I'm hosting Christmas this year for 3 friends and they are all happy to eat my low-carb delights. I've got the starters, the main meal and the cheese option sorted but am really struggling with dessert. It seems to be a lot easier in the USA to get hold of sugar substitutes etc. but I am UK-based. Could anyone please offer me some receipe help here? I'm starting to get a Christmas panic on already. Thank you xx
Rachel
I'm in the UK too In Berkshire. I have loads of family and friends coming. I have a couple of bases I use and modify for desserts. It's easy to make meringues with sugar substitutes. Especially if you use SOME sugar[maybe 30% of normal}for the structure. Just follow any standard recipe and substitute as you choose. I know parts of Cornwall are remote, but I can get Splenda or Xylitol in most supermarkets. I also have some Truvia and some pure Stevia. What's not in the shops is available easily on-line. Just Google for it. [Low Carb Megastore can be very helpful. Not cheap, but excellent service]
I also make desserts using cream cheese or thick cream. Clotted cream would be perfect. I flavour these desserts with pure essences and sweeteners [available on-line. I don't use the syrups, they taste horrid to me] and serve with frozen berries. Not carb free, but pretty low.
I have even made a reduced carb Christmas pudding. Every high carb ingredient, I substituted with one that is lower. It's still got plenty carbs, but much less and I'll only serve TINY portions to the 3 diabetics present.
thinking about desserts is risky for me, especially that I am afraid of sugar substitutes,because of cancer. why not to eat natural with honey, but very small something?wouldn't it better for diabetes?
So nice your friends are game to try something new. I'm not much of a baker but my daughter, who also low carbs, usually makes a low carb cheese cake for holidays. They taste great, no sacrifice involved. We substitute Truvia for the sugar, from what Hana says that may be an option for you as well. The crust is a nut crust, we use pecans pulverized in a blender mixed with butter. There are tons of recipes online just search for low carb cheese cake. I have found that I can handle small amounts of strawberries so they make a good topping if you wish.
trenia
Honey contains sugar.
If you want a sweetener which is natural, try ones based on Xylitol. It's calorie free and comes from Birch trees. Stevia is a natural plant also. You can get seed and grow your own. For sweetening fruit whilst cooking, I've taken to A herb called Sweet Cicely. I grow it in the garden.
to add to BadMoon's idea, I make a cheesecake with no pastry at all in a silicon pan. It's a basic egg custard actually, with curd cheese whipped in. Very easy! I'll send a simple recipe if required, remembering I cook in English English
Hana
Hi Rachel
My son was anticipating a difficult Thanksgiving without his favorite sugar laden dessert, cream puffs. I made the usual recipe, but I cut the sugar by 2/3. The cream puff itself is basically eggs with a little bit of flour. You can replace white flour with coconut flour, a little less in carbs. I also used an artisan chocolate for the frosting which required only a tbl. of sugar to frost 8 cream puffs. I personally like the chocolate without any sugar. I filled the cream puffs with custard made with eggs milk, butter, sugar to taste, and unsweetened whipped cream folded in. The dessert is heavy in fat, but with a much reduced carb burden. The dessert went over well with the family. They never noticed the difference.
I don't like to use Splenda or xylitol because they have caused my son severe diarrhea. Also if you have dogs, xylitol is deadly poisonous to dogs. -hope this helps