Guilt-free treats
Festivities are incomplete without sweets. This is also the time, when our sweet tooth craves for a perfect treat full of calorie-laden mithais and chocolates. But if it’s a guilt-free celebration you’re looking forward to and want to savour sweets without worrying about your shooting blood sugar levels or adding extra pounds then go for sugar-free sweeteners. Here experts and homemakers suggest “sugar-free” easy to make sweet options.
An interesting recipe and must-try is the chawal ki burfi. A cook from Mithaiwala in West Delhi says, “We usually mix sugar-free with water to make a sugar syrup which gives tastes like real sugar. While trying at home, you can mix the sugar syrup and the puffed rice and make your burfi.”
Homemaker Devika Mehta shares, “Today, many of these mithais are cooked using various fruits, which have their own natural sugar. I make anjeer burfi, with figs for my mother-in-law, who has a sweet tooth but suffers from diabetes.”
Apart from anjeer burfi, soya nankhatai, and all the mithais, sugar-less pastries are a huge hit this season. “It’s as good as any other cake. To make a chocolate marquice pastry, make a sugar-free sponge with the help of flour, corn flour, eggs and sugar-free. Melt dark sugar-free chocolate in a double boiler. Whip fresh cream in a bowl and add melted chocolate and gelatin. Cut the sponge in a fancy shape with the help of mould, pour the mixture on it. Keep the pastry in refrigerator to set,” says a chef from Beanstalk.
The one thing that holds back many from trying variations in sugar-free products, is the non-availability of authentic sugar-free materials in India. Says Geetanjali of Cocoa World, “We get out sugar substitutes from Belgium and just use nuts here to make these chocolates. I don’t think many authentic substitutes to sugar are available in India.”
Experts are even making chocolate creams using substitutes of sugar. Making sugar-free chocolate butter creams at Meat by Blanco, Khan Market, a chef tells us, “We use a semi-sweet dipping chocolate. It is made by combining milk powder, cocoa and paraffin wax in food processor or blender to form a soft powder. The mixture is then placed on the top of a double boiler and stirred in water to blend. We later add shortening and simmer until wax is completely melted. When the mixture becomes thick, smooth and creamy, it is removed from the heat and stirred in sugar replacement. After cooling it down, chocolate balls are dipped; shaking off the excess, placed on waxed paper to cool. And it’s ready.” It is then used in a variety of products, which also includes their sugar-free butter creams.
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