Desserts, Sweets, Baked Goods for Diabetics

[Ursula40]

Oh boy, this does make it difficult. I will give the mother a list of ingredients and let her decide what and how much her son can eat. She definately wants the cake, and I suppose, if I give her the list, she can calculate how much her son will be allowed to eat and how she needs to medicate. So if I tell her how much fat, flour and sugar is in the ckae she can calculate the servingsize, right? She already said she would scrape off the frosting as much as possible from his piece, in addition to not giving him a piece from the edge, but rather from the middle, where there won't be so much to start with.

I don't have such a good feeling making this cake, it worries me, but I also feel sorry for the child, who has his heart set on having a cake he can be proud of and showing off to his friends. But ultimately the responsibilty does lie with his parents and they are the ones, who asked me to do the cake. So why do I feel like this? At least I can give her the list, which she wouldn't get, if she went to a bakery. Tracking down substitutes for cake flour is not that easy here in Shanghai, plus I'd have to find recipes for them, should I find them. I'll just go with the flour I have and rely on the mother's judgement, based on the complete list of ingredients for that cake.

Regards Ursula

[PopsicleToze]

I participed in my first farmers' market this past weekend. The most requests came from diabetics. I was selling pralines and peanut brittle, and sooooo many people wanted some but could not eat it because they were diabetics. I told them I would try to come up with something for them before next week. Any ideas??

Thanks for any help or direction you can provide.

Rhonda

[abadoozy]

I'm a diabetic.

The problem with making food for diabetics is that there's no one diabetic diet. A lot of people just assume that diabetic food = sugar free food, but that's advice from fifty years ago. Nowadays we know that any carb - flour, sugar, fruit, vegetables, anything that has carbohydrates - is of concern to a diabetic.

I know some diabetic people who avoid processed sugar and flour but will eat fruit. Others eat just about everything, but watch portion size. Others have gone totally Atkins and eat little or no carbs at all. Most Type 1s (which is what I am) don't have a special diet at all, because we can cover just about everything with insulin (Thank God!). So it's pretty hard to make something that the "average" diabetic can eat, because there truly is no "average" diabetic.

Pretty much the only thing that is truly OK for any type of diabetic is food with no carbs. Meat/Cheese/etc. Of course, candy and pastries are difficult to get carb-free - even if you go sugar-free, there's still flour (at least in pastries.) You can make meringues with egg whites and a sugar substitute, and those are mostly carb free. Anything with nut flours instead of grain flours - coconut flour, almond flour, ground almonds, etc - made with sugar substitute is also very low carb. Dark chocolate - the 70% kind - is really low carb, maybe something with that? Bacon dipped in Dark Chocolate would be trendy & yummy. Or dark chocolate dipped nuts. Orange/lemon/lime rinds in dark chocolate would be good too.

It's pretty difficult, really. Maybe think "Atkins" and see where that takes you.

[Lior]

Well I make some chocolates for diabetics. I just try to keep the maltitol to its lowest, so I have a range of 65% (so that would be 34% maltitol) and 80% which would be 19% maltitol. I mix this with natural nut pastes and then cut and dip. They are not sweet but I have a few clients who go for them on a consistent basis. The fat in the nuts and cocoa butter are an issue perhaps.

[PopsicleToze]

Thanks for the replies. Looks like this is going to be a bit difficult.

[abadoozy]

An easier idea - just posting a carb count would go a long way. Single bites of praline or chocolates aren't that high carb, because they're small, and a lot of diabetics can/would fit it into their diet if they knew it was only 10 carbs or whatever.

I figure out carb counts by recipe (www.calorieking.com is a great resource), then divide by the # of individual pieces it makes. Takes maybe 10 minutes per recipe.

[Lior]

nice idea- I will do that!

[PopsicleToze]

Now, I am really in a fix. People are stopping by just to see what I made for them. One lady said, "The lady here before you made us sugar-free cherry pies, and I always bought everything she had."

I didn't know what to say, but I said, "I would love to do that, but from my understanding, it's just not about sugar. The body turns carbs into sugar, so we have to watch the entire carb intake. I just don't think that I know enough to sell you anything."

She was stunned, but I can't sell her anything that would hurt her. Yet, when I told her about it, it was like she didn't want to know.

I will not hurt people to make money, even if they want that to happen. That is just wrong. Still, I have to sell things, and now it's on a "you better sell things or you will be flat broke." Still, I won't hurt anyone even if they ask me to do it.

HELP!!!

Rhonda

[PopsicleToze]

Please help me. I need something that diabetics can eat without harm when they want sweets. There's no getting around it.

Rhonda

[Lior]

I know exactly how you feel. A lot of people want the sweet taste and stick their heads in the sand. I have a customer who wants an 85% bar sweetened with maltitol and filled with a thin layer of regular good marzipan. I have gotten to the point of saying okay.....

I googled low carb desserts and desserts with no sugar.Here for example is one

I would replace the cheeses with a low fat-do you get low fat white spreadable cheese? All natural. If not I can give you a recipe

[Lior]

pic of white cheese

[Badiane]

Check out http://www.lowcarb.ca/low-carb-recipes.html. As a type II diabetic, low carb desserts work well for me.

Karen Barnaby is a well known Vancouver chef who went low carb a while ago, and her recipes are great. The sponge cake with the tiramisu recipe is very nice on it's own,as well as in the tiramisu, as are the cheesecakes. Actually, the stuff is all good, if a little different from traditional baking. There are a few things there that would for sure work at a farmer's market.

If you do end up looking at those recipes, please note that she gives the calories and carbs for the entire recipe, so you have to divide it per serving yourself.

Edited May 10, 2010 by Badiane (log)

[Lior]

great link - I am there now-thanks!!

[abadoozy]

Now, I am really in a fix. People are stopping by just to see what I made for them. One lady said, "The lady here before you made us sugar-free cherry pies, and I always bought everything she had."

I didn't know what to say, but I said, "I would love to do that, but from my understanding, it's just not about sugar. The body turns carbs into sugar, so we have to watch the entire carb intake. I just don't think that I know enough to sell you anything."

She was stunned, but I can't sell her anything that would hurt her. Yet, when I told her about it, it was like she didn't want to know.

I will not hurt people to make money, even if they want that to happen. That is just wrong. Still, I have to sell things, and now it's on a "you better sell things or you will be flat broke." Still, I won't hurt anyone even if they ask me to do it.

HELP!!!

Rhonda

Well, that really sucks, but it doesn't surprise me much. The amount of disinformation out there for diabetics is astounding, and it's really hard to sort through it all even when you're diabetic yourself. Add in the fact that a LOT of people are in denial over it, and it gets very frustrating.

But you are right, sugar-free is hardly the answer. But I know more than one diabetic who will happily eat tons of white bread and potatoes while shunning small pieces of candy or chocolate. It does no good to point out to them that those fries have 5 times the carbs as that chocolate they refuse to eat.

I think all you can do is try to make low-carb desserts. Sugar-free pies really are not too horribly bad, especially if you can find a crust that incorporates flax or nuts or something other than plain white flour. I made a batch of meringues today that are only 3 or 4 carbs each, very easy to make, and very sweet. I'm guessing you could substitute splenda for the sugar and make them virtually no carb. And practically calorie free as well!

[Kajikit]

It sounds like they don't really WANT 'healthy'... They want 'sugar-free'. If they were going to the extent of counting every individual carbohydrate they consumed, they wouldn't be wanting to buy your stuff. So why no cater to them by making some fruit desserts? Fruit helps to disguise the taste of artificial sweetener, and the added fiber lowers the carb count. Every diabetic reacts differently to foods anyway, so it's not as if you could guarantee a perfect result for anyone. It's up to them to know what's 'safe' for them to eat.

[Spring]

Its so great to hear about someone who shares my feeling of being unable to sell products that are 'bad'

As mentioned you should look for recipes or information on sites or forums to do with low carb. As far as flours are concerned try high protein ones, almond is great but expensive so I would advise a mix eg almond, teff, spelt,oat(you can get gf) quinoa, buckwheat etc. If you use gf flours you need to add xanthan or guar gum or a mix of the two (not too much or they can be slimy). Another idea is to mix in some wholemeal flour. It might be a good idea to go for the gf, high protein flours as an extra selling point for low carb or ppl who cant have gluten free

Now with regards to the sweeteners there are several options.

Ive been researching this for about a year now as I decided to make my own chocolate (with the santha bought from Alchemist John) that is low cal and has little or no effect on insulin levels (you can read about it in my blog http://aviva-chocolateandmore.blogspot.com/

There are the sugar alcohols but they usually cause digestive distress. Maltitol is a great substitute for sugar but the problem is that it isnt that much lower on the gi than sucrose and therefore does raise the blood sugar quite a bit.

You could include some fructose as it is released slowly and doesnt spike the bs; agave syrup is considered a good sweetener for diabetics but from my research its a bit iffy as it depends on the plant, where it was grown and conditions etc etc, you could also use corn or grape sugar etc

There are the bulk sweeteners and the high intensity. Included in the high intensity group are sucralose, ace k, aspartame etc.

You could use a bit of maltitol, fructose and one of the hi sweeteners. If you are making a fruit based cake then dried fruit, mashed banana, apple butter or applesauce are options (ie fructose). The hi sweetners are bitter in large amounts so you only need a tiny bit. Usually the splenda etc cup for cup powders have sucralose and maltodextrin as a filler, the problem there is that the maltodextrin is high in calories and raises bs.

If you can get hold of polydextrin that would be good

oh, dear this was a long post. I would have been more than happy to email you copies of my recipes and findings but a virus just wiped out my pc

google is your friend and if you have any other questions you want to ask please feel free.

Edited May 17, 2010 by Spring (log)