SHF#15: Sugar Low Friday

This round of Sugar (not) High Friday is hosted by Sam of Becks & Posh. Sam had came out with this theme after toothing all the sweet stuff during Christmas. The challenge this time is not to use any processed sugar for desserts. Substitutes for sugar such as honey, maple syrups, fruit syrups etc are welcomed.

I wasn't really sure if I could have make it this round since I have been super busy with work and all the running around to shop and get things done for Chinese New Year celebration. Anyway, during my free time, I browsed thru my cookbooks and I had a tall time finding one dessert that do not use any processed sugar at all! Actually I was toying around about using gula melaka (palm sugar) but I couldn't find anything easy and simple for me to squeezed into my busy schedule. I nearly gave up until I saw a really easy peasy recipe for Banana Muffins in Nigella Lawson's How o Be A Domestic Goddess. Best of all, this recipe uses NO sugar at all. Wooohooo... but then again can muffins be considered as dessert? Heck, never mind, this is sweet ain't it?

In between my baking frenzy of cookies and cakes, I made up a batch of these muffins. It's really really simple, just melt the butter, honey and vanilla essence. Mixed in mashed bananas before pouring into flour, baking powder, bicarbonate soda and cinnamon powder. Stir gently and pour into muffin tray lined with paper cups. Bake in the oven and voila... a healthy no-sugar version! I won't print the recipe but you can get it from HERE.

The recipe called for 2 bananas, however, I wasn't sure how much exactly to put in since the bananas found in Kuala Lumpur are usually way smaller in size as compared to the Western countries. So I just guesstimated and oh boy... BIG mistake... too much and the wet mixture was simply not enough to bind the dry mixture. I had to rescue the mixture by adding more honey. Luckily I've used natural (unprocessed) honey which is not too sweet, otherwise I would have ended up with sickly sweet muffins.

Darn, I found out in Chubby Hubby that the recipes in this book are often inaccurate. His wife made a batch of this and he found them a bit bland. As for my verdict, I think the recipe ought to be refined further to achieve the right consistency. Due to my little disaster, the muffins came out slightly on the dry side. Taste wise they were ok especially when more sweet bananas are added just have to make sure to use more butter and honey.

Thank you Sam, once again for hosting SHF.

Tagged with: SHF # 15 + Low Sugar