| |
Do you love sugar but have to cut back? Does your low sugar
diet preclude your favorite desserts and make your food
taste bland? If so, not to worry, there are ways to bake
even your favorite desserts using less sugar, with or
without sugar substitutes. It just requires some
experimentation and a working knowledge of what sugar
actually does in a recipe. Once you understand what the role
of sugar is in your baking and cooking, you can make
appropriate adjustments and substitutes.
In most types of cooking, sugar is only there for the flavor
- the sweetening power. You can easily reduce the amount of
sugar that you use in fruit compote, for instance, and
you´ll probably find that the fruit flavors are far more
intense. Natural sugars like fructose in fruit and lactose
in milk a lot of nutritional value along with the carbs and
calories. Using natural sweeteners like apple juice is one
way to add sweetness while cutting back on granulated sugar.
Sugar substitutes are another way to add sweetness to drinks
and food without adding calories or carbohydrates.
However, baking with sugar is a different story. Granulated
sugar does more than sweeten baked goods. It can affect
volume, moisture texture and color of the finished cakes,
cookies, pies and candy. Substituting other ingredients for
sugar in baked goods can cause your baked goods to fail - or
at least come out far differently than you expect. If you
are using sugar substitutes in baking, or trying to cut back
on sugar in your baked goods, here are some tips to help you
out.
- Sugar substitutes work best in cold recipes, or added at
the end of cooking time. Heat can destroy the sweetness of
most sugar substitutes and leave an unpleasant
aftertaste.
- Try using sugar substitutes half and half with sugar in
your baked substitutes.
- Use spices and other flavor enhancers to bring out the
flavor of dishes when you reduce sugar. Lemon and orange
zest brings out fruit flavors. Vanilla and nut flavorings
make baked goods smell buttery and sweet, which enhances the
sweetness of your recipes. Cinnamon, cloves, ginger, nutmeg
and allspice all enhance sweetness in recipes.
- When you cut sugar in chocolate recipes, substitute
strong, cold coffee for some of the liquid to enhance the
chocolate flavor without adding additional
sweetness.
- Top reduced sugar baked goods with fruit or fruit spread
to put the flavors right up front so that they are tasted
immediately.
- Sprinkle reduced sugar cakes with cinnamon and sugar
substitute for the same effect.
Texture and Volume
- Sugar helps cookie dough to spread during baking.
Without sugar, the cookies may not spread properly. When
baking cookies using sugar substitutes, flatten each cookie
slightly before baking just as you would peanut butter
cookies.
- Intensify sweetness in a dish with fruit juice. Reduce
the juice to 1/3 of its original volume by boiling it over
high heat for extra sweetness.
- Muffins and cupcakes cooked with lower sugar may not
rise as high or achieve the round-domed top that we expect.
Bake them in mini-muffin tins rather than regular size to
allow them to rise higher.
- Add ˝ teaspoon of baking soda to a recipe to make baked
goods with reduced sugar rise in a shorter baking
period.
- To increase volume, use whipped egg whites in recipes
that call for eggs. Start with eggs warmed to room
temperature.
Appearance of Baked Goods
- Spray the top crust of a fruit pie with cooking spray
and sprinkle with a tiny amount of sugar before baking. You
can reduce the amount of sugar in the filling because each
bite of crust puts the sweetness up front - and your pie
will brown nicely as a bonus.
- Cakes and breads made with reduced sugar or sugar
substitutes don´t brown because there is less sugar to
caramelize during baking. Try adding a tablespoon or two of
molasses to the recipe to deepen the color and add
moisture.
- Sprinkle cinnamon or nutmeg on top of breads, cakes or
muffins to give the impression of browning.
- In fruit dishes, add a small amount of dark brown sugar
to give the finished product a deep, rich, buttery brown
color.
Texture and Moisture
- For moister baked goods, use mashed or pureed fruits in
place of some of the sugar and butter. You can use
applesauce, but ripe bananas, sweet potatoes and carrots are
more flavorful and add more tenderness and moisture. (Tip:
Why puree? Buy baby food jars of pureed fruits and veggies
to use in baked goods. They have no added sugar or
salt.)
- When using a sugar substitute, cooking times are
considerably shorter. Pull cookies and brownies out of the
oven before they look done. They´ll continue to cook while
they cool.
|
|
