Like it or lump it, sugar has fallen out of favour and is being blamed for endless health woes. Susanna Booth shows Keeley Bolger how to cut down and keep it (sort of) sweet
There is no sugar-coating the fact that sugar consumption is having a massive impact on our waistlines, teeth, moods and overall health and wellbeing.
From reports that slashing the amount of sugar in sweetened drinks by 40% could prevent 300,000 cases of Type 2 diabetes, to news that the average five-year-old consumes the equivalent of their own body weight in sugar in a year, reducing the white stuff has become something of a national priority.
Yet while many are painfully aware of the destructive influence of sugar (that’ll be the 3pm grumps, ageing skin and bingo wings then), it doesn’t help that: A, sugar is added to lots of food and drinks, even unsuspecting savoury products; B, sugar is embedded in our daily diets Keeley Bolger(hello, mid-morning biscuits with a cuppa), and C, it tastes nice.
Here to help is cookery writer Susanna Booth, who used her polymer chemistry degree to create sugar-free goodies that don’t sacrifice taste, sweetly displayed in her new recipe book, Sensationally Sugar Free.
But with sugar playing “quite a big role in a lot of baking”, the challenge was to find a way of adding texture and crunch – which sugar provides – as well as sweetness.
So far, Booth’s recipes (in which she uses apple puree, sweeteners like stevia and naturally sweet fruits) have been well received by her friends and family.
The key, she says, is to accept that sugar-free deserts will taste different to sugar-laden versions of the same dish. “If you put my carrot cake next to another carrot cake that was made with sugar, you would notice how much less sweet it is,” says Booth. “But actually, most of the time, you don’t really want loads of sweetness. In a way, I think you just become accustomed to it.”
Although many of us are habituated to eating sweetened food, there are some things to keep in mind if you want to reduce the amount of sugar you use in baking.
“Think about that sugar hit,” explains Booth, who often uses fruit as a topping for cakes.
“If you make a Madeira cake and cut out pretty much all the sugars and use apple puree or whatever instead, it would be disgusting. It would just be like having a loaf of bread.
“It just will not be what you’re looking for mentally. You have to think about the proportion of things. If you have a sweet topping like whipped cream, you get that nice mouthful and feel like you’ve got something luxurious. You can sweeten the cake mixture very little and still feel like you’ve got that thing.”
Although not completely sugar-free, Booth “cooks from scratch”, so she can keep track of how much sugar she and her family eat.
“I think it’s better to try and reduce as much as you can,” she says.
“Any step is a step in the right direction because I think, as a population, we are eating too much sugar. Everyone is saying that now and more negative health effects are being found, so I hope that people find it helpful to try baking in a new way.”
If you’d like to give Booth’s method a whirl, here are three lovely recipes from Sensationally Sugar Free to try at home…
BANANA BREAD
(Makes about 12 slices)
4 ripe bananas, about 700g
75g unsalted butter, melted, plus extra for greasing
1 egg, beaten
150g white plain flour
50g wholemeal plain flour
4tsp baking powder
1/2tsp salt
75g sunflower seeds
Preheat the oven to 200C/180C fan/Gas mark 6. Lightly grease a 22 x 11 x 7cm/1kg loaf tin with a little butter.
Peel and mash the bananas in a large bowl (a few lumps are OK). Add the melted butter, followed by the egg, and stir well.
Add both flours, the baking powder and salt to the bowl. Gently fold everything together until well mixed. Set aside about one tablespoon of the sunflower seeds, then fold the rest into the mixture.
Use a spatula to transfer the mixture to the loaf tin. Shake gently to distribute it evenly in the tin and then smooth the top with the spatula. Sprinkle the reserved sunflower seeds on top.
Bake for 55-65 minutes until well browned and risen. Leave to cool in the tin.
CHOCOLATE TEA CAKE
(Makes about 12 slices)
1 Earl Grey teabag
110g pitted dried dates
75g wholemeal plain flour
25g cocoa powder
100g unsalted butter, very soft, plus extra for greasing
2 eggs
2tsp baking powder
Pinch of ground cloves
Pinch of salt
50g no-added-sugar plain dark chocolate, plus extra for decorating
Use the teabag to make a pot of tea, using about 150ml boiling water and leaving it to brew for five minutes. Pour off the tea into a measuring jug, then soak the dates in 125ml of the tea for at least four hours or overnight, reserving the remaining tea for the ganache.
When the dates are softened and have absorbed most of the tea, preheat the oven to 180C/160C fan/Gas mark 4. Lightly grease a 22 x 11 x 7cm/1kg loaf tin with a little butter.
Place the soaked dates, and the tea they were soaking in, in a food processor and process until smooth. Add the flour, cocoa powder, butter, eggs, baking powder, cloves and salt and process for three to four seconds, until everything has combined.
Scoop the cake mixture into the tin and smooth the top with a spatula. Bake for 30 minutes until well-risen and an inserted skewer comes out clean. Leave to cool in the tin before removing and placing on a serving plate.
Meanwhile, make the ganache. Break up the chocolate into small pieces and place in a small saucepan with the reserved tea over a low heat until the chocolate has melted, then stir well. Pour into a bowl and chill in the refrigerator for 30 minutes until the mixture has set. Spread it on the cooled cake. Use a vegetable peeler to create curls of chocolate and sprinkle over the top of the ganache to decorate. Eat within two to three days.
STRAWBERRY SCONES
(Makes 8)
225g plain flour, plus extra for dusting
75g wholemeal plain flour
1tbsp baking powder
50g unsalted butter, chilled and cut into chunks, plus extra for greasing
125ml rice milk
85ml milk
For the topping:
500g fresh strawberries, hulled and thinly sliced
2tsp balsamic vinegar
1/4tsp ground black pepper
300ml whipping cream
Preheat the oven to 220C/200C fan/Gas mark 7. Lightly grease a baking sheet with a little butter.
Mix both flours and the baking powder together in a large bowl. Add the butter and rub in with your fingertips until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs (you can pulse the ingredients in a food processor if you prefer). Pour in the rice milk and milk. Stir everything together, then get your hands in and knead the mixture into a dough.
Roll out the dough on a worktop, well dusted with flour, to a thickness of about 3cm. Use a 6cm cookie cutter to cut out eight rounds, re-rolling the trimmings as necessary, and place them on the baking sheet. Bake for 15 minutes until well-risen and browned.
To make the topping, stir the strawberry slices, vinegar and pepper together in a saucepan over a medium heat for five minutes, taking care not to let the mixture boil.
Once the strawberries have become softened and translucent, and have released some of their juices, remove the pan from the heat and leave everything to cool. Whip the cream until it forms soft peaks.
Serve the scones cut in half, with each side topped by a dollop of whipped cream and a serving of the balsamic strawberries.
:: Sensationally Sugar Free by Susanna Booth is published in hardback by Hamlyn, priced £20.