi, I’m Aastha, and welcome to Live Longer World, where I write about health & longevity practices and interview scientists researching the frontiers of longevity science.
With the holiday season upon us, most of us will be indulging in some sweets with our families. Eating desserts as part of the holiday celebration is very different from eating treats mindlessly.
I have a hypothesis that If you generally eat clean, occasional desserts enjoyed with family won't hurt your health - the joy helps blunt the negative effects!
There is no better time than the holiday season to enjoy desserts in merriment. However, I do believe that many desserts can be made significantly healthier (to the point where they could be called “healthy1 snacks”) while still being delicious. I’ve long believed that healthy food should be yum. It’s the best way for people to avoid eating processed food.
I find store-bought desserts too sweet, so I make my own using almond flour and natural sweetness from berries or a tinge of honey. No added raw sugar.
Below are 4 of my favorite recipes. The best part is that they take under 15 minutes of cooking time.
Given how much I love these healthy home-made desserts, I thought I’ll share mine in case others enjoy them too. Feel free to tweak them or use AI to find healthier versions of your own favorite desserts. Hope these serve as some inspiration!
Almond flour Blueberry Muffins
My mother-in-law makes these delicious blueberry muffins with no sugar. I devour many at a time!
Ingredients
2 cups almond flour
3 eggs
3 tablespoons maple syrup (optional if you want more sweetness, we don’t add it)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
pinch of sea salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
5 tablespoon melted ghee (can use coconut oil instead)
1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
In a bowl, combine almond flour, baking soda and sea salt.
In a separate bowl, combine eggs, vanilla and coconut oil.
Combine both mixtures together. Once well incorporated, add blueberries and mix.
Fill a muffin pan with liners. Fill each liner with batter.
Bake in oven for 15–20 minutes.
Almond flour 5 ingredient cookies
These cookies take 5 minutes to make and it’s hard to believe how they taste so indulgent!
Ingredients and Instructions:
2 cups Almond flour
Little bit of honey
Dark chocolate chips
1 tsp Baking powder
1/2 tsp Vanilla essence
Add some cream / butter if too dry
Mix well, make them into cookie shapes with your hands
Bake for 11 minutes at 350 degrees F
Olive Oil Nutty Berry Chocolate Cake
Nuts, berries, olive oil and cocoa..hard to go wrong with this one!
Dry Ingredients:
1 cup almond flour
1/4 cup ground flaxseed
1/4 cup ground hemp seeds
1/4 cup ground chia seeds
1/2 cup chopped nuts (such as walnuts or almonds)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cocoa powder (I forgot to add it in the cake in the picture!)
Wet Ingredients:
5 large eggs
1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 cup unsweetened almond milk or coconut milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Berries:
1 cup or more mixed berries (such as blueberries, raspberries, or strawberries), fresh or frozen
Instructions:
Preheat the Oven: Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C).
Mix Dry Ingredients in a bowl.
Prepare Wet Ingredients: In another bowl, whisk together eggs, olive oil, almond milk and vanilla extract.
Combine Wet and Dry Ingredients: Gradually add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, mixing until well combined.
Fold in Berries: Gently fold in the mixed berries into the batter.
Bake: Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan and spread it evenly. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until done.
Notes:
To give you an idea of proportions, for the big glass tray displayed in the picture above, I made was 4x the proportions in this recipe.
You can also drizzle some melted dark chocolate on top when eating!
Protein berry ice-cream
Homemade ice-cream sorbet with berries, vanilla protein powder, almond milk, macadamia nuts, and a touch of pomegranate juice! Topped with pecans.
I’m a sucker for ice-cream but the ones in stores are too sweet. So I bought a Ninja Creami ice-cream maker and decided to make my own yum healthy rendition of it.
It’s surprisingly delicious and now I get to relive my childhood days of eating tubs of ice-cream everyday.
Wishing everyone happy holidays! See you in the new year for some more health and happiness.
Note it’s sometimes hard to say what is “healthy” given the complexity of nutrition data. But avoiding processed food and sugar is likely healthy for most of us in the modern world.