3 Secrets to Making Delicious, Low-Sugar Desserts

Are you ready to enjoy chocolate and sweets without compromising your health or the needs of your taste buds?

The tug-of-war between desiring to indulge in decadent desserts and sweets that taste reallyyy yummy and the very real needs of our mental and physical health can be a pain point for so many - but it doesn’t need to be.

Eliminating the conflict between sugar and chocolate cravings and your health needs can be life changing; you can experience less stress, more freedom with food and more easily keep your wellness commitments to yourself.

Here are 3 simple tricks we use at GLOW, that can be adapted into your everyday life to create low glycemic chocolate and sweets that don’t compromise on flavour.

Discover the Magic of Freeze-Dried Fruit (especially lower glycemic ones like berries)

Freeze dried fruits have a satisfying crunchy texture, add a punch of bold flavour (especially ifyou choose organic) and add in a delicious layer of sweetness. If you can’t find them at your local grocery store, they’re easy to order online!

Add these antioxidant powerhouses onto your favourite vegan yogurt, as a topping on a buckwheat crepe, sprinkled on top of low-in-added sugar fruit crisp, or enjoy with a piece of dark chocolate. The creative options are endless.

*Freeze dried berries can be $$$. But you only need a little bit to add a punch of flavour. Easiest to find online as they are not commonly found in grocery stores. 

Choose Simple Flavour Pairings that Complement Each Other

Think of the magic when you have a fresh juicy tomato with a bit of olive oil, salt and fresh basil.

It’s almost as if 1 + 1 = 3. Compared to a kitchen sink smoothie with a random assortment of ingredients, it’s hard to distinguish the flavours and it probably doesn’t feel very satisfying to eat.

Oftentimes, when making their own healthy dessert or sweet recipe where there’s room for flavour variation like granola, smoothies, or chocolate, people will throw in handfuls of whatever nuts, dried fruits or healthy ingredients they have on hand. Unfortunately, the flavour gets lost, and the recipe just doesn’t have that je ne sais quoi.

Instead choose simple, focused, well-known flavour pairings like strawberries and cream, blueberries and basil (a surprisingly delicious combo!) or pistachios with rose and saffron. Voila!

Partially Replace Sweetener with Green Stevia

Yes, 99.99% of people despise the taste of stevia, at GLOW we do too, but to most people’s surprise we use it (the natural green variety, not the bleached white one) in everything we make - and no one knows!

Adding in a small amount of green stevia allows you to decrease the amount of added sweetener in a recipe like maple syrup - without compromising taste and significantly lowering the overall sugar content.

Choose your favourite recipe and start experimenting with decreasing added sugar by ⅛ - ½ cup and replacing it with ⅛ to ¼ tsp of green stevia. The optimal amount will depend on personal preference and the recipe you are making.

Our GLOW Chocolate Squares are an example of using all three of the above tips to create an uber-delicious low-in-added sugar vegan chocolate. 

Cherries + Almonds (Extract) + Vanilla Chocolate + Whipped Creme = match made in heaven. You won’t even notice that the chocolate square has only 2 g of added natural sugars (from maple syrup) and the vegan whipped creme on top has 0 g of added sugars