? For Bakers - If You Reduce Sugar In A Recipe Do You...

Hi amck: that's a very good question. I always reduce the sugar into half when I bake. My Mom is 86 years old with diabetes, her medications is outrageously expensive. I don't notice any change with the texture. Prevention magazine had an article about when sugar goes with saturated fat, it glues the lipids into blood vessels. I always reduce the sugar, and double the walnuts (Omega-3 good fat) ... that's when I was under 110 lbs., with perfect blood test.

I nearly always reduce the amount of sugar used in recipes for baked goods and I have never found the need to adjust the quantity of any other ingredient... removing the sugar is what "balances" everything for me. :)

I seem to remember reading at one time that sugar, while dry, is actually considered a "liquid" ingredient because of the moisture it imparts. I know that in cooking you can tweak recipes - add spices, leave out certain vegetables or herbs you don't like, etc. - to taste. You can simmer some soups & stews all day. But baking is more of a science and it just seems like taking out nearly a third of an ingredient would require adjustments. Maybe not...

BTW, the Grand Prize Winner Banana-Nut Pound Cake was in Better Homes & Gardens December '12 issue. Someone who had my version asked me for the recipe, which prompted this post.

amck - sugar does add moisture so reducing by a large amount will make the cake drier. I also find many recipes too sweet for my taste, so I reduce the amount a little - perhaps 20 - 25% but no more.

For diabetics, or people who don't want to eat that much sugar, you can replace part of the sugar with Splenda. I do that as well. As long as the Splenda is no more than about a third of the total sweetener, I can't taste the difference. Once it get up to a half or so, there is an off flavor which I don't like.

Cheryl

These days I bake pies more often than cakes, and I've noticed that if I reduce the sugar in some pies (such as apple or cherry), the filling can get watery, and so I may increase the amount of cornstarch. I have not noticed cakes getting drier with reduced sugar, but you might just want to bake them a shorter period of time if you notice that result.

Lars

There are baker's formulas that come into play, although not all recipes follow them and not everyone creating a recipe are aware of them. And as we all know, there are exceptions to every cooking/baking rule. When you start to alter the ratio of ingredients you often need to add something or adjust something. Pound cake really isn't supposed to be overly-sweet, but Americans seem to add too much sugar to nearly everything.

The formula for pound cake: the weight of the sugar should be equal to the weight of the flour. This keeps the balance between the structure breaker and the structure maker.

Pound cakes generally contain equal amounts of fat and sugar in addition to flour, large amounts of eggs, and flavoring. It gets the name from the original recipe, which called for 1-pound each of butter, sugar, flour, and eggs.

Helpful hint: Grind the sugar with a food processor will make the pound cake lighter and smoother.

Helpful hint: When you reduce the sugar you may find the panned pound cake will collapse. Baking it in a Bundt pan may "fix" the problem because it won't matter when you turn it out of the pan.

Helpful hint: Substitute an egg yolk and potato starch for 10% of the flour for a moister, more tender cake.

Helpful hint: Rose Levy Beranbaum adds a little milk and leavening. Since pound cake is leavened only by air and steam - generally - this is one of those exceptions to the rule.

Helpful hint: Add 1 t. baking powder and beat the yolks and whites separately.

-Grainlady

Thanks for all the replies. Grainlady, you confirmed my thought that I couldn't greatly reduce sugar amounts in recipes and expect results to be exactly the same, only less sweet.

The particular recipe I used calls for 7 mins. of creaming butter, cream cheese & the sugar till it gets very pale and fluffy. Also calls for beating a full minute after the addition of each of 4 eggs. I think those steps helped me achieve a light & moist cake, even with the sugar reduced. And the recipe called for a Bundt pan, which I used.

It really is a good recipe, but I didn't want to pass it on to someone else without noting how much sugar I cut back. She likely would be disappointed by its being overly sweet if she liked mine.

I almost always routinely cut the sugar by 1/4 and if that turns out OK, next timer 1/3. I would do 2 cups and not bat an eyelash. It might be slightly drier but you will not miss the sugar taste. You could always use Grainlady's suggestions for more moistness. I do find it's a catch 22 and I have to eat up my low sugar cakes faster because they dry out if I don't. But I can revive them in the oven for a few min.

It really depends on what you're baking. If you whip eggs or egg whites with sugar, and that's what you're using for leavening, as with genoise or sponge-type cakes, then at some point the change in proportions will affect your result. In other cases, it's less dramatic.

Most US recipes use way too much sugar and it's not required for structure - it's because people like stuff really sweet. But that ruins most things IMO.

In pound type cakes or butter cakes, which are made by creaming butter and sugar together and then adding eggs, dry ingredients and liquids, the exact proportion of sugar to your other ingredients is less pronounced. You can look up a dozen recipes for the same thing and you'll see varying amounts of sugar called for.

Sugar gets dissolved in liquid but recrystalizes when the liquid is baked away and aids in browning as it caramelizes.

For the most part, I wouldn't worry too much about reducing sugar - my working assumption is that for most home recipes you can reduce it by a third or even half with very little problem.

Try it and see what happens.