Using less sugar…

In conversations about cutting back on sugar while baking, I am often asked…”How do you adjust a recipe to use less sugar?”. One of my goals in the last several years has been to use as little processed sugar as possible while still sweetening things with natural sweeteners (syrup, applesauce, and honey being my top 3 sweeteners). So, I have experimented with different baked goods and different natural sweeteners to see how the outcome is affected.

The good news is…no matter what you bake…there is a pretty good chance (like 99% based on my tests) that you can automatically cut the sugar amount in a recipe in half.  And…There are many recipes where part of the directions call for sugar (such as one tablespoon in making pancakes). I don’t even add that sugar…because I don’t need that sugar in with the other ingredients in order for the whole pancake to turn out right.  Again, I just try baking it without sugar often times and then I determine how much more sweetener it needs…because you can always add more sweetener on top if desired (but you can’t take more sweetener out once it is baked).

So, I’ve included variations to some of the recipes I have posted as well as the adjustments on the sweeteners.

Enjoy…and feel free to share your adjustments in recipes as well so we can all benefit from healthier versions of the foods we enjoy!