I was inspired to write this post by the wonderful conversations I had with some of my followers, as well as with members of my family. Since many of you seem interested in cutting down on sugar in desserts this time of year, especially baked desserts, I thought it could be useful to highlight some of the issues that might occur if you tried to reduce the sugar, and potential solutions worth considering. This information is taken from America’s Test Kitchen’s (ATK) super informative cookbook, “Naturally Sweet: Bake All Your Favorites with 30% to 50% Less Sugar.”
Less sugar means less flavor, since sugar “enhances four of our five basic tastes, including sweet, salty, bitter, and umami.” To compensate for the lack of flavor, ATK suggests experimenting with adding dried spices, extracts, or citrus zest.
Low sugar recipes also require extra liquid. “When you reduce the amount of sugar in a baking recipe without altering any of the other ingredients, the resulting dough or batter will have too much available moisture. This moisture is then absorbed by the flour. Unlike sugar, flour isn’t able to hold on to moisture during baking, and lets it evaporate in the oven. This is why baked goods made with less sugar are often dry.” To avoid this, ATK suggests adding extra liquid, increasing the number of eggs, or reducing the baking time. The latter solution is my favorite 🙂
Moreover, less sugar can make baked goods greasy. “The reason this happens is that in the absence of sugar, flour absorbs the excess moisture, and then releases it in the form of steam during baking. Since fat and water repel each other, the steam essentially pushes some of the fat out of the baked goods during baking.” Result: a greasy cake, for example! Possible solutions to this greasiness, as per ATK, would be reducing the amount of butter slightly, or adding a fat that won’t melt during baking, such as egg yolks.
My research indicates that, while there’s no “one size fits all” approach, overall, cakes seem to take on the sugar reduction better. A few years ago, King Arthur bakers and researchers conducted a detailed experiment with different kinds of cakes, and their conclusion was that you could reduce the sugar in any cake recipe by 10% without compromising its flavor or texture. Blended cakes (where you simply put all of the ingredients in a bowl and stir them together) are most likely to take on the sugar reduction well. As per King Arthur bakers, you can reduce sugar in blended cakes by up to 50%, but it is best to start with a simple 10% reduction (“5 teaspoons scooped out of each cup of sugar”), and go from there. You can read all about this detailed experiment on the King Arthur Baking website.
On the other hand, cookies made with less sugar are rather tricky, a fact acknowledged by both King Arthur Baking and America’s Test Kitchen. According to the former, “Sugar attracts and holds water in cookie dough; but during baking, it releases that water, absorbing it once again as cookies cool. The result? Balls of cookie dough spread and flatten as they bake. The less sugar you use, the less cookies will spread.” Moreover, sugar helps produce crunch in cookies, so lower-sugar cookies “will be cakey and crumbly, not crisp. Of all the baked treats you enjoy, successfully reducing sugar in cookies is probably the toughest challenge” (“Baking with Reduced Sugar,” kingarthurbaking.com)
One potential solution to this textural problem is highlighted in America’s Test Kitchen’s cookbook referenced above,where they state that adding extra leavener, such as baking soda or baking powder, can help.
With these observations, I am merely scratching the surface of baking with less sugar. There are, of course, other factors that can make an impact, such as temperature, altitude, and ingredient quality. For additional in-depth information, I highly recommend America’s Test Kitchen’s cookbook and the King Arthur website. For recipes, you are welcome to check out the Desserts section of my website here.
Are you trying to reduce sugar in baked goods? Let me know in the comments. I would love to learn from you 🙂
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