Like many people around the country, Carol Pritchard, Denplan Practice Advisor, has been spending her free time baking, but her home-baked treats are kinder on the waistline and our teeth.
My children are grown up and have left home, but for those of you with kids at home, this can be a good way to teach them to cook and keep them occupied. The trouble is most cake and biscuit recipes have substantial amounts of sugar. Not good for teeth and not good for waistlines. The answer: Sugar-free cookies!
Dental practices are finding that engaging with patients is the key to retaining goodwill, and social media is a powerful tool to keep in touch while practices may not be able to see as many patients at the current time.
The following recipe can be used on your social media sites and is an opportunity to pass on preventive messages to your patients. We did this before Halloween a few years ago. It was met with some very positive feedback.
No Added Sugar Chocolate Cookies
Ingredients:
- 90g soft margarine (ideally not hydrogenated)
- 90g flour (wholemeal works)
- Sugar substitute equivalent to 120g of sugar (I use Splenda)
- 125ml bean puree (see below)
- 35g cocoa powder (not sweetened)
- 60ml milk (skimmed is fine)
- 1 egg
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
Method
- Line a baking sheet with greaseproof paper
- Set the oven to 190C
- Beat all the ingredients together in a bowl until combined (this is easier with an electric mixer)
- Drop tablespoons of the mixture onto the prepared baking sheet
- Bake for 10 minutes until firm to touch
- Allow to cool before eating (if you can wait)
How to make the bean puree
In a food processor, blend 250ml of cooked white kidney beans and 60ml milk.
WARNING: Don’t eat too many at once as excessive consumption of sweeteners can have an unfortunate effect on the digestive system!
Googling sugar-free baking brings up loads of recipes that sound delicious (well that’s me occupied until the end of lockdown), including banana cake, carrot cake…
This content was compiled by Carol Pritchard, Denplan Practice Advisor
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