Baked Dessert Tweaks: Lower-fat, Lower-carb, etc...

[JFCampbell]

Each year by daughter prepares a birthday cake for our little family celebration. Of course, she wants to make a cake I will particularly appreciate. In the old days that meant a rich chocolate cake with a ton of icing. In fact, I really like to mix cake crumbs in a bowl of icing for a really special treat. Now that I have diabetes I have to restrict my carbs.

Last year she made a cake substituting Splenda for the sugar. We didn't find it particularly satisfactory (in fact, after eating a small piece she had to resort to using her tongue scraper in an attempt to get rid of the aftertaste ... I didn't think it was that bad, but I didn't think it was that great, either).

This year my intention is to ask for a small but rich chocolate cake. She recommends icing it with Cool Whip. I would just need to eat a small piece.

Perhaps people here have a better idea. I'm no fan of fancy flavor combinations. I don't want nuts, fruit or anything else to compete with the chocolate flavor. I've read elsewhere that using almond flour reduces the carbs without affecting taste, but I haven't found any almond flour locally.

Recommendations ... anyone?

[Cynthia G]

I would either go with something else entirely, like a low carb pots de creme (a luscious little dish of rich, rich chocolate.... ) with real whipped cream, or I would make a low carb pound-type cake and a good low carb chocolate frosting. Cheesecake can be easily made low carb as well.

Most natural foods stores (e.g. Whole Foods, Vitamin Cottage) will have almond meal and almond flour. Also readily available by mail order.

I've been controlling my diabetes completely by a low carb way of eating since 1997. PM me if you'd like some tips or recipes.

[Suzanne F]

I was going to suggest Reine de Saba (Queen of Sheba): almond flour, chocolate, eggs, butter, but . . . well, yeah, sugar and flour, too. Maybe there's a recipe for it somewhere out there in cyberspace that doesn't have much of the carb stuff? It's so wonderful, and needs nothing else, no frosting, not even cream (although that's always nice).

[JFCampbell]

I was going to suggest Reine de Saba (Queen of Sheba): almond flour, chocolate, eggs, butter, but . . . well, yeah, sugar and flour, too.    Maybe there's a recipe for it somewhere out there in cyberspace that doesn't have much of the carb stuff? It's so wonderful, and needs nothing else, no frosting, not even cream (although that's always nice).

Wow, that sounds great! Maybe I could tweak it a little, or maybe the carbs won't add up to too much. I couldn't find a recipe at eGullet, though. Can you point me to a recipe?

[Gifted Gourmet]

Wow, that sounds great! Maybe I could tweak it a little, or maybe the carbs won't add up to too much. I couldn't find a recipe at eGullet, though. Can you point me to a recipe?

http://www.jmdl.com/guitar/marian/Recipes/chrumalm.htm

Can you see where the carbs are lurking in this recipe? It does look luscious though! Tweak away!!

[scott123]

Wow, that sounds great! Maybe I could tweak it a little, or maybe the carbs won't add up to too much. I couldn't find a recipe at eGullet, though. Can you point me to a recipe?

http://www.jmdl.com/guitar/marian/Recipes/chrumalm.htm

Can you see where the carbs are lurking in this recipe? It does look luscious though! Tweak away!!

As far as cake recipes go, that recipe is surprisingly tweakable for reducing carbs.

The sugar needs to (obviously) become splenda

The semisweet cholate needs to become unsweetened chocolate and splenda

The 3/4 cup of flour could probably be broken down into something like:

1/2 C. almond flour (to add to to the other 1/3 C.)

1/4 C. cream cheese

Vital wheat gluten (or WPI) might be a good substition for part of the flour and/or whey protein.

Some people substitute soy flour for regular flour but from what I hear, it's an acquired taste.

[merstar]

Lots at the Splenda website under "Desserts." Here's one of the recipes plus a link to the site:

http://www.splenda.com/page.jhtml;jsession...pes/library.inc

Flourless" Chocolate Hazelnut Torte with Frangelico

Makes 12 servings

Active Preparation Time: 20 min.

Bake Time: 15-20 min.

Cake

3/4 cup Finely Chopped Hazelnuts

2 1/2 oz. Unsweetened Baker's Chocolate

3/4 cup SPLENDA® Granular

1/2 cup Plain Bread Crumbs

2 Tbsp. Corn Starch

1 tsp. Baking Powder

1/4 cup Egg Substitute

3/4 cup Brewed Coffee

2 Tbsp. Vegetable Oil

2 Tbsp. Unsweetened Applesauce

2 Tbsp. Frangelico

Glaze

3 oz.Sugar-Free Chocolate

2 Tbsp. Frangelico

Preheat oven to 350°F. Lightly Spray an 8 inch cake pan with cooking spray. Set aside.

Bake hazelnuts in preheated oven until golden brown, approx 5-7 min. Set aside.

Melt chocolate in a small pan over low heat. Set aside. Place hazelnuts and remaining cake ingredients in a medium-size mixing bowl. Stir until well blended. Add chocolate and mix well. Pour into prepared cake pan. Bake 15-20 minutes. Cake will seem slightly under baked.

Remove cake from pan. Cool on a wire rack.

Place cake on a serving plate. Place chocolate and Frangelico in a small saucepan. Heat over low heat while stirring constantly. Pour melted chocolate glaze over torte. Refrigerate torte until ready to serve.

Nutritional Information per serving

Total Calories 170

Calories from Fat 110

Total Fat 12 g

Saturated Fat 4 g

Cholesterol 0mg

Sodium 80 mg

Total Carbohydrate 15 g

Dietary Fiber 2 g

Sugars 4 g

Protein 3 g

[CompassRose]

If you can have even a little bit of sugar, the combination of sugar and Splenda is acres better than Splenda alone. Even adding a small amount of a low-glycemic "real" sweetener such as brown rice syrup helps. Splenda by itself is an acquired taste, and the only reason to acquire it is desperation... (although I am that desperate just at present! Even so, I've discovered that a little drop of stevia sweetener in with my Splenda still cuts that sucralose aftertaste.)

Oh, and Splenda will "meringue" with egg whites. If you need it to.

[mags]

I can't stand the taste of straight Splenda, and would strongly recommend mixing it with either A) sugar, B) Erythitol (a sugar alcohol, in granular form, that is generally thought to have the lowest insulin-impact and lowest uhhh........gastro-intestinal implications of all the SAs), or C) my favorite, Whey Low, about which there are several Egullet threads. Amazing stuff. Cooks and tastes EXACTLY like sugar, and -- according to a fair number of diabetics -- won't play havoc with your blood sugar.

If you're watching carbs, I'd stay away from the Cool Whip, which only looks low-carb if you understand that the manufacturer calculates "1 serving" to be something like 2 tablespoons. You'd be far better off using actual whipped cream (sweetened with one of the options above) or butter cream (ditto).

Depending on how strictly you're monitoring carbs, I'd suggest one of two options for the cake itself. Option 1 would be to look for recipes for any good Viennese-style torten -- they're often made with nut-flours, rather than with wheat, and can be spectacularly delicious. Option 2, if you're being really strict, would be to go the low-carb-recipe route. I don't bake a lot (don't have much of a sweet tooth), but I can certainly get you some recipes for low-carb chocolate cake that others have enjoyed, if you'd like. Alternatively, try this site http://www.lowcarbluxury.com/lowcarb-desserts.html. I haven't tried or read reviews of most of the cakes listed, but they're unlikely to be disgusting (though I would make the sweetener substitutions as suggested above -- a lot of long-time low-carbers seem to like the flavor of Splenda, or at least not find it revolting, so I rarely trust their sweetener recommendations).

A good health-food store will probably carry almond-flour; you can make your own by whizzing blanched almonds (or unblanched, if you prefer -- more fiber = good for you) in the food processor. Grind it WITH some of your granulated sweetener, to help keep the mix from clumping into almond butter. Do be aware that homemade almond-flour is always going to be coarser than the stuff you can buy -- not necessarily bad, just different.

Finally, if you're looking for something ultra-easy, you could try this site: www.expertfoods.com. They make something called a "Cake-ability" cake mix, to which you need to add almond or pecan flour (the site sells pecan flour packaged with the mix, if you like). Again, because I'm not much of a sweets-fanatic, I haven't tried the mix. HOwever, the mix is now being used by some quite high-end bakeries seeking to please their low-carbing clients (in particular, Greystone Bakeries is coming out with a LC cake based on Cake-ability). And the folks who make it are extremely nice, and struck me as being straight-shooters -- i.e., I believe their carb-counts.

Let me know if you want some other recipes.

[klc14]

At first glance it does seem to go against every known precept of cake....except....a friend had a recipe (from either Joy of Cooking, or a Mollie Katzen cookbook) that required almonds and dates, I think--I'm sure about the almond. and it made a flat moist one layer cake although if you wanted I suppose you could make two and stack and so forth......

it was very good and she made it often for dieting friends. A food processor was necessary to grind up the almonds, and then you mixed in the dates. (Of course in those days I didn't recognize as dessert anything that had no chocolate).

[mags]

At first glance it does seem to go against every known precept of cake....except....a friend had a recipe (from either Joy of Cooking, or a Mollie Katzen cookbook) that required almonds and dates, I think--I'm sure about the almond. and it made a flat moist one layer cake although if you wanted I suppose you could make two and stack and so forth......

it was very good and she made it often for dieting friends. A food processor was necessary to grind up the almonds, and then you mixed in the dates. (Of course in those days I didn't recognize as dessert anything that had no chocolate).

Actually, a lot of classic Eastern European (Austrian, Hungarian, etc.) cake recipes use breadcrumbs and/or nut flours instead of wheat flour. And they often contain chocolate. If made well, they can be incredibly delicious. And yeah, they tend to be stacked in layers.

[klc14]

At first glance it does seem to go against every known precept of cake....

(Of course in those days I didn't recognize as dessert anything that had no chocolate).

Actually, a lot of classic Eastern European (Austrian, Hungarian, etc.) cake recipes use breadcrumbs and/or nut flours instead of wheat flour. And they often contain chocolate. If made well, they can be incredibly delicious. And yeah, they tend to be stacked in layers.

Why, silly me, I'm sure they do. What are some of their names? I was more thinking (incoherently) that a person looking for a low carb cake would be able to find a flourless cake in a cookbook somewhere. (I still have these lingering pre-Google thought patterns).

[YKL]

think you may have enough suggestions already but if not - Elizabeth David has a classic flourless chocolate cake (using ground almonds I think) - which Jill Dupleix amended by doubling the chocolate content! Very rich, yet still melt in the mouth. and if you want a rich topping, how about a home made chocolate mousse?

Have used the mousse as a filling for a chocolate roulade (so again flourless), along with some whipped cream and cherries - it's a classic Delia Smith recipe - try www.deliaonline.com

Another suggestion (although have not made it myself yet) - is nigella lawson's chocolate cloud cake - from How to be a Domestic Goddess? Certainly the photo looks good.

Hope this helps - must admit that I am not sure if any of this counts as low carb so good luck - and happy birthday!

[klc14]

Has the birthday happened?

There are some

ground nut cake suggestions

from the "Sound of Music Dinner" thread. look for ludja's post of Jan 15 2004, 10:20 AM . Suggestions like "Linzer Torte (torte w/ground hazelnut crust, perserves (red or black currant or raspberry), lattice crust on top and sliced almonds... Any ground nut cake (in which ground walnuts, hazelnuts or almonds are substituted for most of the flour) ... could be frosted with chocolate.

Also "Palatchinken---Austrian/Hungarian Crepes filled w/various fillings---(currant jelly, walnut cream). Could use a standard crepe recipe and make them ahead. Jelly ones dusted w/confectioner's sugar; walnut cream ones drizzeled w/chocolate..."

And there's also a link to

an Austrian cake using 3 eggs, 1 cup sugar, 1/2 cup flour along with butter and chocolate. I don't know if that is low carb enough for your requirements but it does look RICH.

[JFCampbell]

Thanks to everyone for their great ideas for birthday food. FYI, my birthday was April 26 (I'm 62) and my daughter prepared a simple chocolate cake with light icing. This time I applied a simple approach ... small serving size. My family wasn't ready for the use of artificial sweeteners and I wasn't doing the preparation, so this was the easy way to go.

However, I've read these many suggestions with great interest. I already have some of the ingredients for recipes using these ideas. I'm still looking for a source of Whey Low ... I guess I'll have to order on-line since local stores don't stock it. I'm anxious to try some of the nut flours. So far I've only been able to get Almond flour, but I could grind some nuts myself. So many of these ideas sound good that I'll be trying many of them, but doing my own cooking. By next birthday I'll be able to offer my daughter a recipe that should satisfy not only me but the rest of the family. That "Linzer Torte" could be a real winner.

[SummerSun]

Healthy baked goods are not in my realm of pastry knowledge, so I am seeking ideas or suggestions of a place to start learning. A friend of mine needs my help with recipe development for items such as low-fat cream cheese pound cake (hers took 3 hours to bake and weighed like 4 pounds for some reason!). Other items may include typical breakfast muffins and the like. As far as substitutions for sugar, oils, flours...I'm not sure where to start. Does anyone have any experience with this or reference to resources? Thanks inadvance.

[highchef]

I am going to try Rose Levy Beranbaum's Golden Wheat Carrot Ring in about 5 minutes, or whenever I find my ring pan, whichever...

I discovered I had all the ingredients for this while perusing the book this morning. I'm just going to call it cake, and see if the boys eat it!

It's in "The Cake Bible".

I'll let you know this p.m. how it turned out.

[srhcb]

Using White Whole Wheat Flour is a good place to start.

Substituting honey for sugar and applesauce for oil are some of the other "tricks" I've use in surrepticiously sneaking healthier baked goods into GF's diet.

Her normal response to anything that looks suspiciously healthy is to ask, "Is this supposed to be good for me?" in the same tone of voice one might use to ask, "Is this poisonous?"

SB

Edited September 26, 2006 by srhcb (log)

[MissAmy]

I have subbed Whey Low for sugar in the past with decent results.

[SummerSun]

Standing by highchef...

srhcb- When doing these substitutions, do you substitute exact porortions, or does the recipe change completely? I noticed in the 'Wild Sweets', by the Duby's, that they mention to reserve the simmered fruit for fruit stock (apples,pears,carrots,citrus zest) to be passed through a tamis and later used as a replacement for butter or lard. Okay, obviously not a good substitute for pie crusts, but with batters maybe? Thinking of a typical oil or butter based recipe, would you instead cream the fruit puree with honey, so on and so forth?

Or is the method diffent?

My friend mentioned that she has had some flour issues causing texture problems with these low fat baked goods? Is it the flour causing the problem or the fat substitution causing it? My guess would be both, if so is there a way of overcoming this?

Where is Harold McGee when you need him!

MissAmy- Does wheylow have the same texture and raw sweetness as sugar? How do you define "decent" for your results? What were your issues, if any, that I can learn from?

I am trying to get as much info as possible before in order to cut back on experimentation costs. I have a feeling this is really going to be a challenge!

Thanks again for all your help.

[K8memphis]

Substitute a little wheat germ for flour anywhere and that ramps it up a bit right there. I prefer the sweetened kind but the unsweetened is better for you (read: tastes like poo). But once you mix it in something you don't notice. Like in the cheesecake crust I would use sweetened. In the muffins either kind. It's sold in jars in the cereal section & is kept in the frige after opening. An equally germy/healthy idea for you.

[highchef]

The whole wheat carrot cake is really good. It may not be as healthy as it sounds though, because it contains 10 tablespoons of butter. It doesn't bother me, because I love butter and all the other ingredients like honey, whole wheat flour, carrots, etc. kind of balance it out. Look at it this way, at least you're not using 3/4 cup of vegetable oil like you would in a regular carrot cake recipe. there is no white sugar, just honey and half the flour is whole wheat. It's a good compromise. Let's call it 'healthier' carrot cake! Especially if you leave it without any icing. It really does not need it. This would make awsome muffins...next time.

I cannot figure out how to do pictures, I have taken them though. If you lead me through it, I can post them to show you. If not, think of it as a perfect muffin textured carrot flavored morning glory type of thing. Except for the butter it's perfect!

[Lumas]

Im actually into health food. I have read a ton of books on different diets, cleanses and health recipes. It depends what you mean by healthy though. I find that some of the vegan baking recipes are fairly healthy and some are actually really good. I would recommend checking out Fran Costigan's More Great Good Desserts Naturally. It can be had for ten dollars or so on ebay or amazon. I know you aren't looking for the tofu based frostings, etc. But the cakes, muffins and cookies themselves are basically whole wheat mixed with a little all-purpose flour, a tiny amount of canola oil, maple syrup or brown rice syrup, and raw sugar. The recipes are quite good. Fran Cositgan attented The Art Institute of New York City and The Natural Gourmet. So most of her recipes can be trusted.

[miladyinsanity]

Be careful. If you're substituting honey for sugar, honey's quite a bit sweeter than sugar.

If you are whipping whole eggs, I've found that you can substitute honey for the sugar with no adverse results. I've not tried with meringue though.

[Deryn]

 

 

Then we have our tradition of 'Dessert as Dinner' when we eat only a dessert for our supper.  However, this dessert must include dairy, fruit, grain, etc...sort of a balanced dessert.  This is not chocolate cake! 

 

Oh .. I don't know about that. There are loads of recipes for chocolate cake with flour (grain), milk (dairy - both in the cake and in the decadent icing) and a smattering of fruit (filling? accompaniment?) in the mix. And chocolate is a vital nutrient!