I want to bake some Christmas treats, like cookies or cakes or such that I can decorate all fancy. But my in-laws are diabetic, so I’m thinking that sugary stuff is not a good idea, but I don’t know a great deal about diabetes and what they can or can’t eat (carbs, sugar, etc.) Any ideas for holiday goodies I can bake for diabetic folks? I’d like to make some fancy, impressive sort of things.
The Food Network has a whole section on diabetic treats.
Looks like you could do a whole menu from it!
Atkins recipies should also work.
Some of these new sugar substitutes like Splenda are supposed to be OK for baking, though I haven’t tried it myself so I don’t know if it really tastes as good as sugar. Because fat and cholesterol are also extra special concerns for diabetics (my doctor says so, anyway), here’s a trick I learned for cakes and quick breads to make them fat and cholesterol free: use just the egg whites, no egg yolk, and use (unsweetened) apple sauce instead of oil/butter/shortening. My cakes and quick breads have always turned out just fine using these substitutions. (I’m just not sure what to do about the sugar now.)
I’m not sure what makes those Food Network recipes good for diabetics, though. I looked at the Ginger Pear Cake recipe, and it says it makes 12 servings, and there are 35 grams of carbohydrate per serving. 35 grams! My dietician only wants me to have 45 grams per meal. For the dessert to take up over 2/3 of allowed the carbs alone, I’d have to eat a pretty skimpy main course. (And I just looked at the mashed sweet potatoes: 8 servings, 45 grams of carbs per serving! :eek:!)
Of course, I don’t know what kind of restrictions your in-laws have. This is just a warning that, just because something says it’s “for diabetics,” doesn’t mean you still don’t have to be careful.
My dietitian isn’t a fan of Atkins as a diet plan, but if they have dessert recipes on the website, I’m sure they’d be very diabetic friendly. Ah, the Endulgent Chocolate Cake makes 8 servings and has a mere 3.5 grams of carbs per serving. Now, I don’t know how big a serving is; I mean, it could also be miniscule compared to the recipes cited in my previous post. But on the face of it, these look like pretty safe recipes to try out.
MissGypsy, I would talk to your in-laws about their dietary restrictions. It varies a lot from diabetic to diabetic.
For example, I stick to my diet (which is just like a healthy diet for a non-diabetic, actually), but can eat whatever I want during the holidays. Within in reason, of course. I can’t have six jumbo cookies with icing and sprinkles in one serving, but I can have ONE jumbo cookie with icing and sprinkles and work it into my daily plan.
In contrast, my uncle, who’s a Type II diabetic instead of Type I, has to really watch what he eats because he manages his diabetes through diet instead of with insulin or pills. He doesn’t get to go the jumbo cookie route. He eats sugar-free Jell-o, cut into festive shapes. Sucks to be him.
I have a recipe at home, though, for sugar-free chocolate syrup that makes some kick-ass hot cocoa with 2% milk. I’m at school right now, but I can see if I can post it when I go home on the twentieth.
My dad’s a type two diabetic and avoids sugar as much as possible. In my experience, splenda is brilliant for anything that doesn’t require cooking, which could be frosting depending on how you make it. It’s so-so for baking. Things tend to rise less with just splenda, so we usually mix half splenda and half sugar in recipes.