Reducing sugar in baking.

(I should add that's its DH who is diabetic. But diet-wise we both eat the same. It should have helped my weight - but it hasn't!)

It's very difficult - as there's sugar in almost everything. Chew a piece of bread, without swallowing - and it becomes sweet. That's just saliva turning carbohydrate into sugar, before it even hits the stomach!

I have been diabetic for ten years and managed to keep my bs low by avoiding rice, potatoes and bread or other higher carb fruit like tropical fruits and bananas.
I bake with stevia granulated, which works very well as a sugar substitute. Waitrose and Tesco and Ocado sell it.
I find that erythritol has a horrid cooling effect and re-crystallises so avoid it where I can. I use ground almonds to substitute. There is a very good site called "All Day I Dream About Food" which offers loads of brilliant baking recipes for low carb.

NfkDumpling, oats, being wholegrains, take longer to be digested and converted to sugar - also have beneficial fibre etc. lacking in refined flour.

(Still, my baking efforts with wholegrains have been somewhat disappointing - easier to eat something else instead of cakes, biscuits and scones.)

I love baking too. I don't know exactly how 'low GI' these recipes are - but I can't wait to give them a try (especially the peanut butter cookies).

If only I could master portion control. The best I can do is make half or quarter quantities, knowing I'll probably polish them off:

www.wellandgood.com/low-glycemic-desserts/

If you are happy with less sweet puddings and cakes, I do wonder if it is possible to bake a nice cake that has the proper texture with altered quantities of ingredients such as sugar. I am not an experienced baker, and I do hope someone here could inform me.

I have stopped buying supermarket cakes as they are so sweet I don't enjoy them.

PS it is the texture that I wonder about if the proportion of sugar is left out. For instance what about Victoria mix 4+4+4+2eggs?

Thank you all for your help, lots of things to try. Thirdinline thank you for your kind offer of recipes, I would love to have them. And thank you Hetty58 for the website. Im hoping I can fend diabetes off, I’m not overweight and my blood pressure is fine but the flesh that should be on my hips has gone to my waist! Several posters have talked about going low carb, I find this difficult as my gut comes to a complete halt, but have reduced portion sizes and use wholegrain versions. Am also trying to up my walking but tend to be too slow due to poor eyesight, however I’ve found walking uphill with a small backpack on is raising my heart rate nicely. Is there anything else I can do?

RillaofIngleside apologies for not thanking you for posting about All Day I Dream About Food. Some very interesting recipes for me to try

Hetty58

NfkDumpling, oats, being wholegrains, take longer to be digested and converted to sugar - also have beneficial fibre etc. lacking in refined flour.

(Still, my baking efforts with wholegrains have been somewhat disappointing - easier to eat something else instead of cakes, biscuits and scones.)

Thanks Hetty, that makes sense. So, replacing with oats slows the conversion to sugar and therefore the rush of sugar.

We make our own muesli now, so no added sugar, lots of oats and a few chopped nuts, mixed seeds and raisins. We bought some readymade Jordans muesli on holiday and it tasted so horribly sweet!

Caleo, I find the texture of the Victoria sponge to be absolutely fine when I halve the sugar content. Give it a try, I’m sure you’ll like it.

Thanks for the info. Mapleleaf!

Have a look at the Diet Doctor website where there are lots of low carb (ie diabetic-friendly) recipes. I’ve made the mug cake which is lovely. Grains and most fruit need to be avoided to ward off Diabetes.

Thanks PaperMonster, I’ll have a look.

I too have have halved the sugar in fruit cakes and it works a treat. BUT. I was prediabetic and had to work hard at cutting out sugar completely to remove this status. Then start to reintroduce a bit more sugar into my diet again.
I was fierce with myself because it is doable.

Hello - I was diagnosed with PMR (Polymyalgia Rheumatica) last year and so on Prednisolone, so like your DH have to be very wary of sugar and carbs. Being veggie I found Ruth Elliots Veggie Low Carb a life saver and have lost nearly 2 stones in weight! Delighted. She does a Low Carb book too. As he’s a diabetic… the lower the carbs the beta! There are some lovely baking recipes too! Good Luck!

Google low carb baking…use natural sweeteners such as monk fruit, stevia, erythritol or allulose. Change from wheat flour to almond, coconut or pea flour and your sugar intake will be greatly reduced. Its a different way from how I was taught to bake and I’ve reduced the amount if sweet things I now eat.

Good advice Dogsmother. I don’t eat cake often as I’m permanently struggling to maintain my weight at the correct level, but I do bake for friends and family and don’t want to sit there not having any. My DD in particular would feel very unhappy eating cake in front of me. I will look for the Rose Elliott book LiliWenFach44 but unfortunately I also have gut problems and react badly to beans and lentils which tends to make vegetarian recipes a problem. For the same reason I would have to be cautious about using almond and pea flour etc. Omoama. Can I mix small amounts with wheat flour to see how much I can tolerate? I’m feeling a bit besieged by a raft of health and old age problems at the moment so it’s great to be able to come here and get so much help and advice.