While a spoonful of sugar may well help the medicine go down, it seems that as a society we may have lost the run of ourselves with our sweet tooth. Nowadays, whether it’s a move to be a little bit healthier, or a concern about diabetes, we are all becoming more aware of our sugar intake in what we purchase in pre-prepared foods.

However, what about our home bakers? There are so many sugar alternatives these days with different properties, it’s difficult to choose and not all ingredients work the same way. So, what was once an amazing cake can become a sorry experiment when trying to avoid sugar

Denise O'Callaghan of Denise's Delicious Gluten Free Bakery with her husband Derek. \ Clare Keogh

I reckoned it was high time that I shared some of my favourite recipes and tips. I’ve done the hard work for you here. All you need is your baking bowl and off you go.

I do prefer to bake with the naturally derived sugar alternatives and here’s a note on some of the easiest to find. Keep in mind that recipes baked without sugar won’t stay moist for as long as those with sugar. Baking small amounts more frequently might be a good approach.

Xylitol: This is a natural sugar alcohol derived mainly from fruits and vegetables. It looks just like sugar and can be sprinkled on food and added to recipes in the same quantities as sugar. It is widely available.

Stevia: Another natural extract. This ingredient comes from the leaf of the stevia plant. Like all the sugar replacements, it also looks just like sugar. It is much sweeter and so a lot less is needed in recipes. For some cakes and biscuits to work, you will need to bulk up with other ingredients. So for example in a banana bread, add an additional banana to replace the sugar that you are removing if you choose to use stevia as the sweetener. Stevia is widely available also.

Erythritol: This is also a natural sugar alcohol. Erythritol has a much lower calorie count than sugar and is similar to xylitol in how it performs. As in gluten-free baking, where a blend of flours give the best results, I have found that blending sweetners, rather than just using one, can give better results. I recently discovered Dr Coy’s stevia erylite sweetner. It is a mixture of stevia and erythritol and it replaces sugar one for one. This gets rid of the guessing and it gives great results in baking. Dr Coy’s is an Irish company and is available in SuperValu.

Sukrin: Sukrin is a company based in Norway. They have a range of lovely products, stocked in health shops. Again, it is a naturally occurring product, being based on erythritol. I have used Sukrin 1 in my recipes and was really happy with the results as it performed just like castor sugar.

If you’d rather not remove sugar completely from your recipes, then cut the sugar in the recipe. Reducing the sugar by approximately 30% won’t make a big difference on taste, but it will make a difference in calories. Don’t forget that fruit is also a great substitute for sugar.

Happy baking and I hope you enjoy my recipes.

Denise

Denise is the founder of Denise’s Delicious Gluten-Free Bakery in Cork whose product range is available across Ireland from the major supermarkets, artisan food stores and the online store at www.delicious.ie. Additional recipes are contained in her book Recipes from my Gluten-Free Kitchen.

No-added sugar recipes

Denise O'Callaghan's chocolate brownies.

Chocolate brownies

5 eggs

140g melted margarine

50g oil

120g Denise’s Delicious flour blend (see below)

25g ground almonds

100g cocoa powder

Pinch baking powder

Pinch salt

350g sugar replacement (I used Dr Coy’s stevia erylite sweetner)

1 Preheat the oven to gas mark 4/180°C/350°F. Prepare a baking tray with an edge, greasing it well with butter/margarine and lining it with baking parchment or a ready-made liner.

2 Melt the margarine and set aside.

3 Place eggs in bowl and whisk. Add the margarine and oil and mix.

4 In a separate bowl, mix the flour, salt and baking powder.

5 Sieve in the cocoa powder. Re-sieve three times to make sure it is fully mixed through the flour.

6 Stir in the sweetener.

7 Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix until fully incorporated.

8 Add walnuts or dark chocolate chips if desired.

9 Pour the batter into the prepared baking tray, smoothing out the top with a spatula. Place in the centre of the oven. Bake for 30-40 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.

10 Remove from the oven and let it cool for 15 minutes in the baking tray. Gently remove from the tray and let it cool completely on a wire rack. Remove the parchment or baking liner before serving.

Denise’s Delicious flour blend

Makes approximately 850g (2lb) flour blend. Sieve all of these ingredients in a bowl and mix well.

250g (10oz) rice flour

25g (1oz) tapioca flour

275g (11oz) potato flour

275g (11oz) corn flour

13g (½oz) teff flour

1 tsp gluten-free baking powder

1 tsp guar gum

Banana and pear cake

4 ripe bananas, mashed

1 very ripe pear, mashed