Before you take out the stretchy pants, resigned to adding another five pounds this holiday season, consider that there may be ways to partake of delicious desserts without expanding your waistline or imperiling your arteries.

Just in time for the holiday celebrations comes "A Sweet Dash of Aloha: Guilt-Free Hawai‘i Desserts and Snacks" assembled by Kapiolani Community College’s culinary arts department. KCC’s latest healthy-eating cookbook, a follow-up to 2007’s popular "A DASH of Aloha," offers more than 90 recipes to satisfy that sweet tooth or snack craving.

"‘Healthy dessert’ seems like an oxymoron, but a dessert can be both healthy and delicious," said Dr. Stephen Bradley, a trained chef and medical director of the Waianae Coast Comprehensive Health Center where he helps run a weight management program. Bradley contributed a recipe for a coconut and lemon panna cotta. "You can have your cake and eat it, too, but it just must be done in a certain way."

Chef Sharon Kobayashi, one of the book’s three main recipe contributors, is well versed in that "certain way." Kobayashi makes her living creating the kinds of food that guide "Sweet Dash": "Whether I’m making baked goods or savory food, I like to make things healthier. But I’m not nutsy about it. It has to taste good. If it’s healthy and it doesn’t taste good, what’s the point?"

Kobayashi, owner of Akamai Foods, focuses on whole-food ingredients to keep her products as high in fiber and nutrients as possible. Her rum cake, for instance, is made with organic sprouted flour, and a grilled musubi boasts brown rice.

And those ingredients must serve double duty. Kobayashi’s popular, low-fat, low-sugar oatcakes, for instance, have lots of fruit and flax seed. (They’re sold at Times Supermarket and Down to Earth Organic & Natural Foods stores as well as farmers markets around Oahu.)

"Things like flax and fruit are nutritious, and they also add texture and taste," she said.

Another example: "The beets in my chocolate beet cake layer nutrients and provide moisture and color. They also enhance the chocolate flavors."

What Kobayashi won’t use are artificial ingredients or preservatives.

"There are no sugar substitutes in my food. I just use less," she said.

"This cookbook provides reasonable treats. Rather than a banana bread loaded with oil, it offers desserts lower in fat and sugar. It’s all about moderation."

Bradley agreed.

"What we eat in our day-to-day diets today used to be holiday food that was reserved for a couple of times a year. Nowadays, we eat it often because it’s available," he said. "This new book is saying, ‘Don’t deny yourself, but eat better and don’t overeat.’"

"Sweet Dash," funded by grants from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the state Department of Agriculture, also includes recipes from vegetarian chef Alyssa Moreau and KCC chef instructor and gluten-free specialist Carol Nardello, with a few contributions from food writer Wanda Adams.

Chapters cover gluten-free and eggless desserts, baking with little or no refined sugar, healthful bread and cakes, cooking with local fruit, family-friendly recipes and select gourmet recipes. Each recipe comes with an accompanying nutritional-facts box.

Also included are essays discussing the hows and whys of eating healthfully, good and bad fats, and egg and sugar alternatives. Charts at the back of the book detail the seasonality of Hawaii-grown fruits and vegetables as well as nutritional facts for each, and a user-friendly index lists recipes by both category and ingredients.

Daniel Leung, an educational specialist at KCC who organized the cookbook, said "Sweet Dash" was prompted by public demand and the success of its predecessor.

"The first ‘Dash’ was on the local best-seller list, and this book’s conceptualization started from that first one," he said. "People asked about desserts at cooking demonstrations, and we had a few but it was not enough for people."

The book takes a positive approach toward navigating desserts.

"The whole theme is that there’s no bad food in nature. It’s how much we eat and how we eat it. We all need sugar, for example. Our bodies naturally crave sugar when we’re tired. So we’re directing people to the best sugars, from fruits and vegetables, rather than the refined sugars," he said.

"It’s about promoting a healthy and positive attitude toward eating. It’s about thinking outside of the box."

Leung said the cookbook also focuses on the bounty of local fruits and vegetables and shares how to gauge what’s fresh by discussing time and distance.

"It’s a simple concept. On this island, food takes 40 minutes to travel from any local farm to a market. But by boat, imported food takes a long time to get here" from a great distance away, he said.

Plus, freshness affects not just nutrition, but taste.

"There’s a misconception that healthy food is boring and tasteless. No! The best quality fruits and vegetables … give the best flavor," Leung said. "If that message can get through, people will realize that healthy is exciting, healthy is tasty, healthy is fresh and healthy is fun."

Read on

Cookbooks abound during the gift-giving season. Here are a few other options in the way of local releases:

>> “Favorite Recipes of Hawaii Filipinas and Friends” by the Filipino Women’s League (Morris Press, $15 plus $5 shipping): For this fourth cookbook by the league, the women gathered some 200 recipes that include traditional Filipino fare and a special section with recipes from the women’s annual cookie exchange. It also features contributions from prominent members of the Filipino community. Proceeds from this project will benefit a scholarship program for Filipino youth attending college in Hawaii. To purchase a book, send $20 and a return address to: Filipino Women’s League, P.O. Box 419, Pearl City 96782.  

>> “Tofu Cookbook” by Aloha Tofu (Mutual, $16.95): On its 60th birthday, Aloha Tofu releases this collection of 60 recipes that illustrate the versatility of the soybean curd. Recipes range from corn soup and natto spaghetti to a variety of tofu burgers, tofu dango and custard pudding. A few notables: Everything in here is translated into Japanese, including a message from chef Sam Choy and directions on such useful skills as how to drain water from tofu. The book has two indexes, one for ingredients and the other for dishes. Call Mutual Publishing at 732-1709.

>> “Hawaii’s ‘Ohana Cookbook” edited by Joleen Oshiro and Betty Shimabukuro (Mutual, $17.95): Recipes in this Star-Advertiser collection were submitted by the members of Hawaii’s diverse community. Foo Chuck with Squid shares space with I‘a Lawalu (fish steamed in ti leaves), Panipopo (Samoan coconut rolls) and Okinawan Sweet Potato Ohagi, plus numerous versions of Portuguese bean soup. One of the book’s biggest charms, however, is the stories that accompany each recipe, telling of family, culture and tradition. Call Mutual Publishing at 732-1709.