Cooking without sugar

Audio 48:30

A bag of sugar.

Getty Images / Anthony Masterson

By: Emmanuelle Bastide

1 min

Sugar is ubiquitous in our food.

Naturally in certain foods, we also gladly add it in our drinks or in our pastries.

In addition to providing flavor, it is also a way to preserve or sweeten the acidity of certain foods.

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One of the problems with sugar is that it makes us want to eat more sugar ... The French also consume 35 kg per year.

Honey, agave syrup, birch or coconut sugar ... there are alternatives to sugars, some will choose other tips to do without.

How to cook light but delicious?

Can a dessert without added sugar be really successful?

Advice from our chefs!  

With

Anto Cocagne

“Chef Anto”, home chef, author of 

(Mango éditions) 

Marie Chioca,

author of the culinary blog “Saine gourmandise” and of many cookbooks including

writes with her daughter Maud Chioca (Living Earth, 2021)

Fatoumata Diarra

, culinary designer, manager and founder of the consulting and events

specializing in afro vegan and gluten-free pastries

Stéphane Besançon,

 nutritionist and director of the NGO Santé Diabète, in Bamako, Mali.

All his columns are available on the

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Minimalist chocolate mousse by Marie Chioca

In theory, you only need two ingredients to make this chocolate mousse successful: 70% dark chocolate (no kidding?) And fresh eggs!

But we recommend that you add a dash of vanilla and a pinch of fleur de sel because that makes all the difference (and even here, we are probably approaching the top 10 of the best chocolate mousse in the world) ...

Ingredients for 6 people

-200g of 70% dark chocolate (very good quality)

-6 ultra fresh eggs

-1 to 3 sachets of vanilla sugar (according to taste)

-1 small pinch of fleur de sel

-Optional: 1 tsp.

dark rum

Preparation: 10min

To prepare the day before

Break the chocolate into small pieces and melt it in a double boiler, very slowly, taking care that no drop of water falls into the chocolate (otherwise, it hardens it!).

Remove the bowl from the double boiler before the tiles are completely melted, and stir to finish melting without overheating.

At the same time, separate the egg whites from the yolks.

Combine the yolks in a small bowl.

Whip the egg whites with the vanilla sugar and a pinch of fleur de sel.

When the chocolate is completely melted, mix in the egg yolks.

Depending on the quality of the chocolate, this can then thicken the preparation to a greater or lesser extent: you must therefore start by adding about ¼ to 1/3 of the eggs in snow in the chocolate without any particular precaution (just by mixing thoroughly with a whisk to "relax" preparation) before incorporating, this time delicately (with a flexible spatula, lifting the mixture in a rotating motion) the rest of the eggs.

Transfer to small jars, cover and refrigerate overnight.

A gourmet tip ...

Do not hesitate to decline this chocolate mousse by using it to garnish a pie or a cake!

Apple-hazelnut cookies by Marie Chioca

Ingredients for about 25 cookies

Preparation 20min

Cooking: 30min

-125g of dried apple slices

-125g of large spelled flour T110

-½ sachet of baking powder

-3 sachets of vanilla sugar

-100g of coconut oil

-125g of shelled hazelnuts

-3 c.

apple juice

-1 large pinch of fleur de sel.

- Preheat the oven to 150 ° C.

Put all the ingredients in the bowl of a food processor except the hazelnuts, then mix until a fairly homogeneous dough is obtained (if there are small pieces of apple slices left, this is normal).

Add the hazelnuts and mix with a few short pulses, without insisting too much because there must be large pieces left.

Take 20g of dough, shape it into a ball, then crush it on a baking sheet lined with paper.

Repeat the operation until all the dough is used up.

Bake for 20min at 150 ° C, then 10min at 100 ° C, then let cool completely on a rack before storing the cakes in a well-sealed box.

Mango Floating Islands by Chef Anto

Ingredients for 6 people:

* For the floating island

-6 egg whites

-2 Tbsp honey

* For the mango sauce

-4 ripe mangoes

-5 cl Cold water

*Finishing

-1 Tbsp roasted cashews

Preperation :

The floating island: Whip the egg whites to snow, when they become sparkling, add the honey.

Ride until they are firm

Place parchment paper on a baking sheet.

Make large mounds of white meringue.

Bake for 8 min at 140 ° C

Mango sauce: Peel the mangoes and set one aside.

For the other three, remove the stones and mix the flesh with a little water, the result should be homogeneous.

Reserve in the fridge.

Cut the remaining mango into small cubes.

Dressage:

In a bowl put a ladle of mango sauce at the bottom.

Place a meringue on top and sprinkle with grilled cashews, previously crushed

Vegan & gluten-free chocolate cake by Fatoumata Diarra

Ingredients for the cake

.

140 g cassava flour

. 60 g of almond powder 

. 20 g of grated coconut

. 20 g of unsweetened cocoa powder                                                                                                                  

. 1 sachet of gluten-free baking powder

. 150 g of brown sugar

. 200 g of coconut milk + 100 g of almond milk

. 50 g of sunflower oil

Ingredients for the gourmet topping

. some cashews or roasted peanuts according to your tastes

. 200 g of 70% dark chocolate 

. 20 g of coconut oil 

Preparation

Preheat the oven to 180 ° C.

Sift the flour and ground almonds and mix all the dry ingredients together in a bowl. 

Then add the vegetable drinks with coconut and almonds.

Finally, add the 50 g of oil and mix everything together.

Pour the mixture into a mold and bake for about 25 minutes.

Take out of the oven, let cool to room temperature then put the cake in the fridge for at least 30 minutes if you are using the topping.

Cut the 200 g chocolate bar into pieces and melt everything in the microwave in waves of 30 seconds. 

Mix everything until you obtain a liquid texture.

Temper the chocolate at 35 ° C and pour it on the cake.

Sprinkle with nuts or peanuts and enjoy!

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