Can someone help make the following recipe healthier?

Crisco now make a trans fat free shortening that is very good.

You could use honey in place of the syrup.

Or try this one

1/4 cup butter

1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce

1/2 cup honey

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon lemon extract

1 cup sifted whole wheat flour

1 cup sifted all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups grated carrots

cooking spray

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Cream together butter, applesauce and honey. Add eggs, and beat well. Blend in vanilla and lemon extracts.

In a separate bowl, sift together the flours, baking powder and salt. Gradually add the dry ingredients to creamed mixture, and mix well.

Stir in carrots.

Prepare baking sheets with a quick shot of cooking spray. Drop by teaspoon on baking sheets. Bake 15-18 minutes and cool on racks.

You can substitute vegetable oil for the shortening and roughly the same amount and come out with the same or similar results to the old recipe.

The corn syrup presents a tougher problem, as not only does it contribute sweetness to the recipe, it also contributes MOISTURE.

My initial advice would be to either bite the bullet and do the recipe with corn syrup or try to find a similar recipe in a modern cookbook. Corn syrup and sugar are to some degree interchangeable, but the taste will probably be different. (If anyone doubts this, try Kosher Coca-Cola versus traditional, run-of-the-mill Coca-Cola. Kosher Coke doesn't use corn syrup and the taste is noticeably different). Corn syrup is also a liquid while sugar is solid. Using sugar as a substitute here would deprive the recipe of much-needed moisture.

Simply syrup would be the best alternative to corn syrup. Many cookbooks have a recipe for it or you can find one online. With simple syrup (sugar dissolved in water and slightly thickened), you would be maintaining both the approximate sweetness as well as the original moisture content of the recipe. You could also try honey if you have it. If you go for honey, pick one with a mild taste. Molasses is also a choice, although not eveyone has access to it.

If all else fails, try 1-1 1/2 cups of sugar and add at least 1/2 cup water to your batter until it has the consistency of the original. You can always add a little more water slowly to get the batter to where it should be. Hopefully either you or someone else has made this recipe before and know how the batter should turn out. If you haven't attempted this recipe, try and aim for traditional cookie batter that isn't too difficult to work with.

Substitute butter for shortening & Agave syrup or fructose for corn syrup.

Unfortunately there are no real "healthy" substitutes for fat & sugar, but the butter isn't a trans-fat (which shortening is, unless you use a palm-kernal shortening or coconut oil, but they add a different taste & mouth-feel) & agave syrup & fructose metabolises a bit slower in the body so you don't have quite the same blood-sugar spike you get with corn syrup, though both do have subtle taste profile which are not the same as with corn syrup.

Honey adds a vastly different taste profile.

Doing away with the fat entirely or using a liquid at room temperature fat can cause drastic changes to the final product.

Remeber that cooking is chemistry & changing the ingredients can lead to very different outcomes in taste, texture, "mouth feel" etc., so do experiment with your substitutions a bit before you choose the ones you want to go with. Some substitutions will lead to a vastly superior recipe!

some to a final result that is unedible.

Good luck!

you can substitute canola oil for the shortening. Try substituting 1/2 cup pureed carrots like baby food and 1/2 a cup of sugar or honey for the corn syrup. Pretty much sugar is sugar is sugar.

use a cup and a half in place of both the shortening and cornsyrup combined amounts

much healthier adds sweetness and moisture in place of shortening

There is nothing wrong with the recipe its sounds delicious,

just eat a smaller portion,

shortening is nothing but fat find a substitute for the shortening

http://www.christmascooking.com/