Sugar free baking – what​ ​can​ ​I​ ​use​ ​instead​?

Do you love baking? The feel of flour on your hands, the sound of sugar pouring into the bowl, the smell of biscuits fresh from the oven? If so, you’ll also know that eating a lot of what we bake is not a good move for our waistlines! One of the ways we can reduce the amount of sugar is to replace it with a sweet alternative.

Is sugar really that bad? Do you wonder if you’re consuming too much sugar?

The World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends that you restrict your daily sugar intake to 50 grams or less. This is easy to visualise when reach think that one can of fizzy drink contains 39 grams of sugar!

But is sugar really that bad? Does it deserve the title of ‘poison’ so many give it? After all, it doesn’t kill us, does it?

No, the sugar itself won’t, but the conditions it can cause may. These include:

• Obesity
• Heart disease
• Diabetes
• Tooth decay
• Liver failure
• Kidney disease
• Pancreatic cancer
• High blood pressure
• Gout

It would be fair to say that these conditions are associated with eating large amounts of sugar. But it’s still important to realise that our bodies don’t need sugar to survive.

What can you replace sugar with?

Is it still possible to bake and reduce your sugar intake? Yes!   What you can use instead of sugar is surprising, as these sweet alternatives demonstrate:

• Honey comes in many floral varieties and is a common substitute for sugar
• Maple syrup is another lovely possibility. You can explore other syrups, too, like brown rice, barley malt, bacon and agave nectar
• Experiment with pureed fruits such as applesauce, date puree, and mashed banana. Try raisins, cranberries, and/or apricots soaked and then blended. Use crushed canned pineapple for sweetness in muffins
• Try using kumara or pumpkin like in these brownies
• Use Stevia, also referred to as Sweet Leaf, in its fresh or dried form
• Coconut, date and fruit sugars satisfy any sweet tooth.
• Blackstrap Molasses is a by-product of sugar production and retains more nutrients than refined sugar
• Fresh squeezed orange juice is a great sweetener.
• Erythritol is a sugar alcohol available in forms similar to sugar

With plenty of sugar alternatives available, it’s time to challenge yourself, pick a substitute and use it instead of sugar in your baking. Chances are you and your sampling team won’t even notice the difference!