One of my favorite things to do is to tweek old recipes. You know – the unhealthy cookies you loved as a kid, but surely aren’t cutting it now. They most certainly had wheat flour, a ton of sugar and a total disregard for anything remotely healthy.
I personally love cookies and thankfully they can be a nutritious snack; yes, besides fruit and veggies – we love those too. I’m all about making things healthier and accessible – Diabetes and Celiac disease shouldn’t equate to a life of deprivation. Think about sweets made with: coconut oil, honey, dark chocolate, eggs and coconut flour; can you can lose the guilt?
I bet you can, and you won’t believe how delicious healthier treats taste.
What follows are a few of my tricks for decreasing sugar in recipes – via grains and sweeteners. It’s important to remember that sugar provides more than sweetness – it also gives baked goods structure and texture and helps with the beautiful golden brown color we know and love.
You may not hit the jackpot on your first try with substitutions, but don’t give up. We’ve sacrificed batches of cookies and muffins to the trash can and still do on occasion. We not only bake gluten-free but we also live at high elevation – 7,000 ft., which adds a crazy twist of unpredictability when it comes to things rising in the oven.
Applesauce:
- Applesauce is incredibly easy to make at home; see She Sugar’s recipe. Otherwise, I buy organic unsweetened applesauce; I tend to purchase baby food because the jars are small and there’s less waste – it’s also really smooth.
- Substitute for sugar in a 1:1 ratio. You’ll also need to reduce the overall liquid in your recipe by 1/4 cup for every 1 cup applesauce you substitute.
- Don’t go crazy and get rid of all of the sugar; try reducing the amounts first. Applesauce will change the texture of what your baking. If you had a flat crispy cookie and you take all of the refined sugar out it won’t resemble the same cookie. Applesauce lends a lot of moisture to a recipe which is great when baking muffins. I use it in cookies as well – but still keep some sugar too.
Almond Flour:
- Almond flour is incredibly healthy to bake with, but it’s not swappable in a cup for cup ratio.
- Many people neglect to think about grains as carbohydrates; it’s not simply the sugar we’re going after but the grains as well. Cooking with nut flours lowers carbs substantially while increasing protein and good fats.
- This is a heavy flour so substitute a 1/4 cup at a time. For example: (1/4 cup of almond flour + 3/4 cup of gluten-free flour = 1 cup).
- If you substitute all of the flour in a recipe with almond flour, you must adjust the rising agent as well. For every cup of almond flour used, increase the baking powder or soda by 1/2 teaspoon.
- Almond meal (almond with skin) and almond flour (almond and no skin) are different products – be sure you’re using the correct one.
Coconut Flour:
- Another favorite that’s both high in fiber and low in carbs; coconut flour is an excellent substitute in baking. Use caution when using coconut flour in large amounts – if you use more than 1/2 a cup at a time you may find a bitter flavor.
- Coconut flour is a thirsty flour; add an equal amount of liquid as flour to the recipe.
- Coconut flour is not a cup for cup replacement ratio. Use 1/4 to 1/3 cup coconut flour to replace a full cup of gluten-free flour.
- I know the coconut flour in your bowl will look like you have miscalculated (too little flour)- trust me, it’s right.
Vanilla:
- Cut sugar in 1/2 and add a teaspoon of pure vanilla extract instead (per 1 cup of sugar).
Goodbye White Sugar:
- With so many alternatives to the highly processed white sugar (granulated sugar) should it even be in our cabinets anymore? White sugar is strapped of any nutrients and it cranks up blood sugars.
- My stand-in favorites: evaporated cane juice (sucanat), coconut sugar (coconut palm sugar), agave (controversial but low-glycemic); maple syrup, dates and honey which are also less refined – and molasses which has the nutrients that were present in the sugar cane plant before it was processed into granulated sugar.
- When using a liquid sweetener like honey and maple syrup decrease the liquid in the recipe by a 1/4. They are also quite sweet, allowing you to use a lot less to replace sugar (try with 1/2 the amount).
- If you’re having problems with getting the same rise in your baked goods try adding 1/4-1/2 tsp of baking soda per cup of honey/ syrup to balance the acidity.