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Mom and I haven’t found the time to bake Christmas cookies together in a long time. But over the past few years, we’ve both been on a quest to develop some good sugarless or low-sugar cookie recipes. (K. is hypoglycemic, and I’m borderline hypoglycemic, so sugar isn’t around our house much.)
Yesterday, we got together to turn out some Christmas treats, sans sucre.
Sugarless baking is interesting because it’s a real exercise in chemistry. Sugar plays a huge role in cookies beyond making them sweet:
- It melts during baking and re-crystalizes during cooling, making things crunchy.
- It carmelizes during baking, making things brown.
- It’s acidic, so it acts as a preservative. (You gotta eat or refrigerate your sugarless cookies right away.)
We use Splenda for the most part as our sugar substitute. Say what you will about chemical sweeteners, for baking, this is the best option we’ve found. And then, you usually have to tweak the other ingredients in a recipe around that – more vanilla. Less salt. More liquid. It’s real mad-scientist stuff, and we love it.
Here’s one tried-and-true recipe we love: Strawberry Cheesecake Bars. (See Mom’s notation in the cookbook. Her cookbooks are filled with notes like this. I love that!)
You can easily convert creamy desserts to sugarless, because sugar doesn’t play a role in the texture of those. Mom has made us some freakin’ amazing cheesecakes this year. These bars have a cookie base, topped with a cream cheese-and-Splenda mixture, with some sugar-free jam striped on the top.
This part was fun. I could have dragged a knife tip through that topping all day.
We try to start with recipes that don’t contain much sugar to begin with, because they have the best chance of success. And any recipe involving finely-ground nuts is also a good bet. They help hold up the texture, and add a bit of oil. And, if you’re watching your protein intake all the time like we are, nuts are a welcome ingredient.
Ground pecans are a big part of these Ring-A-Lings, a recipe 37 years in the making. We started making these (with sugar) in the 1970′s, and have made several rounds of tweaks to the recipe. I think we made the best batch ever yesterday. We poured a little strained raspberry jam (sans sugar) into the center right after they came out of the oven. . . .
. . . And then we made a little sugar-free chocolate ganache to top that. Amazing!
Chocolate is, in fact, a real challenge in the sugarless universe. I got all excited about this chocolate pretzel cookie recipe I saw at Smitten Kitchen. Only 1/2 cup of sugar! They were super-cute and fun to make, and the dough was just silky and elastic and lovely.
In her post about these, Deb mentioned that they weren’t flavorful enough. I thought that my adjusted palate wouldn’t notice this, but unfortunately, she’s right. They need more cocoa, more sweetness, more oomph.
I tried to rescue them by drizzling on a little sugarless chocolate, but no dice. That’s the nature of sugar-free baking, though — always something of a crapshoot. But we’re not done with them. These recipes usually take a few tries to get right.
At day’s end, we all gathered around this lovely table, and a fondue set that’s nearly as old as me, for a traditional St. Lucia’s Day feast of cheese fondue. (True, St. Lucia’s Day is actually today, December 13, but our schedules didn’t work out that way.)
Two Advent Sundays gone, two more remain. I hope you’re having a wonderful time. Do me a favor, and remove one thing from your holiday to-do list this week. Just blow it off, and take a little time for you instead.
Can I blow off Nutcracker? Hahahaha! I wish! Your Saint Lucia table is beauuuuuutiful! If you want to read a little funny story about me and Saint Lucia day look here: http://www.geekxnerd.com/archives/2006/10/what's_cookin'_apron_swap.html and read #4. Cheers! (P.S. I’m feeling better – I did some therapeutic Christmas crafting, and a blog friend asked me for my snail mail address because she has a surprise for me, smiles abound today!)
Can I blow off Nutcracker? Hahahaha! I wish! Your Saint Lucia table is beauuuuuutiful! If you want to read a little funny story about me and Saint Lucia day look here: http://www.geekxnerd.com/archives/2006/10/what's_cookin'_apron_swap.html and read #4. Cheers! (P.S. I’m feeling better – I did some therapeutic Christmas crafting, and a blog friend asked me for my snail mail address because she has a surprise for me, smiles abound today!)
Such a great blog about sugarless cooking. I was just diagnosed hypoglycemic and have been very strong about not sampling my famous fudge (I have made 5 batches for gifts) I would love to have your kitchen tested cheesecake bar recipe. I studied the photo … but I am sure a couple of key ingredients or steps are not shown. You blog came at just the right time for me and I am so inspired to do some testing myself. Merry Christmas.
Such a great blog about sugarless cooking. I was just diagnosed hypoglycemic and have been very strong about not sampling my famous fudge (I have made 5 batches for gifts) I would love to have your kitchen tested cheesecake bar recipe. I studied the photo … but I am sure a couple of key ingredients or steps are not shown. You blog came at just the right time for me and I am so inspired to do some testing myself. Merry Christmas.
“a traditional St. Lucia’s Day feast of cheese fondue”: what? i’ve been missing out on an opportunity to make fondue? never again! thank you, st. lucia!
“a traditional St. Lucia’s Day feast of cheese fondue”: what? i’ve been missing out on an opportunity to make fondue? never again! thank you, st. lucia!
That baking looks yummy.
We don’t eat gluten so I’ve gotten to be quite a dab hand at gluten free baking but like reduced sugar baking, it requires a lot of testing and the ability to discard the less successful attempts. My partner is also diabetic, so I usually use fructose and lower the sugar too. If you’re a reasonably experienced baker, it’s surprising how much you can adjust a recipe and still have it come out OK.
That baking looks yummy.
We don’t eat gluten so I’ve gotten to be quite a dab hand at gluten free baking but like reduced sugar baking, it requires a lot of testing and the ability to discard the less successful attempts. My partner is also diabetic, so I usually use fructose and lower the sugar too. If you’re a reasonably experienced baker, it’s surprising how much you can adjust a recipe and still have it come out OK.
Beautiful table!
Any recipes you can share? I like to give away tins of homebaked cookies, but Hub’s family is diabetic! I’m searching everywhere!
Beautiful table!
Any recipes you can share? I like to give away tins of homebaked cookies, but Hub’s family is diabetic! I’m searching everywhere!