5 Sugar-Free Desserts That You Won’t Believe Are Healthy

Not only the accumulation of fats in the body causes inflammation: the excess of sugar in the diet has equally negative consequences for health. But not for this you must deprive yourself of a dessert, without excesses, and with sugar-free options, you can enjoy a well-deserved treat.

Recent studies have shown that fat accumulation is not much the same as the sugar intake after lipid accumulation. And when you eat too many, you accumulate them even faster in the form of fat.

What about numbers?

It is difficult to calculate, but the World Health Organization now recommends that sugar should be less than 5% of the contribution of the diet, which is equivalent to 25g of sugar/day in a diet of 2,000 kcal. Reducing the intake of prepared foods (they carry it in a lot) is the first thing you can do. Also, avoid the consumption of products and sweets with added sugar.

Healthy alternatives

Reducing sugar does not mean you have to give up your whims completely: once in a while you can enjoy a delicious cake, provided you cook it at home and make it with other types of sweeteners. We propose the following:

• Agave syrup. It is extracted naturally from agave, a fleshy leaf plant and Mexican origin. You can find it in the form of liquid sweetener, ideal to add to wet cakes. Powder is the perfect substitute for icing sugar.
• Rice molasses. It is extracted from round rice grains and serves as a natural sweetener with few calories and a high calcium content (273 mg/100 g). Its uses are similar to those of agave syrup, but having the consistency of honey you can also use it to fill cakes.
• Natural fructose. It is obtained from the fruit. With a texture similar to that of sugar, its glycemic index is much lower. It perfectly replaces sugar, but its sweetening power is greater. Choose natural or organic farming (you'll find it in herbal shops and natural products stores).
• Natural stevia. The fresh or dried and crushed leaves of stevia (in concentrated and natural liquid form) have a sweetening power 200 times more powerful than that of sugar. Use it to give sweetness to infusions and other drinks and make compotes, culis or fruit salads. Integrating it into pastry is something more complicated.

Below you will find the recipes of 5 cakes in which we have substituted sugar for these healthier and more natural alternatives. The result will surprise you!

1. Blueberry cheesecake

Ingredients (for 8 people):

• 200 g of digestive biscuits
• 100 g of butter
• 700 g of cream cheese
• 300 ml of whipping cream
• 200 ml of agave syrup
• 5 tablespoons of cornstarch
• 4 eggs
• grated zest a lemon
• a vanilla pod
• 200 g of blueberry jam
• 50 g of berries (blueberries, raspberries, currants, blackberries…)

Preparation

Crush the cookies in a bowl and mix with the previously melted butter. Cover the base of a 25-centimeter mold with the crushed cookies and bake at 180 ° for about 15 minutes.

Combine cream cheese with cream, eggs and syrup. Open the vanilla pod up and down with a knife and scrape its inside. Add it to the cream and beat energetically with the cornstarch and lemon zest.

Pour into the mold and bake 45 minutes at 180 °. Let cool, unmold and cover with the jam (if you do not find it without sugar, prepare it yourself). Decorate with the fruits of the forest.

Tip: when serving, clean the knife with hot water between cut and cut. This way you will not leave jam on the inside of cheese and the individual portions will be perfect. Cut the cake just when it is going to consume.

2. Sweet carrot cake

Ingredients (for 10 people):

• 4 eggs
• 400 g of grated carrots
• 280 g of flour
• 200 g of rice molasses
• 2 tablespoons of baking soda
• 1 tablespoon of baking powder
• 200 ml of mild olive oil
• 2 tbsp. of cinnamon
• 1 tbsp. of nutmeg
• 1 tbsp. of powdered ginger
• 150 g of walnuts
• 50 g of raisins

For butter cream:

• 250 g of butter
• 200 g of cream cheese
• 600 g of agave powder

Mix the spices with the oil and incorporate the yolks with molasses, baking soda, yeast and flour. Beat the whites and add them. Incorporate the carrot and nuts. Bake 45 minutes at 180 ° in a 20 cm mold. Let it cool.

Combine the butter with the agave syrup powder. Beat well together with cream cheese. Cut the cake into layers and fill with the cream. Decorate the top with the pastry bag. Store in the fridge.

3. Lemon mini tarts

Ingredients (for 8 people):

• 150 g of crackers
• 50 g of flour
• 100 g of butter

For the cream and meringue:

• 200 g of agave syrup
• 100 g of butter
• 3 egg yolks
• 3 lemons
• 4 egg whites
• 120 g of natural fructose

Grind the crackers with flour and butter at room temperature. Press the dough obtained in the bottom of each of the cupcake molds. Bake 15 minutes at 180 °.

Beat the egg yolks with the butter, the agave syrup and the juice of the lemons. Cook over low heat stirring with rods. When the cream thickens, pour over the biscuit base and bake 20 minutes at 180 °.

Combine the egg whites with the fructose and add it to a pastry bag. Decorate the top of the tartlets and burn the meringue with the help of a kitchen torch.

4. Chocolate brownies

Ingredients (for 9 people):

• 150 g of chocolate for cover
• 150 g of butter
• 150 g of wheat flour
• 200 g of natural fructose
• 50 g of cocoa powder
• 4 eggs
• 200 g of peeled nuts
• a pinch of salt

Beat the eggs together with the fructose and the pinch of salt. Melt butter and chocolate in a saucepan over low heat. Add this mixture to the previous one and stir.

Sift the flour. Do the same with cocoa powder. Mix with the dough.

Add the walnuts a little chopped and pass the mixture to a square mold of 20 centimeters by 20 centimeters. Bake for 22 minutes at 180 ° and let cool. Decorate with nuts and cut into portions.

5. Sachertorte with peach

Ingredients (for 8 people):

• 50 g of dark chocolate
• 120 g of fructose
• 120 g of agave syrup
• 150 g of butter
• 150 g of flour
• 6 eggs
• 150 g of peach jam
• a vanilla pod

For the filling and the covering: 250 g of peach jam, 200 g of covering chocolate, 200 ml of whipping cream, 100 g of butter

Combine the yolks with the fructose. Reservation. Melt butter and chocolate. Incorporates syrup and jam. Add the first mixture together with the flour, vanilla and whites previously assembled.

Pour into a mold and bake 50 min at 180 °. Let cool and cut the cake in half. Fill with jam and chill in the fridge.

Boil the cream, add the butter and chocolate and stir with a spatula. Cover the cake with this cream and let cool.

Tip: Decorate the cake with peach slices and use sugar-free jam.