Cutting sugar from holiday recipes

A group of about 10 people are gathered at the cooking demo station at MarketStreet, but they’re not watching a demo.

Instead, diabetes educator Leslie Crawford, RDLD at Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital Hurst-Euless-Bedford, is offering tips on how to control diabetes with healthy eating. The group then tours the store getting a quick lesson in label-reading.

As individuals ask about what to do since certain foods are off limits she gently shifts the conversation saying “it’s all about blood sugars and portion control.” To illustrate her point, Crawford offered up an easy dessert recipe using a cake mix, such as carrot cake, and a can of pumpkin. You combine and bake according to directions on the package – omitting the eggs, oil and water because you included the pumpkin. Having tasted the recipe I can vouch that it’s tastier and more moist than making it with the other ingredients.

Many of the questions center around which carbs to eat, particularly in sandwich bread and pastas. She cautions the individuals not to mark off all carbs as bad. “We need carbs,” she replies. “We just need them in amounts our body can process.”

One of the most important things for diabetics to do is watch their blood sugar numbers. “Blood sugar monitoring gives you a picture of how the body is doing,” she says.

Crawford also offered the following tips for how to reduce sugar from recipes:

1.    Cut down on the sugar by ¼ cup at a time.

2.    Follow these guidelines when baking with sugar:

• Use ½ cup per cup of flour in cakes.
• Use 1 Tablespoon sugar per cup of flour in muffins and quick breads.
• Use 1 teaspoon sugar per cup of flour in yeast breads.
• If you reduce the amount of sugar in a recipe adding a small amount of vanilla, cinnamon, or nutmeg can enhance the sweet flavor.

3.    Fruit Juice as substitute for sugar

• Use ¼ to 1/3  less cup of fruit juice concentrate (such as apple, apricot, guava, lemon, lime, mango, white grape, orange, or pineapple juice) for every cup of granulated sugar.      
• Decrease the amount of liquid in the recipe by 3 tablespoons for every cup of juice used. 
• Add ¼  - ½ teaspoon baking soda for every cup of juice used.

4.    Add dried chopped fruit instead of the candied variety and use only half the amount a recipe may call for in your favorite baked goods.

5.    Sprinkle some powdered icing sugar on in place of frosting.

6.    Baked goods made with less sugar may not brown as much so try:

• Spraying the top of pie crust with a cooking spray and sprinkle a small amount of sugar on top before baking.
• Taking a drinking glass and wet on the bottom.  Dip into fine grain sugar or crushed sugar free candies and then press and flatten the tops of cookies before baking.

7.    Brush the tops of cookies lightly with a glaze of no-sugar-added jam thinned with a small amount of juice or water.

8.    Bake muffins and cupcakes in small mini muffin tins rather than the standard size to provide the desired shape and allow them to rise higher.

• Adding 1/2 teaspoon baking soda to a recipe helps the product to rise in a short baking period.

9.    To add volume, use egg whites in place of whole eggs -- 2 egg whites for every whole egg needed. These may be whipped to stiff peaks with an electric mixer for slightly more volume. For optimum volume, set eggs out on counter for one-half hour before separating and whipping, or put eggs in a bowl of warm water while you assemble the other ingredients.

10.    Overripe fruits, such as bananas or using unsweetened applesauce provide a tremendous amount of sweetness, moisture, and flavor. 

• Use pureed baby-food pears, prunes, sweet potatoes, and carrots to add sweetness and moisture.

11.    Sugar Substitutes:

• To get the most natural-tasting sweetness from sugar substitutes, use them on cold items -- over fruits and cereals, in lemonade and iced tea -- or after removing a cooked item from the heat.
• Prolonged cooking at high heat can destroy some sweetness and produce an unpleasant aftertaste.  
• Try using half sugar substitute and half granulated sugar when baking.
• Cookies and  brownies will continue to cook while cooling; remove them before they look done.  Reduce baking time by 3-5 minutes for cookies, 5-7 minutes for  muffins, and 7-10 minutes for cakes.

12.    Drizzle a bit of chocolate icing made from melted bittersweet chocolate and nonfat half-and-half. 

13.    In chocolate recipes, substitute cold strong coffee for the liquid needed. This brings out the deep chocolate flavors. 

14.    Substitute mini-morsels for regular size chocolate chips to spread them out better, allowing you to use less.

Check back next week for Crawford’s tips on reducing the amount of fat in recipes.

Jennifer Erickson
Sr. PR Specialist
Texas Health HEB