Make It Sweet With Hershey
If you or someone in your family is sugar-free, it can feel limiting when youre trying to follow dessert recipes. But with these sugar substitutes, you can bake cakes, cupcakes and more for everyone to enjoy! Use any of these convenient hacks in your next baking project. And to get baking, check out our complete collection of dessert recipes.
Frosting Tips And Tricks To Get It Perfect The First Time
Also make sure to grab whipping cream, not coffee cream.
I like to use a 36% fat whipping cream for this recipe, but if you cannot get your hands on 36% whipping cream, any cream that you can whip will be perfectly fine.
Keep all the ingredients for your icing cold cold cold, you want your cream cheese to come out of a cold fridge and go directly into the bowl. Cube your cream cheese first to make it easier on your mixer.
The frosting gets a bit stiff in the fridge but has a very similar mouthfeel to buttercream without an overly sweet bite.
I only add 1/2 cup of sweetener which makes for a slightly sweet frosting, if you want it punchier and super sweeter, add more sweetener!
Be careful to not overbeat your mixture. Overbeating will cause everything to liquify.
This frosting works great for decorating cakes or even cupcakes. You can see how well it pipes by check out my low carb roasted strawberry cupcakes.
Using Sugar Substitutes In Cooking And Baking
Sugar substitutes can be used in both cooked items and baked goods, but its important to realize that the end result may not be identical to the same product made with sugar. Sugar substitutes, while very sweet, dont have the same properties or chemical composition as table sugar. For these reasons, be prepared for the following issues.
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Buying Guide For Best Sugar Substitutes
For centuries, pure cane or beet sugar has been the most common form of food and beverage sweetener. While its inadvisable to consume large quantities of added sugar, entirely avoiding sucrose and high fructose corn syrup is a nearly impossible task. Sugar is naturally occurring in healthy fruits and vegetables, but its also often hidden in popular everyday foods.
Fortunately, there are a number of sugar substitutes on the market. Many are derived from natural sources and can be swapped out for sugar in recipes without sacrificing taste. These sugar substitutes also have the benefit of being much lower in calories than sugar and dont necessarily produce unwanted glucose spikes in the bloodstream.
Indeed, diabetics and dieters alike can benefit greatly from the introduction of these sugar substitutes into their daily routines. But which one should you try? To learn more, read on. If youre ready to buy, consider one of our top picks.
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Baking With Coconut Sugar
Coconut sugar, also called coconut palm sugar, is a natural sugar made from coconut palm sap, which is the sugary fluid of the coconut plant. Think of it as the maple syrup of the coconut palm. Coconut sugar substitutes perfectly for sugar perfectly too.
Regular table sugar, and other processed sugars like high fructose corn syrup, dont contain any vital nutrients and therefore supply empty calories. The reason I like to bake with coconut sugar is it is lower glycemic and does retain quite a bit of the nutrient found in the coconut palm. If I do not want to use a sugar substitute, I always reach for this before regular processed sugar.
Coconut sugar has a malty brown sugar-like flavor naturally and can be used in place for sugar 1:1 like the other substitutes. So if youre asking yourself, What can I substitute for brown sugar? coconut sugar is a great option for a brown sugar substitute.
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Maple Syrup And Maple Sugar
Maple syrup and maple sugar are two other natural sweeteners that are very popular. Maple syrup is typically easier to find in the store than maple sugar, but you can usually find them both at a health foods store. You probably already know what maple syrup is, and maple sugar is actually just a condensed version of the syrup. You can make your own by boiling maple syrup and letting it crystallize at home, or you can purchase it, but it can be a little pricey! Due to the granular shape, you can use maple sugar to cream butter and sugar, whereas liquid sweeteners will not really work well for this purpose. Just remember that the flavor of maple will be in either of these products. Grade A maple syrup has a slightly lighter flavor, and Grade B is preferred for baking due to its richer flavor.
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How to use it: Use a very small sprinkle to sweeten drinks, oatmeal or yogurt. As a substitute in baked goods, youll want to use 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon for every cup of sugar. Youll need to reduce the amount of liquid in the recipe and replace the volume with ingredients like applesauce, pumpkin puree or powders like mesquite. The easiest thing to do is use recipes that already incorporate stevia.
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Baking With Sugar And Sugar Substitutes
Discover the many roles that sugar plays in baking and learn about different kinds of sweeteners.
Sugar performs many important roles in baking. It provides moisture and tenderness, liquefies as it bakes, increases the shelf-life of finished products, caramelizes at high temperatures, and, of course, adds sweetness. Refined sugar helps cookies spread during baking, allowing their crisp texture. Because of these critical functions, bakers can’t simply replace sugar with a different sweetener. However, in many recipes, you can decrease the amount of sugar by one third without affecting the quality of the product.
Maple Crystals Or Maple Syrup
Health information: Maple syrup is terrific sugar substitute for baking, but you might not be familiar with the dehydrated maple crystals from maple tree sap. The crystals contain about four carbohydrates and 15 calories per teaspoon. Maple crystals and syrup are loaded with minerals, including calcium, potassium magnesium, manganese, and phosphorus. They also include iron and trace amounts of B2, B5, niacin, zinc, and folic acid all important for a healthy immune system, heart, and reproductive system. Maple syrup has a low glycemic index of 54, and 50 percent each of glucose and fructose.
Measurements: Use 3/4 cup of syrup or crystals for every cup of sugar called for in a recipe. Recipes will be moister when maple syrup is used, so reduce liquids in the recipe by 2 to 4 tablespoons. Maple syrup tends to make baked goods brown more quickly than sugar, so lower the oven temperature by 25 degrees Fahrenheit. Metz suggests using maple syrup for raw desserts like raw vegan ice creams, chia puddings, and raw vegan cheesecakes. She also advises using maple crystals for baked treats such as oatmeal cookies and almond flour banana bread.
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Opting For Natural Low
There are many natural sugar substitutes that come from whole-food sources you should consider adding to your low-sugar or sugar-free eating plan. These sugar substitutes are great swaps for refined sugars, in terms of comparable flavor and their impact on your body. Unfortunately, refined sugar, which is white sugar, gets digested quickly. And over time, thats a recipe for insulin resistance and weight management issues.
Low-glycemic natural sweeteners, on the other hand, dont spike your blood sugar the same way
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Experiment With Maple Syrup And Honey
For basic baked goods like sugar cookies or pound cake, using maple syrup or honey instead of sugar lends the finished product a little extra flavor. Youll need a little less of these sweeteners for your recipejust ¾ cup of maple syrup or honey replaces a full cup of granulated sugar. And because these sweeteners are liquid, youll also need to use a liquid measuring cup and reduce the amount of other liquids in the recipe by three tablespoons for every cup of syrup or honey to compensate. Also, keep an eye on your cake or cookies, or reduce the oven temperature by 25°F, as they may bake faster than the same recipe made with standard sugar.
Swap it: 1 cup granulated sugar = ¾ cup syrup or honey
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Baking And Cooking With Sugar Substitutes
Chances are, youve tried one or more sugar substitutes in an effort to cut calories or control your carbohydrate intake. Maybe you use a sweetener such as sucralose in your morning coffee, or you might reach for a can of diet soda that contains aspartame to help quench your thirst. But you might be wondering about using sugar substitutes when you cook or bake. Can you use them, and, if so, what works best?
Why Should You Use Sugar Substitutes
Wondering why it might be wise to avoid added sugar and use substitutes instead? Excess sugar consumption is not just bad for your teeth, its also associated with high rates of diseases like diabetes. Pure sugar is high in carbohydrates, which can cause unwanted spikes in blood glucose levels.
Sugar is also high in calories without having much nutritional value, so substitutes are useful for those seeking to lose weight.
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Lets Not Forget About The Sprinkles
Sprinkles are the topping here, and no worries because they are also completely sugar-free.
If youre interested in making your own low carb homemade sprinkles, I have the recipe for you. The best part about making your own is you can customize them to be any colour you want.
They do take a bit of time to dry so if you decide to make this sugar-free birthday cake with the sprinkles, make the sprinkles a day or two ahead of time.
Unlike sugar made sprinkles, these sprinkles are a bit more fragile and tend to melt a bit quickly. If you add them to ice cream, or on top of wet whip cream some of them will melt.
My cake required two coats of sprinkles because the first set melted, but it worked out very well because the outside icing ended up having that sweet icing taste, with a tiny bit of crunch.
The sprinkles held up like champs after that second coating, this photo was taken a few hours after I finished the second coat.
The Best Way To Reduce Sugar In Your Favourite Cake
- Chocolate cake. Cocoa can be bitter so you’ll need to add some sweetness. Add healthy sweetness with grated fruits or vegetables such as apple or beetroot. This will produce a moist cake that also needs less frosting and added sugar.
- Sponge cake. The light texture and delicate flavour is tricky to achieve without table sugar. Stick with table sugar, but use up to 20% less and incorporate as much air as possible into the batter. Swap 12 tbsp flour for cornflour to further lighten.
- Carrot cake. Grated vegetables add sweetness and a more robust texture. You don’t need much sugar if any especially if your recipe includes dried fruit. The texture suits natural sweeteners such as honey and maple syrup.
- Gluten-free cakes. These cakes often contain ground almonds instead of flour making them very adaptable because of their heavier crumb structure and deep flavours. Ground nuts add sweetness so you don’t need much more. If recipes use beaten egg whites to incorporate air, take care when incorporating thick syrups and honey.
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Is Confectioners’ Sugar A Good Substitute For Sugar
While you can pulverize granulated sugar into confectioners’ sugar , you can’t do the reverse. Save the confectioners’ sugar for a frosting or to dust on top of your treats.
In conclusion, nothing beats sticking to the script in a tried-and-true baking recipe. But if borrowing a cup of sugar from a neighbor isn’t an option, you can experiment with one of the swaps above. Who knows? That adapted version could just be your new favorite.
Recipes to Try:
What Can I Use If I Dont Have Brown Sugar
The easiest brown sugar substitute is, in fact, white sugar. Yes, simply swap in white sugar where a recipe calls for brown sugar. If you need one cup of brown sugar, use one cup of white sugar. According to the folks at Better Homes & Gardens, your recipe will still workthough it might not taste the same.
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How To Substitute Powdered Sugar For Granulated Sugar
You can also use powdered sugar to replace up to 2 cups of granulated sugar, using 1 3/4 cup unsifted powdered sugar for each cup of sugar. This substitution is best for moist quick breads and muffins. Avoid powdered sugar, if possible, for recipes that require creaming together the butter and sugar. Cookies made with powdered sugar wont bake up as crisp.
Also worth mentioning: If youre out of powdered sugar, but have granulated sugar on hand, whiz 1 cup granulated sugar and 1 tablespoon cornstarch in a food processor for each cup of powdered sugar you need.
The Role Of Sugar In Baking And Cooking
Regular or table sugar is known for its sweetness and its calories and carbs. Sugar gets a bad rap and is blamed for many major health problems such as obesity and Type 2 diabetes. But all cooks and bakers know that sugar is an invaluable ingredient in helping to ensure foods not only taste good, but also have the right texture, color, and volume. Sugar does more than just make foods and beverages taste good. In baked goods, such as cakes, cookies, and brownies, sugar creates a light, tender product and adds volume. It also helps trap and hold moisture so that those chewy chocolate chip cookies dont immediately turn into hockey pucks. Sugar also helps with browning and can crystalize to add crunch or texture to baked goods. If youre a bread baker, you probably know that sugar helps to feed the yeast that provides leavening. When sugar is heated, it caramelizes, forming the basis for caramel sauce or flan. And who doesnt appreciate the beauty of a flaming baked Alaska dessert or lemon meringue pie with its frosty white peaks, formed by egg whites beaten with you guessed it sugar!
Sugar also plays a role in cooked dishes to help smooth out bitterness and tartness. For example, spaghetti sauce, barbeque sauce, and some salad dressing recipes often call for a little bit of sugar to help tame sharp flavors.
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