Sugar Free treats
72How to bake like Martha even when you're off the "cane"
I must get one thing straight up front: I LOVE SUGAR. I have many sweet (though not yet rotting) teeth; I love anything doughy, flakey, and chip laden; I especially love the blondies from the Great Harvest Bakery in Seattle, WA which would make most humans go into a coma after one bite.
Thus, it was a sad day indeed when I was labeled as a "sugar intolerant". Fearing i would have to give up scones forever, I began to seek out healthy alternatives to cane sugar which I could bake with. The list below contains those products which have passed my taste tests. I've also included helpful hints, links, and other niblets.
Recipients of "I can't believe it's not sugar" awards
- Whole foods market
I turn into gollum when i enter whole foods. The "my precious" hit list includes fruit sweetened peanut butter chocolate chip cookies, and Soy delicious fruit sweetened espresso ice cream. $$$$ - Rainbow Cooperative Grocery
The only place (thus far) that I have found Fruit Sweet. They also have a great selection of fruit sweetened baked goods. Lemon Poppyseed cookie? Yes please! - Sweet and Natural Baking
The best sugar free cook book I have found thus far.
What counts as sugar?
The following ingredients, often found in products, ALL count as cane sugar:
sugar, crystallized cane juice, dehydrated cane juice, sucrose, molasses, turbinado sugar
Sugar substitutes
Using fakey sugars like sweet'n low, splenda, stevia etc...is just crazy talk. The following all work great, and can be traced back to real live plants!
- Concentrated fruit juice - This is basically fructose, or fruit sugar. I find that it is neutral enough and sweet enough to substitute into most recipes on a 1-to-1 basis. However, be careful to watch consistency. You may need to adjust your dry ingredients if you don't want things getting too soupy. Making a batch of fruit concentrate is fairly easy. You just cook down concentrated white grape juice (freezer section of most grocers) until it's syrupy. Keep the heat pretty low so you don't burn it. You can also buy this stuff canned. My favorite is: Fruit Sweet, found at many natural grocery stores in the baking section.
- Maple sugar - no surprises here. This is just dehydrated/crystallized maple syrup. It's extremely tasty in fruit pies, but not as sweet as cane sugar. I recommend either adding 25% more maple sugar than the amount of cane sugar called for in a recipe.
- Honey - an old standby. Honey is great as a sweetener, and now there are so many varieties that you can really give some interesting depth to your recipes. Because it has a strong flavor, it will likely turn your favorite cookie or cake into a "honey cookie" or "honey cake". Beware, use with care!
- Agave nectar - This is a mild, but sweet syrup that comes from the agave plant. I have not experimented as much with it, but if you're in San Francisco get the BEST sugar free margarita in town at Tres Agaves.
I will second this....Ames' sugar free pies and cookies are so good that I wish she'd consider opening a bakery here in the Bay Area!
Amy is extremely committed to baking sugar-free treats that taste deliciouso! She has explored every avenue!
where are the recipes? where are the pies?
I finally got to taste the legendary fruit pie...it was cherry and also some other fruit. Quite tasty! thanks amy
Wondering what your thoughts are on erythritol--natural, negligible glycemic impact, almost-sugarlike taste?
erythritol, maltinol and other sugar derivatives are infact made from sugar and have a glycemic impact. Although they claim to have only half the impact of refined sugars they can have the same effects as cane sugar as well as a laxative effect. I ate some maltinol the other day in some supposedly Sugar Free chocolate and it gave me numb lips, trouble breathing and also made me hyperactive then fall asleep.
Not fair, though I like vegetables better anyway :)
It would be helpful to have a more informed standard of ingredients on labeling in Australia. I might have to write a few letters to some political types and a few journalists ( to motivate those political types). :)
Some of those sugar subs are not so great in terms of the GI, but are still better than straight sugar. I like to use Xylo-Sweet- it's made from xylitol and only has a glycemic index of 7!
Sugar intolerance is becoming more and more common. The low glycemic index ' way of eating' is the only solution. It is interesting to note that white flour is as bad as the sugar. You need to think about the whole perspective.
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jreitz says:
2 years ago
I've eaten Amy's (sugar-free) treats and they are quite good. In general you'd never know they were cane challenged. Amy's best treats are her tasty fruit pies. Yum!