How can you satisfy your sweet tooth without sabotaging that New Year's resolution to eat better? Cakes and cookies are a sweet temptation most of us can't resist. But desserts don't have to be bad for you; they can even improve your diet when you bake pies and cakes that call for fruits, whole grains, and even some vegetables (chocolate zucchini cake, anyone?)

The trick is to remember that baking, unlike cooking, is more of a science than an art. You can get away with all kinds of strange substitutions when you cook, but baking is far less forgiving. Too much whole wheat flour can make a cookie taste like a dog biscuit.

I tried to make a pumpkin cranberry scone recipe a bit healthier recently by replacing some of the nearly 3 sticks of butter the recipe called for with ground flax seed and a little soy flour, which contain healthy fats. The end result was tasty, but, alas, not sufficiently buttery or crumbly to qualify as a scone.

“More like a muffin,” was Matt’s verdict. Our friend Karen, who was having tea with us, exclaimed, “It's a scuffin!” Great name, but I'm not going to patent it.

I'm happy to experiment, even though the end result is sometimes disappointing or downright inedible. But why subject yourself to time consuming trial and error when others have done the research already and documented their results? There are some great guides to healthy baking whose authors have tweaked old favorites and figured out how to make delicious desserts that you can feel good about eating, and serving to friends.

Two of the best healthy baking books in my collection are Light and Easy Baking [1] by Beatrice Ojakanga, and the American Heart Association's Low Fat and Luscious Desserts. [2] I still refer regularly to the first healthy baking book I ever bought, Baking Without Fat [3] by George Mateljan.

But there's no need to even buy a book when you've got the internet. Would you like to whip up a batch of old fashioned oatmeal cookies, but lighten them up a bit? There are hundreds of recipes out there for healthier oatmeal cookies. And don't forget to add some dark chocolate chips; they contain more flavanoids than even green tea, black tea, red wine and blueberries. How sweet is that?

Image Credit: Virginia Department of Agriculture