Need recipes for sweets w/out sugar or sugar substitute

[julieduck]

My DH was recently told he needed to cut out a lot of sugar from his diet. I told him I would be supportive by also cutting out sugar, plus it's a good example for Lil'D. I've switched to using honey in my coffee, surprisingly good, but sweets like cookies and cakes are my downfall. I found 3 recipes for cookies that use agave nectar for sweetening. I was wondering if anyone had recipes for cookies and cakes that don't use sugar of any variety or sugar substitutes like splenda, etc.

[Onabudget]

I have been looking into stevia as a sugar substitute, but so far have not made anything with it... While the taste is sweet, it is also very different than sugar.

Most of the time, I use organic sugar minimally processed b/c it does not taste as sweet as regular sugar... For yrs, my mom has made oatmeal cookies with about 1/2 the amt of sugar in the recipe and also only using brown sugar. Typically, she puts pecans and 1 or 2 chocolate morsels/cookie. She just experiments with cookie recipes (I don't have a real recipe to post, seems altitude and humidity dependent each time). I have tried reducing the sugar as well and most of the time, I do not miss the sugar. It takes some getting use to, but your taste buds adapt. Start by making a test cookie first with reduced sugar and then adding sugar if it is not sweet enough.

[floridaclipper]

Blueberry muffins typically use very little sugar. I also bake using fruit purees, fruit juice, and fruit juice concentrate. If I can find it I have a recipie for Applesauce cake that is sweetened only from fruit, is easy, and has ingrediants I always have in my stock pile. If I can find it tonight I'll post it for you.

[Onabudget]

I just googled stevia recipes again and there are quite a few out there. If anyone has ever used this plant with success in recipes or is knowledgable about it, I would like to hear the pros/cons.

[granviewgran]

If he has to cut sugar because of diabetes then you need to find diabetic recipes. Alternative sweeteners like honey, nectars and fruit juices are still sugar and will still adversly affect a diabetic. So do carbs for that matter....such as flour, cereals, grains etc. they turn into sugars in the body and will raise blood sugar also.

So without knowing why he was told to cut out the sugar it is hard to offer the best substitutes and recipes.

Is he just wanting to avoid refined sugar? Just wanting to cut back on all sugars? is he trying to reduce caloric intake? or is he diabetic?

Each situation would be handled differently.

[jakobandevelyn]

I have studied this dreaded sugar for some time now. Did you know it is estimated that in 1700, the average person consumed about 4 pounds of sugar per year; and in 2009, more than 50 percent of all Americans consume one-half pound of sugar PER DAY which 180 pounds of sugar per year! And I read that most infant formula has the same amount of sugar as one can of Coca-Cola.... no wonder everyone is so sick all the time! (And chubby )

And, you have to figure out what kind of "sugar" you consider sugar. There's dextrose, fructose and glucose which are the simple sugars. Then these combine to form complex sugars like Sucrose, table sugar, which is 50/50 glucose-fructose.... and other types of sugars. Then there is the fake stuff.

Now, from everything I have read, you have to be careful about the amount of fructose you consume, too. After eating fructose, most of the metabolic burden rests on your liver. This is NOT the case with glucose, of which your liver breaks down only 20 percent. Nearly every cell in your body utilizes glucose, so it’s normally “burned up” immediately after consumption. After eating fructose, your body converts it to FAT (VLDL and triglycerides).

So you can try to replace your sucrose consumption with a different sugar, like agave syrup (which is about 80% fructose), and become fatter over time. One findings that surprised researchers is that glucose actually accelerates fructose absorption, so sucrose, honey, agave nectar, HFCS, etc are all terrible in this aspect.

So... the best thing I can figure so far, is to reduce the sugar you are using...period. Fruits are nice for sweetness and way better for you than juices, even in a recipe. If you can't cut out the sugar in a recipe, use 1/2 or 1/3 or less.. you will get acclimated to less in time. You can also buy pure glucose... something I haven't looked into, but now I think I will since I have reminded myself. It's about 70% sweet as sucrose (which is half glucose half fructose).

Oh! one little conversion I did to help me when I started watching sugar intake, 453.59 grams is ONE pound. There are 4 grams or so in 1 teaspoon of sugar. So, 12 grams in a Tablespoon. When you see how much sugar is in a tablespoon, blech! It kind of helped me with the nutrition labels. I'm a very visual person

But I think a first good step is reducing normal sugar in recipes by half or 3/4's, and eliminating juice and the obvious "sweets". Find a replacement sweet if it's a big part of you or your husband's life. For me, I loved sweet drinks, tea and coffee to be exact. No more sugar in my cold tea. Honey sometimes in my hot tea, and about 3/4 the sugar in my hot coffee lattes, or I just drink cafe con leche. It's about finding what you can do.

I will say, after cutting out sugar the way we did in our family, the times I have had something sweet, I have gotten sick. And man, is it sickly sweet too! Also, when you eat alot of sugar, you crave a lot of sugar. So I just think of the next few days if I have a scoop of Ice cream.... 'cause I will want it the next day, and the next... etc.

Hope that helps a bit