Doughnut Delight

My children keep asking me to take them to Tim Horton's for Timbits.  I think there must be either a doughnut in a show they are watching or a Tim Horton's commercial playing repeatedly; either way, there has been multiple requests for some sugary fried dough.

I finally told my son that when I was a kid, I remember my mom making doughnuts.  This fabulous event was followed immediately by the entire family sitting on the front porch moaning from the joy of overeating amazing homemade doughnuts.  My son didn't believe me, so on Saturday, we decided to see if it would be possible to make a satisfying doughnut with my new best friend dextrose. 

I will tell you right up front that the results were worth the effort.  I personally have never made doughnuts (the family experience from my childhood was not often repeated) so I turned to my trusty friend allrecipes.com.  I found a fabulous recipe which you can find here and made the necessary adjustments to make a fructose-free doughnut.  The result was a fabulous doughnut which we glazed with dextrose glaze and or sprinkled with dextrose powder and cinnamon.  Here is the recipe and some tips for making your own fructose-free delights. 

2 (.25 ounce) envelopes active dry yeast
1/4 cup warm water (105 to 115 degrees)
1 1/2 cups lukewarm milk
3/4 cup dextrose
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1/3 cup shortening
5 cups all-purpose flour

1 quart vegetable oil for frying

GLAZE:
1/3 cup butter
2 cups dextrose
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
4 tablespoons hot water or as needed

Directions (As Per Allrecipes.com)

1. Sprinkle the yeast over the warm water, and let stand for 5 minutes, or until foamy.
2. In a large bowl, mix together the yeast mixture, milk, sugar, salt, eggs, shortening, and 2 cups of the flour. Mix for a few minutes at low speed, or stirring with a wooden spoon. Beat in remaining flour 1/2 cup at a time, until the dough no longer sticks to the bowl. Knead for about 5 minutes, or until smooth and elastic. Place the dough into a greased bowl, and cover. Set in a warm place to rise until double. Dough is ready if you touch it, and the indention remains.
3. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface, and gently roll out to 1/2 inch thickness. Cut with a floured doughnut cutter. Let doughnuts sit out to rise again until double. Cover loosely with a cloth.
4. Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir in confectioners' sugar and vanilla until smooth. Remove from heat, and stir in hot water one tablespoon at a time until the icing is somewhat thin, but not watery. Set aside.
5. Heat oil in a deep-fryer or large heavy skillet to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Slide doughnuts into the hot oil using a wide spatula. Turn doughnuts over as they rise to the surface. Fry doughnuts on each side until golden brown. Remove from hot oil, to drain on a wire rack. Dip doughnuts into the glaze while still hot, and set onto wire racks to drain off excess. Keep a cookie sheet or tray under racks for easier clean up.

 My Notes:

• I did use shortening in the dough and vegetable oil for the frying.  My concern over shortening and vegetable oil is growing; however, I stuck with them for this recipe.  I will keep you posted if I try lard for the dough and a different oil for the frying.
• This is a great dough to knead in a stand mixer as it is soft and won't put a strain on your mixer.  I used my Bosch mixer (which can handle anything) and let it knead in the machine for five minutes.
• Oil your hands to get the dough out of the mixer without needing extra flour.  Using too much flour at this point can lead to a tough dough.  I also oiled the counter and my rolling pin to keep from needing extra flour.
• I did use a doughnut cutter for half of the dough.  Then it started to hurt my hand and I didn't want to waste any dough so I rolled out the dough in a big rectangle to 1/2 inch thickness and sliced it with a pizza cutter into roughly 1 inch rectangles.  This created beautiful doughnut pillows that were fabulous - a lot like a French doughnut or beignet.  I fried them for approximately 1 1/2 minutes on each side.
• It is really a must to use a thermometer.  I started frying when the oil temp got to around 325 degrees and adjusted the stove to keep the oil below 350 degrees.  This worked well to make sure that the doughnuts were golden brown and cooked all the way through.  The temperature of the oil is a delicate balance between being too cool which results in the dough absorbing a lot of oil and being too hot which will result in a burned outside and a raw inside.
• I personally liked the doughnuts best with a sprinkle of dextrose powder mixed with cinnamon.  I did make the glaze as noted above with dextrose and it worked well.  My kids loved it but I thought it was a little sweet.  (I know - crazy.)
• Baked goods made with dextrose are best enjoyed the same day.  We did have a few left the next morning and they were still good but I don't think you can wait much longer before they will start to go stale.  As a side note, I think it is a testament to the fact that sugar is addictive when I realized that there is no way there would have been any doughnuts left for the next day if they had been prepared with regular white sugar.  Without the addictive draw of sugar, we ate until we were uncomfortable and then were easily able to stop and move on with life without feeling the need to really gorge ourselves. 
• And finally, this is a great recipe for making sure that you don't feel deprived of life's normal joys.  That said, it is not a recipe that should be used on a daily basis.  There is nothing low calorie about it, all that has been removed is the processed fructose.

 

Pop Pop Popcorn!

One of my family's favorite snacks is popcorn.  My kids learned to make themselves microwave popcorn as soon as they were old enough to reach the microwave.  Of course, being a sugaraholic, I always bought the kettle-corn variety.  Most days after school, my 8 year old son would down an entire bag and still claim to be hungry which was completely frustrating to me as a mom.

Around the same time that I was deciding that we needed to drastically reduce the amount of sugar in our diets, I also read a few articles about the dangers of microwave popcorn.  Everything from the chemicals in the oils to the chemicals in the bag itself scared me.  Not to mention that the added sugar was causing my kids to be constantly hungry.

Now, we no longer have microwave popcorn in our home.  Instead, we make popcorn the old-fashioned way -- on the stove.  I am amazed at how quickly a batch of popcorn can be whipped up and it tastes so much better. 

Here is how we make our popcorn:

Start with a nice sturdy pan 5 to 6 quart pot.  My favorite pan for making popcorn is this fabulous 5-quart  pot with lid that I purchased at Ikea for a great price and is pictured above.  The pan is nice and sturdy on the bottom and has a light-weight lid that is perfect for popcorn because it easily bounces around letting the steam out.  And you really can't beat the price.

Into the pan I add 2-3 tablespoons of a light olive oil and 1/2 cup popcorn kernels.  Cover the pot and turn the temperature on the stove to medium-high.  Using potholders, I give the pot a quick shake every couple of minutes.  Once you start hearing the kernels pop, keep giving occasional shakes and leave on the burner with the lid on until the popping slows down.  Once the popping is down to a pop or two every couple of seconds, then remove from the burner (just like the sound you listen for when making microwave popcorn).  I like to dump my popcorn into a separate bowl and then drizzle with butter and shake in salt.  For an added treat to satisfy my sweet tooth, I sometimes shake a little dextrose powder over my own bowl. 

We have tried various different types of corn kernels with universal success.  We started with a jar from our local grocery store and recently purchased some monster mushroom kernels from our local bulk food store that are fabulous. 

Seasoned Salt = Favorite Dinner

I am not a big fan of making dinner.  Luckily, I have found that the change of removing sugar from our diet has actually made it easier to fix dinner.  Yay!  Now, dinner is pretty specific:  some type of lean meat (fish, chicken, or beef) along with a large amount of vegetables.  All I have to do is select a meat and some veggies and away we go.  I have been amazed at how well my children are doing with this change.  Because the younger two are picky eaters, they are glad to find a plain piece of fish or chicken on their plate.  They still complain (a lot) about the vegetables, but I provide them in the hope that they will give up and eat them some day.

I really like using Lawry's Seasoned Salt.  It is great on hamburgers, chicken, and vegetables just to name a few.  Unfortunately, when I was cleaning out my cupboards to remove anything that contained sugar, I discovered that my favorite Lawry's Seasoned Salt contains sugar.  I toyed with the idea of using it anyway - how much sugar could possibly be in there?  And then, just for fun, I googled recipes for a copy-cat seasoned salt.  To my surprise (and relief) there was an easy replacement.  After a little tweaking, here is the recipe that I am now using.  I am sure that it would be fine without the dextrose.  

Seasoned Salt:

4 teaspoons salt
4 teaspoons garlic powder
2 teaspoons onion powder
2 teaspoons dextrose powder
1 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1/4 teaspoon celery salt

Wisk together and store in a tightly sealed container (I use an old spice container with a shaker top).


My favorite dinner right now is:

Chicken tenderloins, cooked in a skillet with seasoned salt and a tiny drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil (I keep a bag of frozen Tyson chicken tenderloins in the freezer for quick dinners.  I have tried to buy the store brand of frozen chicken but the chicken was often dry and tough.  I like the tenderloins because they cook quickly and evenly.)

Veggies (zucchini, summer squash, onion, mushrooms, and asparagus) cut into bite size pieces, spread onto a baking sheet then sprinkled with extra-virgin olive oil and seasoned salt.  Stir around (I use my clean hands) to mix and then bake in a 400 degree oven until done (approximately 8-10 minutes)

Sometimes I will add a baked potato for my kids.  For a speedy baked potato, scrub your potato, cut two slits through the skin on both sides, place on a microwave proof plate (like Corelle) with a microwave proof bowl on top.  Cook on high for 3 1/2 minutes on each side.  

Sanity Saving Snack

I love a challenge and have enjoyed finding ways to make life as normal as possible while still removing as much processed sugar from our diets as I can. 

I have a deep love for peanut butter, chocolate, and peanut butter together with chocolate.  When I am feeling a little stressed and need a quick snack, I have found that one square of Lindt 70% Cocoa chocolate smothered in natural Smuckers peanut butter is a perfect option.  This is some pretty seriously dark chocolate and really is not sweet at all.  The peanut butter has only two ingredients:  peanuts and salt.  An added bonus is that both items are easily found at my local grocery store. 

Where there is a will, there is a way.  :)

Dextrose and Glucose Syrup

Let's face it - giving up sugar should not have to mean giving up the sweetness of life.  Most of that sweetness will return in the form of fabulously awesome fresh fruit.  After completing my 10 days of sugar detox, the first sweet thing I ate was a fresh strawberry.  And for probably the first time in my life, this was a fresh strawberry without a speck of added sugar.  It was AMAZING!!  It has so much flavor and sweetness.  I felt like I had died and gone to heaven.  So fresh fruit is definitely the sweet treat of choice at our house. 

But, is there any other way to add a bit of sweetness?  What about birthdays and family events and everyday moments in life like eating 100% plain greek yogurt?  Here is where I pull out my secret weapons:  dextrose powder and glucose syrup. 

Dextrose powder is powdered glucose and glucose syrup is really just a solution of glucose and water.  Both are natural substances free from fructose.  Dextrose powder looks like slightly crunchy powdered sugar.  It has a lower sweetness than white sugar (it would take 1 1/3 cups dextrose to have the same sweetness as 1 cup white sugar).  It blends easily into yogurt and works well in lots of recipes.  You won't be able to create a decent sugar cookie because the texture and weight are different; but, I have made cake, ice cream, sauces, muffins, and even my own version of pancake syrup.

A couple of things to think about:

1. Dextrose and glucose syrup are not artificial sweeteners and therefore still have calories just like regular sugar.  ***I would NOT recommend using dextrose or glucose syrup until you feel like you are really free from your cravings for sugar.*** 
2. Dextrose powder will take a bit more liquid when used to replace white sugar in a recipe.  Try using extra-larges eggs to combat this issue when you can.
3. Dextrose powder tends to brown quicker in foods than regular sugar.  I am still working on finding a recipe for pancake mix that works consistently without ending up with lots of burnt pancakes.
4. Dextrose and glucose syrup found in the USA are almost always made from corn.  At first I found myself concerned about this.  High-fructose corn syrup is very bad and should be avoided.  After reading and researching further, I was able to feel good about using dextrose and glucose syrup in moderation.  Regular corn syrup does not contain fructose (be sure to read the labels); without fructose, one brownie, piece of cake, or bowl of ice cream will be enough.  Really - it will. 
5. Buying dextrose and glucose syrup can be tricky.  These are not items that I have found in my local grocery.  I started by buying mine from my best-bud Amazon.com (see dextrose powder and glucose syrup).  I also think these items might be available at health food stores.  I am lucky because we have a great little store in our town that sells bulk items like various flours, etc., called Beyond Measure.  I talked to the owner, and she was able to order a 50 pound bag of dextrose at a much lower cost per pound.  Hopefully she will be able to stock this item on the shelf for those of you that are interested and live in my area.  Glucose syrup can also sometimes be found where cake decorating supplies are sold.
6. I also have to add that my husband still thinks of this as cheating.  That's his opinion; as for me, I find that it is a great way to keep from feeling deprived and finding yourself wanting to stick your head in a giant cake from the bakery.  Remember, all things in moderation.  (Except leafy green vegetables -- you can never get enough of those :)
7. What about honey, maple syrup, molasses, agave, and other great natural sweeteners?  Sigh.  These items all contain fructose at varying levels.  For me, a true sugar addict, these items still trigger cravings and mess with my brain chemistry.  I am avoiding them completely for now.  That doesn't mean that they aren't great alternatives to white sugar.  It is up to you to decide how strict you need to be with your own diet.

Stay tuned as I add recipes that I have converted to fructose-free.

Favorite Smoothie

The whole-food smoothie is a staple in our daily menu.  Starting the day out with a good and filling breakfast really helps to distract from food cravings.  It took some experimenting to find a combination of different recipes that finally worked for us.  Here is our favorite.

Smoothie (1 serving)

1/2 cup water
1/2 cup unsweetened original flavor almond milk
1 tablespoon chia seeds
1 tablespoon flax seeds
1 tablespoon pumpkin seeds
1 tablespoon almond butter
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon fresh grated ginger
1/2 avocado
1/2 lemon complete with rind
1 cup frozen berries (usually combination of blueberries, raspberries, and strawberries)

Blend until smooth.


Note on blenders:  as part of my preparation for our quest to go sugar free, I started researching blenders.  Someday, I will save up and get a really awesome Vitamix blender.  But for now, I settled on a great little Ninja Master Prep.  It probably doesn't blend our smoothies nearly as smooth as a larger, more powerful blender; but, it has worked pretty well so far.  I actually really like being able to easily remove the blades and clean the pitcher and blades easily and it is all super compact for easy storage.

How It All Started

Mine is a lifelong struggle with weight.  As a child, I don't remember be overly heavy, but as a teenager, the pounds started creeping on.  I am a solid gal with a nice strong bone structure.  Being thin has never been a quest of mine.  Being healthy and happy certainly is.  Especially now that I have three children of my own.  I want to be able to keep up with them and be around to enjoy their lives. 

I have tried multiple diets and weight-loss plans.  Too many to really list, but I will say that the dieting portion of my life has spanned from around the age of 10 until I was 35.  Twenty-five years of torture with only a few bright spots.  At age 35, I finally realized that it was detrimental to my health to try to be on any type of diet.  All I had to do was think "food restriction" and I would be off on some type of binge.  So I gave up any effort in the diet area and floated along (including two pregnancies) for 8 years of not trying to diet at all.  Interestingly, my weight stabilized and I remained within a 10 pound range during this time.  The problem was, I was still in the morbidly obese range and definitely not getting the most enjoyment out of my life.

After having my children, I felt a strong need to provide them the best opportunities to grow which included wanting them to have the best possible nutrition.  I floundered in this area and struggled with the best way to provide healthy food.  Some times I found myself scouring the grocery stores for organic apples and making my own bread.  Some times I found myself barely able to feed my kids fast-food for most meals of the day.  Our lives ran the gambit of nutrition:  healthy to poison. 

At one point, I discovered a menu service called The Fresh 20.  This great website provides a weekly menu and grocery list of healthy meals.  I wasn't good at actually using the menus, but I could see how great they were and continued to receive their menus and emails.  During the early part of 2014, I received an email from The Fresh 20 that talked about a new book called "The Blood Sugar Solution 10-Day Detox Diet" by Mark Hyman, MD.  I went to Amazon and read the book synopsis and was instantly intrigued.  I downloaded the kindle e-book and read straight through.  What Dr. Hyman discussed felt so right to me.  I have always known that I had a severe weakness when it comes to sugar.  I was amazed to read and find that there is scientific research available to show that sugar can be 8 times more addictive than heroin.  And unlike detoxing from drugs or alcohol, you cannot be locked in a room without food for 10 days.  I became convinced that I was and will always be a sugar addict.  And, Dr. Hyman's 10 day detox seemed to have arrived in my life at the exact time that I felt I could get prepared and break my sugar habit - forever. 

Knowing and doing are two completely different things.  I spent over a month planning and preparing and eating my way through holidays and family events.  Sugar has been such an ingrained part of my life, I became terrified at how I would be able to move forward without it as a crutch.  But I knew it was exactly what I and my family needed right now.  My sweet husband even became convinced that this was what we needed to do and agreed to go through the detox with me - as long as I would provide exactly what he needed to eat when he needed to eat it.  Lol! 

April 8, 2014, is a day that will go down as one of the top 5 days that changed my life.  I will admit that the weekend preceding this date found me scarfing down bags of Easter candy including an entire bag of Reese's peanut butter eggs.  I will also readily admit that I cried and mourned my loss of sugar.  That first ten days was a complete roller-coaster of emotions.  Anger, cravings, sorrow, depression, etc.  The first two days were certainly the worst, which was not helped at all by the fact that I had binged heavily on sugar that last weekend.  The first morning, I made the first smoothie listed in Dr. Hyman's book and it was horrible (at least to me on that day).  But we stuck it out and followed the day through with a salad for lunch and a dinner of lean protein and lots of non-starchy vegetables.  The second morning, the smoothie was even worse (sorry Dr. Hyman) and I wasn't able to even choke down half of it.  The third day, I finally hit on a combination of items from three different smoothie recipes and finally started to feel like I could do this.  I began to feel better, physically and emotionally.  The changes in my body were quick and amazing. 

We stuck it out through the ten days and haven't looked back yet.  The first ten days, we didn't eat any grains, dairy, or fruit (with the exception of berries in our morning smoothie).  But we were never hungry.  Snacks included nuts and fresh veggies.  Lunch was usually a huge salad with lots of dark greens, boiled eggs, avocado, nuts or sunflower seeds, veggies and oil and vinegar for a dressing.  Dinner was fish or chicken and occasionally beef with lots of non-starchy vegetables.  And lots of water.

My main goal for this detox was to break my sugar addiction.  Other goals were to feel better and lose weight.  And weight I did lose:  15.2 lbs. in the first 10 days to be exact!  My husband lost 3.9 lbs. during the same time so (as all diet plans will say) results are not typical.  He doesn't have nearly as much to lose and takes some medications that make it harder to lose.  But we are both feeling so much better.  Now, seven weeks later, we have worked grains, dairy and fruit back into our diet and I am down a total of 24 lbs. (husband is down 10 lbs.)  Food is tasting wonderful and I really love working to solve "sugar" dilemmas.  Which led me to creating this blog.  Here, I am hoping to share what I have learned to help someone else with their quest to become free of a sugar addiction.  There is lots to learn and know and I certainly only know and understand the very tip of the iceberg.  I welcome any ideas as we move forward in this quest for health together.

The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly

Avoiding fructose is a difficult task.  Food companies have found that adding sweet to virtually all foods increases sales.  As consumers began to question the safety of eating added sugar, multiple alias' have been created to sneak sugar into our food. 

It is difficult to find a good source for all the food items that contain fructose.  I was happy to find that Eve Schaub has now published an extensive list of fructose containing sugars (bad), artificial sweeteners (ugly), and fructose free sweeteners (good).

You will find her list here.

Thank you Eve for this wonderful resource.

Some Basics

So, you may be asking yourself, "What is the big deal with sugar?"  Here is a quick review of the problems with sugar as I understand them.  This information is what has remained in my brain after reading the books listed in the "Related Books" section of this blog's right side-bar.  My favorite source is David Gillespie's' book, "Big Fat Lies."

• Basic white sugar is a combination of two molecules:  sucrose and fructose.  Sucrose is broken down by the body into glucose which is the basic substance that all the bodies cells use for energy.  Fructose, however, is not properly used or recognized by our bodies.  Fructose that is eaten (when not eaten as fresh fruit) is sent to the liver where it is converted to fatty acids or uric acid.  The fatty acids enter the blood stream, reek havoc on our cholesterol levels and then are deposited into our fat cells.  Uric acid collects in our joints and can produce painful gout related issues. 
• Prior to the early 1800s, the only time people would ingest fructose was when eating fresh fruit or honey both of which were relatively rare occurrences.  Fruit was generally only eaten in small quantities and while in season.  In addition, when fructose is eaten as part of a fresh piece of fruit, the fructose amount ingested is minimal and is counteracted in the body by the fiber and micronutrients contained in the fresh fruit.  Honey has a lower percentage of fructose than sugar and also contains added health benefits.
• Refined white sugar is a relatively new substance for the human race.  Until white sugar began to be mass produced, mainly from sugar beets and sugar cane, sugar was extremely rare and expensive.  It is only during the last 150 years that sugar has been available to the general public.  This is certainly not a long enough span of time for the human race to adapt and be able to properly process fructose in our systems.
• Fructose contained in sugar (and its various other alias') works as a drug in our brains.  It creates a dopamine response similar to other opium type drugs.  Once a person begins to become addicted, more and more sugar is required to even feel normal.
• In addition, the calories consumed in fructose are not counted in our bodies.  As far as our brains are concerned, only the sucrose half of a sugar molecule is counted towards our calorie intake.  As a result, excessive sugar intake results in continued feelings of hunger and cravings.
• Our bodies naturally crave sweet as this was often how early humans were able to distinguish between something that was a poison (sour or tart in flavor) and something that was safe to eat.  Food companies play on this weakness and add sweet flavors to nearly all foods to help increase sales.  As a result, we are eating more and more calories, only recognizing half the actual calories ingested, adding burden to our livers, fat to our waistlines, and creating a drug response in our brains.
• And just to be clear, it doesn't matter if the sweetener is organic or considered a healthy alternative; if it contains fructose, your body will not be able to process it.  A strong example of this is agave.  Agave has been recently toted as a wonderful, natural sweetener.  The only problem is that agave is 90% fructose.  Your bodies response to agave will be almost twice as bad as eating regular white beet or can sugar.

There is so much more to learn and understand about our amazing bodies.  I am sure this is just the beginning.  I feel strongly about making choices that feel right for you and your family.