How to replace sugar in your cakes?
Sugar doesn’t just play a role in the taste of your desserts. In the dough, it will also play a role in coloring, we observe this especially in cookies, pastry or caramel, but also ensures the softness and good keeping of the cake. The sugar helps keep the cakes moist in their hearts. You can hardly remove sugar from the classic recipe. It will be out of balance and you run the risk of not being full while tasting it.
On the other hand, you can use the sweetness of other ingredients like fruit. We are talking about cakes without added sugar because the fruits we use in these recipes, such as apples, bananas, and dates, contain natural sugars. Therefore, we will use them natural sweetness.
Good to know : Pastry chefs gradually sweeten their creations as they skim off excess fat. We want pleasure, but without complications. For example: “Gaston Lenôtre used 200 to 250 grams of sugar per liter for a cream; today my recipe is between 147 and 152 grams,” explains Philippe Conticini. Source: health energy site.
In this recipe, to make a sugar-free cake, we will use the sweetness of bananas and put about twice the amount of banana pulp than the usual amount of sugar.
For 1 classic size cake pan
- 275 g of overripe banana flesh (2-3 bananas)
- 1 L caliber egg
- 35 g of coconut or sunflower oil
- 120 g of rolled oats
- 60 g ground almonds
- 50 g of cranberries
- 1 C. lightly heaped tablespoon of flour
- 1/2 tsp. baking powder
- 2 pinches of salt
- 50 g of walnuts to finish
Preheat the oven to 170°C.
In a bowl large enough to hold the entire preparation, mash the bananas with the oil using a fork. Add the egg and mix.
Add oatmeal, ground almonds, flour, yeast, cranberries, salt and mix again with a fork.
Pour into your muffin tin (greased and lined with baking paper).
Sprinkle the surface with walnuts, then bake for about 25 minutes.
Turn out onto a wire rack and cool.
We’re cheating this recipe a little because the chocolate contains sugar, but we won’t be adding it like we would in a regular recipe. This time we will use the sweetness of apples (naturally at home or without adding sugar). We will put twice more compote than the usual amount of sugar
Ingredients for 1 18cm mould
- 180 g of chocolate
- 3 eggs
- 40 g of flour
- 20 g ground almonds
- 200 g of unsweetened apples
Grease an 18 cm round tin with butter, line the bottom with a circle of baking paper, and line the sides with strips of paper.
In a bowl, mix the melted and heated chocolate with the apples.
Add the eggs and mix. Add flour and ground almonds and mix.
Pour into the form and bake at 170 ° C for about twenty minutes.
Turn out onto a wire rack and cool.
In this recipe, we use the sweetness of dates and we will put the same amount of dates as the usual amount of sugar. The ideal is to use dates of the Medjool variety. They are super soft
For about twenty squares
- 100 g ground almonds
- 1 good pinch of salt
- 1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa
- 175 g of medjool dates
- Lemon peel
- 1 tablespoon. lemon juice
- Whole almonds to finish
Place the ground almonds in a food processor along with the chopped dates.
Add a pinch of salt, lemon zest and juice, then mix until it forms a paste.
Finely chop the almonds, add to the blender and mix just enough to combine.
Pour this mixture into a silicone cake pan or a cake pan lined with cling film, press down, cover and refrigerate for 2 hours.
Cut into squares, add an almond to each square, put in a box and cool.
A few years ago, the great pastry chef Philippe Conticini, whom we greatly appreciate, was challenged by journalist Anne-Sophie Lévy-Chambon to create pastries and other delicacies without added sugar. The challenge, specifically dealing with apple and pear juice reduction, allows you to replace sugar in a classic cake like a yogurt cake. You can find all her tips and recipes in her book Sugar-free cakes and sweetsPublished by First Editions by Philippe Conticini and Anne-Sophie Lévy-Chambon.
