Cooking without sugar

As some of my readers might remember, I had a cholesterol test a few months ago which showed that the level was much too high and the doc wanted me to start taking statins to bring it down. I very nicely refused and said that I would like to try and bring it down to an acceptable level another way and heard from a friend that her doctor told her she had a number of patients who had been able to do that by quitting sugar. My friend had also brought down her own cholesterol level dramatically after six months of giving up sugar. 

So I thought I would give it a try for six months also and then have another test done. That is due in August so not long to go now. I think the hardest part of lowering sugar intake was giving up sugar in my coffee but I am now used to the taste. I am quite pleased that I am no longer tempted to buy muesli bars even if they are from Weight Watchers as I knew they weren't a terribly wholesome food but I really am not a fan of baking a lot of cakes and biscuits these days so didn't really bother until the weather cooled down and I started getting the munchies in the afternoon. 

I did try a couple of the I Quit Sugar recipes and quite like the taste of Rice Malt Syrup which is used a lot in Sarah Wilson's recipes.  However, David Gillespie who wrote Sweet Poison seems to prefer to replace sugar with dextrose which is used in home brew and is available in some supermarkets and also Big W where I bought mine. 

 I recently borrowed his book The Sweet Poison Quit Plan Cookbook so that I could try out some of his recipes. There are a lot of cakes and dessert recipes in this book and of course, they need to be eaten in moderation but for those who want to take the plunge and reduce their sugar intake, there are certainly some delicious looking recipes in this book. 

 Pavlova with Berries and Passionfruit ~ a dessert to keep in mind for Christmas...

Passionfruit Tartlets

 

 Another yummy looking Christmas recipe!...

...and Banana Bread. 

I wanted to experiment with using dextrose in my cooking so thought I would give the Banana Bread a try. Here is my version:

Banana Bread

1 1/4 cups Rye flour

1 cup dextrose

1 teaspoon  bicarb soda

2 eggs

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 mashed bananas

80 -100 grams ground almonds

Preheat the oven to 170 degreesC and line a loaf tin with baking paper.

Beat the dextrose, oil, vanilla and eggs until light and creamy then fold in the dry ingredients and combine. Add banana and almonds or whatever nuts you prefer and pour into loaf tin.

Bake until cooked when testing with a skewer which was about 45 minutes in my oven but I have been warned to keep an eye on whatever you are cooking which has dextrose in it as it can burn. I didn't have any trouble with that though. After cooling turn the bread out onto a wire rack to cool down completely before slicing and serving with butter. 

You can freeze this bread for a month or so but ours never made it to the freezer ;-) The menfolk  thought it tasted quite delicious and was a nice snack during this cold weather we are having. 

It has even been cold up in Mt.Isa and, as you can see, little Isaiah is all rugged up. A friend from church made him a patchwork quilt which was such a lovely gift...

...and obviously he is very happy with it! His Nanna did start cutting out squares to make him a rag quilt so that he could have one like his big sisters have....

...but his won't be pink of course! Hopefully it will be finished by the time he starts school. LOL!