Stock Your Holiday Pantry for $25

With our lightened recipes for home-baked sweets, you'll feel great about treating your guests (and yourself) to some guilt-free goodies. If you already have the basics―sugar, milk, eggs, butter, baking powder/soda, cream of tartar, vanilla extract, cake and all-purpose flours, spices, and so on―you're in good shape. For $25, add a few key ingredients that expand your options for delicious holiday treats. Remember, a well-prepared host is a happy one.

Shopping List:

Walnuts $4.49
Pecans $2.99
Oatmeal $2.65
Flaked sweetened coconut $2.19
Unsweetened baking chocolate $2.39
Semisweet chocolate baking chips $1.79
Unsweetened cocoa powder $2.79
Seedless raspberry jam $4.99

Total: $24.28
 

Key Ingredients: Raspberry jam

These elegant cookies―as delicious as they are stunning―are perfect for gifts, cookie swaps, and holiday spreads. Sure, they’re not nutritional knockouts (straining the jam removes all the seeds, which are a source of fiber), but they’re not serious offenders either. Smooth raspberry jam adds delicious flavor, with fewer calories than the buttery icing or chocolate glaze you might find on other cookies. Each windowpane contains about 80 calories.

Key Ingredients: Chocolate chips, oatmeal, pecans

A good recipe to make with kids, these drop cookies are easy and fun. The recipe calls for chocolate mini-chips, but the regular ones work fine. Nutrition bonus: The pecans provide a crunchy texture and good nutrition to boot. These tasty tree nuts contain more than 19 vitamins and minerals – including vitamin A, vitamin E, calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, several B vitamins, and zinc―plus good-for-you fats.

Key Ingredient: Raspberry jam

This is another fun recipe to make with kids, who will get a kick out of seeing egg whites rise into cloudlike meringue, then leaving their signature thumbprint in each puff before baking. To keep it kid-friendly, leave out the raspberry liqueur. (If the jam seems thick, stir in a few drops of lemon or lime juice.) At just 37 calories apiece, these treats won't ruin anyone's appetite for a healthful dinner.

Key Ingredients: Flaked sweetened coconut, semisweet chocolate chips

Who doesn't love a cupcake? They're less intimidating than a big white cake, and easier to carry to a celebration. In addition to letting each guest enjoy her own miniature angel food cake, there's a lovely surprise inside―chocolate chips! This recipe calls for mini chips, but use what you've got―different size, same chocolate goodness.

Key Ingredient: Flaked sweetened coconut

Great for coffee with unexpected guests, biscotti is a smart thing to have on hand during the holidays. Sure, you have to bake twice to achieve the crisp-yet-crumbly texture that's a hallmark of biscotti. But that's the good thing about this recipe―you can make it ahead whenever it suits you. It's one tough cookie (and we mean that in the best possible way), so it travels well―to gatherings or in even in the mail.

Key Ingredients: Unsweetened cocoa, unsweetened chocolate, semisweet chocolate chips

No mixer? No problem. You won't need one for this surprisingly easy, aptly named dessert. Antioxidant-rich chocolate makes three appearances here―as cocoa powder, unsweetened chocolate, and semisweet morsels. If you don't have ramekins, use muffin pans. The best part about this dessert: utter indulgence for a perfectly reasonable 315 calories. (Before we lightened it, this recipe contained 546.)

Key Ingredients: Chocolate chips, pecans

Crusty on the outside, gooey and sweet within, this snack cake is as easy to make as a bar cookie. Just spread the batter in a pan and bake until the top is golden, then cut into squares and serve. The combination of nuts and chocolate is always a winner, and this version works well with coffee, for dessert, or as part of an elaborate holiday brunch.

Key Ingredient: Cocoa

If you need a reason to feel better about indulging your chocolate craving, remember this: Short-term studies have suggested that consumption of cocoa may provide cardiovascular benefits due to compounds known as flavanols. Generally, the higher the concentration of cocoa, the more flavanols are in the product, so splurge on the best.

About the author: Cooking Light contributor Katherine Brooking is a registered dietitian with a master’s degree in nutrition education from Columbia University.