Christmas desserts are where lightening hurts most and saves most, because they're built from butter, sugar and cream. These are the ones from eight countries' Christmas tables that survive it, with the calories before and after and an honest line on what each change costs.
The rule I follow is simple: one proper slice of something good beats three slices of something sad. None of these are diet puddings. They're the real thing with the fat turned down.
| Dish | Traditional, kcal | Lightened, kcal | Saving | Protein |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| StollenGerman | 443 | 286 | 35% | 8g |
| BaklavaGreek | 373 | 209 | 44% | 5g |
| Sticky Toffee PuddingBritish | 669 | 444 | 34% | 8g |
| Bread and Butter PuddingBritish | 454 | 268 | 41% | 11g |
| Sernik CheesecakePolish | 370 | 238 | 36% | 23g |
| ChurrosSpanish | 394 | 204 | 48% | 12g |
| LoukoumadesGreek | 428 | 186 | 57% | 7g |
| RugelachJewish | 377 | 219 | 42% | 8g |
| Makowiec Poppy Seed RollPolish | 480 | 374 | 22% | 11g |
Stollen, Germany
Stollen is the Christmas bread of Dresden: a yeasted loaf full of fruit and peel, often with a seam of marzipan, under a snowfall of icing sugar. The original takes about 250g of butter. Mine takes 60g, and quark does the rest. Stollen goes from 443 to 286 kcal a slice.
The cost is the first thing you notice: the crumb is less rich and it keeps for days rather than weeks. Make it a week before, not a month.
Baklava, Greece and Cyprus
Baklava is mostly butter brushed between sheets of filo, then soaked in syrup. Cutting the butter from 250g to 40g and using egg white to stick the layers is the biggest change on the tray, and it still scores well on the receipt. Baklava drops from 373 to 209 kcal. The pastry bites drier and the nut layer is thinner, so cut it small.
Sticky toffee pudding and bread and butter pudding, Britain
Plenty of British houses skip the Christmas pudding for something sticky. Sticky Toffee Pudding keeps its dates and its sauce with half the butter in the sponge, and Bread and Butter Pudding swaps double cream and whole milk for semi-skimmed, with marmalade where the butter was. They come in at 444 and 268 kcal.
Sernik, Poland
Sernik Cheesecake is baked Polish cheesecake, made with twarog. Fat-free quark takes its place, the butter almost disappears, and it ends up the most protein-rich pudding here at 23g a serving. It's a little grainier. Chill it overnight and nobody minds.
Churros and loukoumades, baked not fried
Spain eats churros with thick chocolate in the early hours of New Year's Day; Greek loukoumades are honey-soaked dough balls. Both are fried, so both lighten easily: bake them. Churros land at 204 kcal against 394 fried, and Loukoumades at 186. The shells go from shattering to plain crunchy. That's the trade.
The ones that barely move
Not everything lightens well. Makowiec Poppy Seed Roll, the Polish poppy seed roll, only drops from 480 to 374 kcal, because the poppy seeds are the calories and the point. I left it in because it's Christmas in Poland and the table says so honestly.
Which to make
For a crowd, stollen: make it ahead and slice it thin. For a dinner party, the cheesecake: it carries the protein and nobody thinks of it as a lighter pudding. For the kids, churros straight from the oven.
Every one of these is printed in full in Authentic-ish Christmas, traditional version first, then the lighter one and what each change costs. The rest of the dinner is in Christmas dinner ideas from 17 cuisines.