by Sidonie Maroon

It was a double whammy, ten years ago, when for health reasons, I gave up gluten and added sugar. I love baking, so it was disheartening, but eventually I saw the opportunity in the crisis. I went to work developing gluten-free flours, and experimenting with lowering the sugar content of my recipes.

I’m not interested in using fake sugars, or fond of erythritol, and xylitol does a number on my system, so I only have a few sweeteners that I work with. I’d used stevia for years, but, at first, didn’t know how to bake with it. A friend introduced me to monk fruit powder, which I now bake with all the time. It’s quite an adventure relearning to bake, in new ways, from the bottom up, but I’ve  discovered some great tricks along the way that I’d love to share.  

How to add sweetness without adding more sugar

I can’t say enough about retraining your sweet tooth. This is the number one, most powerful trick for reducing sugar in your life. Redefining what’s sweet is the best place to start. 

• Limit sweets to social or ritual occasions and then in small amounts.

• Make sweets into a super special treat that only happens once in a while.

• Eliminate everything sweet for a while even fruit, carrots, beets...and then gradually add them back. You’ll taste the true sweetness in the whole foods you eat. You’ll know you’ve arrived when yams and dates taste too sweet.

You’ll need less added sugar, when the background ingredients of a recipe, are already sweet but full of fiber and nutrition.

• Add a puree of dried fruits like raisins or dates

• Add a puree of sweet fruits or roots like bananas, or yams

• Soak and or sprout grains so that their natural sweetness shines.

Work with the psychology of the tongue. I love experimenting with ways to decrease sugar while increasing flavor.

Fake out Tongue Tricks

●     Add 1 teaspoon or more of vinegar or lemon to your recipe. It makes the sweet taste sweeter.

●     Put the sweetest part on top or inside the baked good as a topping, frosting or filling (think shortcake)

●     Use flavorful natural sweeteners as accents so you won’t need as much to make a statement. Such as honey, carob, maple syrup, molasses, date sugar or barley malt

●     Highlight spices and sour dried fruits, like cranberries, to create interest and contrast for the mouth

●     Use a sweeter salt such as “real salt”  Use 1⁄4 teaspoon per cup of flour

●     Use high quality ingredients especially flavorful fats—so the palette gets a full and rounded experience. Sweet shouldn’t be the whole deal. Use flavorful “flours” nut or seed flours can really increase flavor.

 

Work with science and the ways we perceive taste. You can get away with using a small amount of high quality, flavor rich sugar, like coconut sugar, if you also use a small amount of monk fruit or stevia. Our taste buds focus in on the larger sugar molecules and remember that flavor. 

 

Sugar illusions

• Your mouth will taste the largest sugar molecules first—you can bake with stevia or monk fruit and not have a stevia or monk fruit taste, if you also add a high mineral sugar like coconut or jaggery.

• Don’t use more than ⅛ of a teaspoon of stevia or the after taste will come through.

• Don’t use more than ½ teaspoon monk fruit, or its flavor will predominate.

Favorite Sugar

My favorite baking sugar is Bob’s Red Mill Coconut sugar. I love its caramel flavor and mineral tones. It adds sweetness and more. I use it in minimal amounts with dates or fruit purees. I also use it along with monk fruit powder or stevia.

I try to keep my daily added sugar below 2 teaspoons per day.

Handy chart to help calculate how much sugar you’re adding to your sweets

Grams of sugar to measuring spoons to calories

4.2 grams sugar = 1 teaspoon = 16 calories

12.6 grams sugar = 1 tablespoon = 50 calories

25 grams = 6 teaspoons or 100 calories

48 teaspoons in a 1 cup (201g sugar)

Equivalents and sugar content in sweets 

36 teaspoons in ¾ cup  (151.2g) In a cookie recipe that makes 3 dozen

(1 cookie = 4.2 g sugar)

24 teaspoons in ½ cup (100.8g) a cake that serves 12 (1 slice = 8.4g sugar)

16 teaspoons in ⅓ cup (67.2g) sweet bread with 12 slices ( 1 slice = 5.6g )

12 teaspoons in ¼ cup (50.4g) muffins that make 12 ( 1 muffin = 4.2)

Contrasting different amounts of sugar in a cake with 12 slices

If the recipe uses:

1 cup sugar (201g) =16.75g per portion (4 teaspoons) = 65 calories {tastes too sweet to enjoy}

¾ cup sugar (151g) = 12.6g per portion (3 teaspoons) = 50 calories { tastes very sweet but tongue likes it }

½ cup sugar (100.8) = 8.4g per portion (2 teaspoons) = 33 calories { high moderate sweetness}

⅓ cup sugar per serving (67.2) = 5.6g per portion (1.33 teaspoons) = 22 calories {moderately sweet}

¼ cup sugar per serving (50.4) = 4.2g per portion (1 teaspoon) = 16 calories  {mildly sweet}

 

Cinnamon Crinkle Cookies

Delicious spicy gluten-free, mineral-rich, low sugar, fiber diverse

By rolling the dough balls in sugar, they trick the tongue into thinking they’re sweeter.    

Makes 40 cookies

Ingredients

1 cup white sorghum flour

¼ cup tapioca flour

¼ cup potato starch

2 cups gluten-free oatmeal toasted

2 tablespoons flax meal 

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon sea salt

½ teaspoon xanthan gum

2 tablespoons coconut sugar

⅓ teaspoon monk fruit powder

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

½ cup sunflower seeds toasted

½ cup walnuts toasted

1 cup raisins

½ cup unsulphured organic blackstrap molasses

½ cup avocado oil

¼ cup water

Cinnamon and sugar mixture for rolling

1/2 cup coconut sugar

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Directions

Mixing

In a food processor, mix the dry ingredients together and pulse until the oatmeal is finely ground. Add the nuts, seeds, and raisins. Pulse until they are no longer whole or distinct, like a rough meal. Add the oil, molasses and water. Pulse briefly until the dough comes together.

Baking

Let the cookie dough chill for 1/2 hour before baking. Preheat the oven to 350F. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Make tablespoon sized round balls, and roll each in the sugar and cinnamon mixture. Balls should be 2 inches apart. Bake for 10 minutes. Remove and let the cookies cool to firm up.

Anise Coriander with Cranberries and Walnuts Biscotti

Anise and coriander are a great holiday cookie combination. This rich biscotti after all the baking turns out crunchy and delicious. Simple to make, and with less effort than standard biscotti.

Ingredients

Dry ingredients

2 1/2 cups gluten-free pastry flour (recipe below)

2 tablespoons flax meal 

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt

½ cup coconut sugar

¼ teaspoon monk fruit powder

spice mix

1 tablespoon anise seed

1 teaspoon whole coriander seed

1/4 teaspoon white peppercorns

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Wet ingredients

zest and juice of one large lemon

zest of one large orange

2 large eggs

1/2 cup cooled melted butter

Add ins

1 cup roughly chopped toasted walnuts

1/2 cup dried cranberries

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 F

Mix the batter

Grind the spices together and set aside. Sift all the dry ingredients together including the ground spices. Combine the melted butter, lemon juice, zests and eggs, and beat until smooth. Add dry ingredients to wet 1/3 at a time, mixing well. Mix in the nuts and cranberries.

Baking

Spread the batter out on an oiled parchment lined baking sheet in a 1/2 inch thick rectangle. Bake for 20 minutes at 350 F. Cool for 10 minutes. Lower the oven temperature to 325 F. Cut  into 1/2 inch thick slices. Lay the slices flat and bake for

8 minutes.Turn over and bake for another 8 minutes. If you like your biscotti extra crunchy, then dehydrate them at 160 F for 5 hours. 

 

Gluten Free Pastry Flour

Mix and store in refrigerator 

 

4 cups sorghum flour (552 grams)

1 cup potato starch (152 grams)

1 cup tapioca starch (113 grams)

2 tablespoons flax meal

3 teaspoons xanthan gum