Sugar-Free Dark Chocolate Tart

OK, so I know I don't have the prettiest picture of these, but they were delicious nonetheless.

My dad's birthday was last week, so I decided to try out a new sugar-free recipe, since he has already tried my sugar-free chocolate cupcakes.

This one turned out AMAZING. Nobody could tell that they were sugar-free!

The recipe is adapted from the Nourishing Gourmet.

This is the first time I have ever worked with Coconut Oil. Which is surprisingly NOT what I expected. Here's a pic:

Its more like shortening than oil. Actually, its nothing like oil. It was interesting to work with.

So here's the recipe:

Crust: 

Grease a spring-form pan with coconut oil, and set aside.

• 2 cups of almonds
• 1/4 cup of cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup of whole wheat flour
• 2/3 cup of coconut oil softened 
• 1/4 cup of DiabetiSweet (you can get it here)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
2. Place almonds in a food processor, and process until a coarse flour. 
3. Add the rest of the ingredients and process until it forms a uniform dough. 
4. Press down into the greased pan and bake for 8-12 minutes or until the top is slightly browned.
5. Take out of the oven and cool. 
6. Once the crust is cool, making the filling.

Filling:

• 8 ounces of unsweetened chocolate
• 2 tablespoons coconut oil 
• 1/2 cup of Diabeti-sweet 
• 1 1/2 cups of coconut cream (I could not find coconut cream, so I used heavy cream and added a few drops of coconut extract, which I happened to have in my pantry).
• Dash of salt
• 2 tablespoons brewed coffee (I used chocolate flavored coffee)

1. Finely chop the chocolate and place it in a medium size, heatproof bowl. 
2. Add the coconut oil and the sugar, mix it into the chopped chocolate a little.
3. Heat the coconut cream (or heavy cream) on the stove until very hot. 
4. Pour over the chocolate. Let this sit for about one minute to start melting the chocolate. 
5. Using a rubber spatula, slowly stir together until it is all uniformly mixed in.
6. Add the coffee and stir until incorporated. 
7. Pour this over the crust and carefully place it in the fridge to set for at least 1 hour.

MMM, yummy filling!

The 75 calorie cupcake!

I have been making so many cupcakes lately, that it seems my jeans are a bit more snug than I would like! My goal today was to create a low-calorie, yet delicious cupcake for a guilt-free indulgence.

I scoured the internet for substitutions to regular ingredients, but struggled to cut the calories from the flour and butter. There are 400 calories per cup of flour, and most recipes call for about 2 cups, that’s 800 calories right there. Then there’s the butter with 100 cals per tablespoon, which adds up to 800 calories per stick, with 1 ½ to 2 sticks per recipe! You can be up to 100 calories per cupcake with just the flour and butter, not to mention the sugar and rest of ingredients!

Then I decided that the best route was not to start substituting ingredients from a recipe I know, but to search for a recipe designed to be low-cal. That’s when I found this recipe from Grin and Bake it, and this recipe from Splenda. Naturally, that came out to be too many calories for my liking so I started substituting things again.

Diet Soda Cupcakes (modified from Grin and Bake it)

• 1 box Pillsbury sugar-free devil’s food cake mix - 1440 cals (I didn’t even know this existed until I stumbled upon it at Schnucks) 
• 1 12 oz. can Diet Coke - 0 cals 
• 2 egg whites (or 1/3 cup of liquid whites) - 32 cals 

Total Cals: 1472 ÷ 24 cupcakes = 61.33 cals per cupcake

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 
2. Add the cake mix and eggs whites in a mixing bowl. 
3. Pour in the can of Diet Coke. Beat until smooth. 
4. Fill cupcake liners 2/3 full. Bake for about 15 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. 

The cupcakes turned out very light and fluffy. They did stick to the liners quite a bit, but storing them in the fridge for a few hours loosened them up.

Fluffy White Icing (modified from the Splenda website)

• 2 large egg whites (or 1/3 cup liquid whites) - 32 cals 
• 3/4 cup DiabetiSweet - 320 cals (The recipe called for Splenda Baking Blend, but that would have been 720 calories and I had excess DiabetiSweet, so I decided to save some more calories there!) 
• 1/3 cup water - 0 cals 
• 3 teaspoons pure vanilla extract - 0 cals (if you use high quality vanilla with no sugar or additives there will be zero calories) 
• 1 pinch of salt - 0 cals 

Total Cals: 352 ÷ 32 cupcakes = 11 cals per cupcake (the icing made enough to frost about 32 cupcakes)

1. In the metal bowl of an electric mixer, briefly whisk together egg whites, DiabetiSweet, water, vanilla, and salt. 
2. Set bowl over saucepan of gently simmering water and whisk gently until mixture reaches 160 degrees F on an instant-read thermometer.  Remove from heat and, using the whisk attachment on your mixer, whip icing on medium speed about 5-7 minutes, or until icing increases in volume and cools. 
3. Use a plain piping bag with the tip cut off to pipe these, the icing is not stiff enough to hold the shape of a tip. 

Total per Cupcake: 61.33
Total Icing per Cupcake: 11
Total Cals per Cupcake: 72.33 (Now that I’d call a guilt-free cupcake!!) 

You couldn’t tell that these were low-calorie cupcakes! They are delicious, and also happened to be completely sugar-free!

The Quest for the Perfect Sugar-Free Dessert

I have been testing out recipe after recipe to find the perfect sugar-free dessert ever since I found out my dad is diabetic, about 2 years ago. I have tried normal recipes with Splenda replacing the sugar, but Splenda changes the texture too much. I have tried recipes from Splenda's website, but they always have some sort of sugar (fruit, etc.), which is ridiculous for a sugar-free substitute's website.

I have grown frustrated with sugar-free recipes....until I came across this Perfect Pantry recipe for sugar free chocolate cupcakes!

I finally got a chance to bake them this morning, Dad's birthday is Monday, so it was the perfect occasion! Now, this recipe was not the ultimate sugar-free recipe, but it's close, very very close! They even got the stamp of approval from my boyfriend, who loves chocolate cupcakes.

Update 10/3/11: These definitely got the approval from my dad, and the rest of the crew! No one even knew that they were sugar-free, which was very surprising to me, because I still think there is room for improvement. Til then, I am going to have to crown this one the Ultimate Sugar-Free Cupcake! 

Here they are, but I am in no way proud of how they look....I was tired and messed up the frosting a bit.

I was really surprised that they tasted decent, like dark chocolate cupcakes. And the texture was very nice. I used DiabetiSweet instead of Splenda. It has smaller granules, and seemed to not change the texture much.

Ingredients:

For the cupcakes:
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 cup boiling water
1-1/2 cups flour
1 cup Diabetisweet
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup (1-1/2 sticks) butter, at room temperature
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1/4 cup milk (Use Silk Soymilk, the version with no sugar added. To me it tastes just like milk, and in a cupcake, you can't tell)
1 tsp pure vanilla extract (true pure vanilla extract is sugar-free, you have to get the high-end stuff, no imitation crap)

For the frosting:
4 oz unsweetened chocolate (I used Ghirardelli Bars)
2/3 cup heavy whipping cream
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
8 Tbsp Diabetisweet
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
2 tsp chocolate extract (order it here, or you can substitute brewed coffee)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line cupcake tin with paper liners.

In a small measuring cup, combine cocoa and boiling water. Whisk and blend until smooth, and set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle beater, combine flour, DiabetiSweet, baking soda and salt. Add butter and mix until the mixture is crumbly.

In a separate bowl, combine eggs, milk, cocoa mixture and vanilla. Add 1/3 of this wet mixture to the mixer bowl. Beat on low speed until every thing is combined, then increase to medium speed and beat for an additional 30 seconds. Scrape down the bowl, and add another 1/3 of the wet mixture to the mixer bowl. Repeat, until all of the wet mixture has been added and the batter is smooth.

Scoop batter into cupcake tins (It will keep the round shape because it was a pretty stiff batter, but they puffed up nicely when cooked)

Bake 18 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove the cupcakes from the pan onto a wire rack, and let them cool completely.

While the cupcakes are cooling, make the frosting:

(I just moved into a new house and have no microwave yet; I attribute my difficulties with the frosting with trouble melting the chocolate!)

In a glass measuring cup, heat the chocolate in the microwave in 30-second increments until it's almost completely melted, then stir until it is smooth, and pour it into the bowl of a stand mixer to cool for a just couple of minutes. If you cool too long, it won't blend very well and chunks of chocolate will clog your piping bag.

Using the whisk beater on your mixer, slowly whisk the cream into the cooled chocolate. Beat on medium speed and add the butter, Diabetisweet, vanilla and chocolate extract. Beat until smooth and fluffy, approximately 3 minutes.

Overall, I was very happy with my results. Thanks The Perfect Pantry!!

For next time: I will get a microwave, and try again! i think it could use a bit more DiabetiSweet, and I need to make sure to use completely softened butter. I made it way too quickly because of lack of time today.