Reducing added sugars in baking recipes

If you are already baking in-house, you may be able to reduce sugars in certain recipes to help you meet the weekly limits for added sugars.

In recipes where sugar hasn't already been reduced, you can try decreasing the amount by 25%. This slight reduction should not significantly affect taste, texture, or appearance.

Let’s look at a snickerdoodle recipe. We’ll walk through the steps of calculating a new, lower sugar measurement. Note that for this example, we will only focus on reducing sugar in the cookie dough.

Cookie dough:

• Margarine (1 lb)
• Granulated sugar (2 lbs)
• Eggs (5 large)
• Vanilla extract (1 Tbsp + 1 tsp)
• 1% milk (4 oz)
• Whole wheat flour (2 lbs 8 oz)
• Baking powder (1 Tbsp + 1 tsp)
• Baking soda (2 tsp)
• Salt (2 tsp)
• Nutmeg (1 ½ tsp)
• Cinnamon (1 Tbsp + 1 tsp)

Cinnamon sugar topping:

• Granulated sugar (8 oz)
• Cinnamon (1 Tbsp)

First, we need to find the amount of sugar in the dough.

In this case, we have 2 lbs of granulated sugar. For other recipes, don’t forget to review the ingredient list for other sources of added sugars, like honey, brown sugar, molasses, etc.

Second, we multiply the amount of sugar by 0.25.

2 lbs x 0.25 = 0.5 lb.

Third, we calculate our new amount.

We subtract 0.5 lb from our original amount of 2 lbs. 2 lbs – 0.5 lb = 1.5 lbs. This is our new sugar measurement.

Although reducing sugar likely won’t affect quality in a noticeable way, it is always a good idea to test the recipe multiple times.

Reducing other types of sugar may also lead to different results. Honey, for example, contributes liquid. Another source of liquid may need to be increased or added so that the baked good doesn’t come out more dry.