Low sugar dessert recipes

[santaman2000]

Janne: why don't you stick a couple of grape vines in the ground? Shades the house and fruit for anything.
Everybody should have a couple of grapes to fool with.

In fact, my two big old (2001) grape vines were a gift from my brother who lives on Grand Bahama.....

I was about to ask if European style grapes would grow there (Caymans) They won't grow here in the South (Florida specifically) and I presume we have a similar climate and soil. We do have all the normal grape products made locally from native muscadines and/or hybrids though.

 

[santaman2000]

Your "fruit-flavored cubes." No such thing that I've ever seen over here. Jell-O comes as a granular powder in little boxes (packet inside) as well as a couple of competing brands. Add boiling water, stir, allow to cool.....

What he said. Jello is a brand name, although we do indeed use it synonymously with the proper word (here at any rate) "gelatin."

When it comes to what we're referring to as "jelly" over here it's still confusing as there is a difference between:
1) "jelly"
2) "preserves" and
3) "jam"
although that difference gets blurred in everyday conversation. Add the cultural differences between our countries and the confusion just grows.

 

[santaman2000]

If the sugar is traded for a carbohydrate which humans don't have the biochemistry to digest, then why should I care?....

Because the way we digest carbs is to break them into a sugar. So no net change in nutrition. It's easier when you're young and healthy with a good metabolism. Not so much as you age or develop diabetes. If/When you get diagnosed as a diabetic, your dietician will definitely start heavy counseling about the evils of carbs.

Complex carbs such as are found in beans and veg are another matter as they have a lower "net" carb count (total carbs minus othe nutritional considerations; fiber if I remember correctly)

 

[Toddy]

I mean this stuff…..
http://www.tesco.com/groceries/prod...gclid=CPzl3KWs2s0CFUI_GwodvjoCZA&gclsrc=aw.ds

Every kid in the land had jelly, trifle, and evap milk mousse as puddings when we were little Pretty standard fare when your Mum hadn't baked something for pudding.

The pack comes with twelve cubes of chewy goodness (if you're not veggie). Plop one into a bowl of hot custard and it melts into a sooky chewy fruity niceness…..direct quote there from my very small brother many years ago.
The stuff lasts (undisolved I mean) for years!
Rather surprised that more folks don't pack it camping, tbh.

The Sunwheel spread I wrote about earlier is just reduced fruit juice Janne. Very tasty, and can be done at home. I boil up the skins and peelings from apples and pears that go into the dehydrator, strain the juice and use that to make mine.

The grape juice I buy comes from Lidl's, the German supermarket chain. Grapes don't really thrive here. It's the fourth of July and I haven't seen the Sun all day. It has rained pretty much non stop since just before lunchtime. I've put the lights on in the house just to see. Grey and overcast is the world this week

M

 

[santaman2000]

I mean this stuff…..
http://www.tesco.com/groceries/prod...gclid=CPzl3KWs2s0CFUI_GwodvjoCZA&gclsrc=aw.ds

Every kid in the land had jelly, trifle, and evap milk mousse as puddings when we were little Pretty standard fare when your Mum hadn't baked something for pudding......

I've never seen those here. Comparing to Jello though, yeah, that was, and still is pretty standard here for kids too. Also for those who have to do a semi fast by reverting to a "clear liquid" diet in preparation for certain medical procedures (the inevitable colonoscopy every 5 years after age 50 ) Seems ironic that things like
Jello, black coffee, black tea, and chicken or beef broth are considered "clear liquids."

 

[Robson Valley]

The wine grape species of greatest economic popularity is Vitis vinifera. I'm surprised to read that they will NOT grow in some warm places.

Native to North America and also very frost hardy/tolerant is Vitis riparia. Growing wild in eastern North America, locally called the "riverbank grape."
The really big deal with V. riparia is the frost hardiness. Experiments are in progress to try to splice that frost hardiness into varieties of V. vinifera to expand the growing range. I could care less if you need to call that GMO. I'm looking forward to Cab.sauv. in my garden.

I grow Vitis riparia var 'Valiant.' I have started and sold enough cloned cuttings that there must be 100+ families in my district growing grapes which are genetically identical to mine. It's a juice and jelly grape. Period. I did make a 5 gal batch of wine one year = really poor nose and taste. (Says he who spent a decade making wine from 1,000lbs California Zinfandel grapes (about 100 imp gallons per year).

santaman: look around. Surely you can grow some cultivated variety of "riparia?"

 

[santaman2000]

The wine grape species of greatest economic popularity is Vitis vinifera. I'm surprised to read that they will NOT grow in some warm places.

Native to North America and also very frost hardy/tolerant is Vitis riparia. Growing wild in eastern North America, locally called the "riverbank grape."
The really big deal with V. riparia is the frost hardiness. Experiments are in progress to try to splice that frost hardiness into varieties of V. vinifera to expand the growing range. I could care less if you need to call that GMO. I'm looking forward to Cab.sauv. in my garden.

I grow Vitis riparia var 'Valiant.' I have started and sold enough cloned cuttings that there must be 100+ families in my district growing grapes which are genetically identical to mine. It's a juice and jelly grape. Period. I did make a 5 gal batch of wine one year = really poor nose and taste. (Says he who spent a decade making wine from 1,000lbs California Zinfandel grapes (about 100 imp gallons per year).

santaman: look around. Surely you can grow some cultivated variety of "riparia?"

Possibly. But there are definitely none growing here as of now. To be honest I've become partial to musacadine products. Their wine can best be described as "loud."

Here's a link to a local winery that grows their own muscadines and makes wine from them as well as a few more conventional wines from other grapes they buy. www.chatauquawinery.com.

There are also loads of such wineries in Missouri for the same reasons (the type grapes they can grow) and from what I remember, the wines in Missouri were even better.

 

[Robson Valley]

Thanks for the info. I'd still be curious to check out a couple of garden centers to see what they might be able to get in Florida.

I experimented with many other varieties, don't think that I ever spent more than $10 each. Big gamble.
But sure enough, they all took off OK but none of them ever saw their 3rd summer.

I can clone mine, 70-100 per year, and they take well all up and down the valley.
Ever good story that I could tell about growing grapes involves children.
They see grapes in the grocery store, they see grapes on the table.

They have never had to take time after school and help mom/dad pick grapes.
Last year, I should have weighed those kids before and after!

 

[Robson Valley]

Back to the OP question = low sugar desserts.
Have not done this for years, best on a charcoal grill
BUT would be funny as Hello in the bush.

Slice bananas in their skins sideways so they can lay flat on the grill.
Skin-side down 4-5 minutes then flip for 2-3 mins on the cut face.
Hot, sort of more-or-less cooked.

In the meantime, heat some dark rum. Add a little butter, brown sugar and cinnamon. Simmer.
Drizzle the sauce over the plated banana halves.

Have done this also with peach halves and 1" pineapple slices.

 

[santaman2000]

Back to the OP question = low sugar desserts.
Have not done this for years, best on a charcoal grill
BUT would be funny as Hello in the bush.

Slice bananas in their skins sideways so they can lay flat on the grill.
Skin-side down 4-5 minutes then flip for 2-3 mins on the cut face.
Hot, sort of more-or-less cooked.

In the meantime, heat some dark rum. Add a little butter, brown sugar and cinnamon. Simmer.
Drizzle the sauce over the plated banana halves.

Have done this also with peach halves and 1" pineapple slices.

That sounds good (almost a Bananas foster) but you're still adding brown sugar (and alcohol is just a liquid sugar, although the alcohol should mostly cook out)

 

[santaman2000]

I'm with others who've said just cut down on the sugar you add to recipes or eliminate it altogether. Your taste will get more sensitive to the natural sweetness.

 

[Robson Valley]

Alcohol is a carbohydrate but it's 4 carbon atoms short of being anything that biochemists would call a hexose sugar.
Methanol and ethanol (booze) both boil in the low 70's (approx 160F) so the simmer cooks it off.

Was thinking about what's in my freezer: red & black currants, raspberries, stewed rhubarb, dice rhubarb.
Used the last 8lbs of 2015 Saskatoon berries in 6 pies. Might be some small bags of cooked apple pie filling,
hot over ice cream is OK.

 

[Tengu]

You could make crumble then. (a favorite of my fathers.) I cheat and use crushed up digestives for topping.

(you could use cookie dough but I havent tried that)

Santaman, I had a colonoscopy few months back, Yipe!<giggle>Yipe!<Giggle>

"You have an odd way of expressing pain" said the nurse sadly.

But I now have seen my insides. The wonders of modern medicine, eh?

I agree with cutting down on sugars, -but some things need a bit.

Im going to try using honey, -a different taste.

 

[santaman2000]

You could make crumble then. (a favorite of my fathers.) I cheat and use crushed up digestives for topping.

(you could use cookie dough but I havent tried that)

Santaman, I had a colonoscopy few months back, Yipe!<giggle>Yipe!<Giggle>

"You have an odd way of expressing pain" said the nurse sadly.

But I now have seen my insides. The wonders of modern medicine, eh?

I agree with cutting down on sugars, -but some things need a bit.

Im going to try using honey, -a different taste.

Honey has added advantages; if you like sweetened coffee or tea with a sweet desert, the honey retains it's taste whereas table sugar gets overshadowed by the desert. And yeah, I agree, some things need a bit of sweetening.

On a more painful note, were you conscious for the colonoscopy? They put me out but the gas afterward is still painful. I really feel for my daughter as she's a Celiac with Crohn's and has to have one every year.

 

[Janne]

I mean this stuff…..
http://www.tesco.com/groceries/prod...gclid=CPzl3KWs2s0CFUI_GwodvjoCZA&gclsrc=aw.ds

Every kid in the land had jelly, trifle, and evap milk mousse as puddings when we were little Pretty standard fare when your Mum hadn't baked something for pudding.

The pack comes with twelve cubes of chewy goodness (if you're not veggie). Plop one into a bowl of hot custard and it melts into a sooky chewy fruity niceness…..direct quote there from my very small brother many years ago.
The stuff lasts (undisolved I mean) for years!
Rather surprised that more folks don't pack it camping, tbh.

The Sunwheel spread I wrote about earlier is just reduced fruit juice Janne. Very tasty, and can be done at home. I boil up the skins and peelings from apples and pears that go into the dehydrator, strain the juice and use that to make mine.

The grape juice I buy comes from Lidl's, the German supermarket chain. Grapes don't really thrive here. It's the fourth of July and I haven't seen the Sun all day. It has rained pretty much non stop since just before lunchtime. I've put the lights on in the house just to see. Grey and overcast is the world this week

M

Aha, jelly like in jelly sweets! Got you!
Ah.. Swedish Fish......Aaaaahhj..

The Lidl grape juice is the European grape. Taste I know and like. I thought you meant the N. American Grape. Totally different stuff.

The climate here us Maritime Tropical.
The soil here is utter crap. The plot I bought and built on is a canal propert, where the canal leads to the Sound. Ex Mangrove, filled in by ancient crushed coral they get in the middle of island.
I had to have holes dug for every tree, 6 feet wide and deep all the way down to sea kevel, all of 5 feet. Then fill up with those expensive imported bagged soils, bits of rebar, charcoal.
Nothing grows on the infill, except weeds.
I tried to grow tomatoes and other veg in the imported soil bags, but I fed the local hungry wildlife, iguanas specially.

 

[Janne]

Honey has added advantages; if you like sweetened coffee or tea with a sweet desert, the honey retains it's taste whereas table sugar gets overshadowed by the desert. And yeah, I agree, some things need a bit of sweetening.

On a more painful note, were you conscious for the colonoscopy? They put me out but the gas afterward is still painful. I really feel for my daughter as she's a Celiac with Crohn's and has to have one every year.

I am lucky in a gay ( happy) way as I need a Colonoscopy every 3 years.
Deep sedation is the buzzword. Deep.
The last one, in April, was different as they used carbon dioxide. That is at least what I think the dr told me.
Apoarently it get absorbed by the body, so no pressure pain or need to expurge the gas.
I had my stomach and first part of the thin intestine checked too. No problems after.

 

[Robson Valley]

Jeez! Are we talking desserts or what? You can bet your last bananaa - na-na that a colonoscopy after dinner is not on the menu.

 

[santaman2000]

Jeez! Are we talking desserts or what? You can bet your last bananaa - na-na that a colonoscopy after dinner is not on the menu.

LOL. Perhaps we're being presumptuous without cause. I presumed Tengu's interest for lower sugar was related to a healthier diet and apparently we sidetracked even farther from the OP.

 

[santaman2000]

....The Lidl grape juice is the European grape. Taste I know and like. I thought you meant the N. American Grape. Totally different stuff.....

Which North American grape? One of the dozen or so European varieties grown on the West Coast? The native Musacadines, Scupernongs, or Bullaces grown throughout the South and Missouri Basin? Or the native Concord grapes grown in the Northeast? (these are the biggest source for kosher wine here) The Catawba grape? (also a native grape) Perhaps the Thompson Seedless (Sultana) grapes?

 

[Tonyuk]

I like this as a desert;

Mix one of those sugar free jelly powder packets with a normal tub of cottage cheese. Put it in the blender for a bit to make sure its well mixed with no lumps. Pour it into a bowl and put it in the fridge to let it set. Once its set it'll be a kind of fruity mouse. Tasty, no sugar and high in protein so very good for you.

Tonyuk