Living Vegan For Dummies - Alexandra Jamieson [43]
Supportive sweets
I’ve loved to bake since childhood, but my relationship with sugar has changed greatly over the years. Long gone are the days of slurping down Super Big Gulps and munching candy bars between classes. But I still love a good cookie! A healthy vegan diet can include sweets and baked goods, but they must be consumed thoughtfully. You can find several sweeteners that are healthier than refined white sugar.
Sugar is not the devil — the human brain is just hard-wired to crave it, and it has never been easier to get your hands on the stuff. Back when humans were foraging and hunting for food, sugar was hard to come by. Naturally sweet fruits, vegetables, and honey were hard to find and were limited by season and geography. Today, you can have sugar for every meal of the day, and many people often do!
So rather than load up on the refined white stuff, use these natural, mellower sweeteners. They won’t hit your bloodstream like lightning the way white sugar does, but you can still use these sweeteners moderately to create lovely treats and desserts:
Agave: A natural syrup derived from the same plant that’s used to make tequila, agave has a low glycemic level when used a teaspoon at a time. The darker the syrup, the more minerals it has, so the richer the taste. Because agave is sweeter than sugar, you can use less in your baking recipes for cupcakes, cookies, puddings, sweet sauces, quick breads, and scones. It’s also a wonderful sweetener for hot and iced teas and coffee. Agave can be found at health food stores and gourmet grocery stores.
Blackstrap molasses: A byproduct of the sugar-refining process, molasses comes from sugar cane. The thick black syrup is full of minerals. A good source of iron, blackstrap molasses provides a good amount of calcium, copper, manganese, potassium, and magnesium. Switching from refined, nutrient-poor white sugar, corn syrup, or artificial sweeteners to blackstrap molasses is a sweet idea. Excellent for baked goods like muffins, ginger cookies, and banana bread, blackstrap molasses can be found in your local health food store and in many grocery stores.
Brown rice syrup: This gooey syrup is made from cooked rice. Light and mild tasting, and about half as sweet as sugar, it’s good for cakes, pastries, and puddings. You also can stir it into tea and coffee. This polysaccharide is a more complex sugar than agave, so it releases more slowly into the bloodstream.
Date sugar: This granular sweetener is made from dried, pulverized dates. Because these little flecks don’t melt like regular cane sugar, and because they’re very sweet, I suggest that you use two-thirds of the recommended amount of sugar when using date sugar in recipes for cookies, pies, cakes, and scones.
Maple syrup: Fifty gallons of maple water are required to boil down to one gallon of maple syrup. This syrup concentrate is an excellent source of manganese and a good source of zinc. Grade B syrup is darker than Grade A, and because it offers a more pronounced taste than sugar, Grade B syrup is good for baking sweet breads, scones, cookies, puddings, mousses, and savory marinades. Be sure to keep maple syrup in the refrigerator after you open it. Found at health food stores and gourmet grocery stores, some states like New York don’t allow Grade B to be sold to the public in stores.
Stevia: Found in either powder or liquid form, this super concentrated sweetener is derived from the leaves of a South American plant. Because stevia is 100 times sweeter than sugar, you must use it in tiny amounts if you buy it in a concentrated form. Stevia has no carbohydrates, so it doesn’t affect blood sugar at all, making it a good alternative for diabetics and people with