Baking snacks or cakes with veggies

thegiver

Thu, Apr 30 2020, 12:27 am

I want to omit or reduce sugar and spike my cakes with parnsips sweet potatoes and other natural sugars (not agave or honey etc).

Anyone done this before? We are kind of over ripe bananas and also over dates

Recipes pls!!

Teomima

Thu, Apr 30 2020, 12:56 am

This isn't exactly a cake, but I have a recipe for 2 ingredient frosting: baked potatoes and dark chocolate. Just bake the potatoes in their skin till fully done, carefully scoop out the insides while still hot, and mix with chopped chocolate till melted. If you use an immersion blender it comes out silky smooth. It's not free of added sugars, because of the chocolate, but most of the sweetness comes from the potatoes.

I've used this as a frosting, which is how it was described when I first found the recipe online, but also as a chocolate pie, and even eaten plain with a spoon as a dense mousse.

FranticFrummie

Thu, Apr 30 2020, 6:38 am

The typical modern diet just likes things way too sweet for my taste. For pete's sake, nothing needs 2 cups of sugar, unless maybe you are making 10 gallons of marmalade!

I've found that in recipes for things like muffins and quick breads, you can easily cut the amount of sugar in half or more, and add more sweet things like carrots, zucchini, or sweet potatoes to balance it out.

If you reduce the amount of sugar, reduce the amount of oil by half as well, or it will come out greasy. If you use coconut oil you can use a lot less, and your baked goods will last longer, too.

Sometimes, instead of removing a whole lot of sugar, I try to figure out how I can add things IN. Protein powder, amino acid powder, wheat germ, flax meal, chopped nuts, toasted hemp seeds, anything that will boost the vitamin and mineral content. I make up a big batch of special baking mix, and keep it in a sealed plastic bag in my freezer. I use it cup for cup, just like you would with regular flour.

Over all, my rule of thumb is don't make things so "healthy" that they taste like sawdust. Instead, make them moderately healthy, and practice reasonable portion control. Even the healthiest treats are not good if you are going to eat a dozen of them in one sitting. Wink