Many years ago, before I attended the Natural Gourmet Institute's chef training program focused on health-supportive cooking, my understanding of low-sugar or sugar-free desserts was quite different. Then, I typically substituted Splenda or another artificial sweetener for cane sugar in conventional chocolate chip cookie or cake recipes. However, I have since learned to use naturally sweet, plant-based ingredients and enhance them with effective culinary techniques to create decadent desserts without added sugars or artificial ingredients. As a result, my tolerance for overly sweet desserts has decreased, and I now prefer treats with less sugar overall.

Here are my tips for preparing naturally sweet, low-sugar desserts. And some of my favorite desserts, many of which incorporate more than one of these strategies.

Tip #1 Add Air

Looking for desserts with less sugar? You might be surprised to learn that incorporating airiness can compensate for the reduced sugar content. You can create light and flavorful options like sorbet and mousse by whipping air with a blender or food processor into frozen fruit or melted chocolate. The delightful, cloud-like consistency turns simple frozen fruit into a decadent dessert. Natural emulsifiers and thickeners such as silken tofu, nut butter, bananas, and avocados also contribute to a wonderfully creamy texture. Side note: whipped cream doesn’t need added sugar!

My favorites: 2-Step Seasonal Fruit Sorbet (shown in photo), Banana N’ice Cream, Silken Dark Chocolate Cashew Butter Mousse

Tip #2 Use Dried Fruit

Sweeten desserts naturally by incorporating dried fruits such as dates and raisins. Pulse pitted dates with other dried fruits, nuts, cocoa powder, or spices to create subtly sweet energizing bars or bites. Alternatively, soak the dried fruits in hot water to rehydrate them before blending them into cake batters or custards for added sweetness. Using dried fruit or date sugar also adds the nutritional benefits of vitamins and fiber, which are found in whole fruits. Additionally, it enhances the depth of flavor and interest in your desserts!

My favorites: Pumpkin Seeded Date Nut Balls (shown in photo), Spiced Sweet Potato Custard

Tip #3 Caramelize

When you cook fruit, vegetables, and even grains by toasting, roasting, grilling, or you brulee to get some color, texture and caramelization, you bring out the natural sweetness and deepen flavors that you didn’t even know were there. Try this with apples, peaches, pineapple, mango, and even sweet potatoes or nuts to achieve dessert flavors and complexity with produce alone.

My favorites: Baked Apple Crumbles in their own Juice (shown in photo), Grilled Pineapple

Tip #4 Dark Chocolate

No surprise that chocolate is a delightful sweet treat, and dark chocolate is a great option as it contains less sugar and can also be dairy-free. It offers numerous health benefits, including antioxidants, improving heart health, and providing essential minerals like magnesium, iron, and zinc. Additionally, dark chocolate can help boost your mood—there's a reason J.K. Rowling chose chocolate as the antidote for Dementors!

You can enjoy dark chocolate alone or combine it with fresh or dried fruits, nuts, nut butter, eggs, and coconut. It can also be used to make delicious truffles, pudding, and confections with little to no added sugar.

My favorites: Dark Chocolate Dipped Strawberries or Dried Apricots, Almond Cookie Butter and Jelly Cups in a Dark Chocolate Shell (shown in photo)

Tip #5 Reduce

To create a wonderfully sweet and intensely flavorful dessert, make a reduction. Cooking down fruit intensifies its flavor while reducing juice, wine, and even vinegar enhances the sweetness and highlights dimensions like minerality and acidity. Fruit-based desserts, such as pies, tarts, and cobblers, require less sugar when the fruit is reduced over high heat, allowing liquid to evaporate and natural flavors to intensify into jamminess. Consider dishes like Bananas Foster and Cherries Jubilee, where the caramelization of natural sugars and a reduction eliminate the need for added sugar. Alternatively, you can cook down juices to create a drizzling sauce.

My favorites: Plum Tarte Tatin (shown in photo), Peach Galette, Poached Pears in Apple Cider Reduction

Tip #6 SPICE IT Up

To enhance flavor and compensate for reduced sugar, consider adding warming spices such as cinnamon, cardamom, and ginger. These spices not only bring interest and depth but also offer their own natural sweetness. You can infuse whole spices into custard mixtures or simmering liquids, while ground spices work well in batters and doughs.

My favorites: Spiced Dark Chocolate Pot De Creme, Chai Latte Ice Cream, Spiced Squash and Apple Crumble Bread

Keep in mind that you can reduce sugar in recipes to maintain overall flavor and sweetness, but it's important to proceed with caution. Sugar often contributes to the texture and moisture of baked goods, and it helps batters spread, particularly in cookies. Therefore, don't simply omit or drastically reduce sugar without considering its role in the recipe.

Once, when diligently cleaning out my pantry, I stumbled upon a partial package of biscuits and the dried up remnants of a jar of almond butter (you know, the part left behind because I didn’t bother to evenly distribute the oils). And of course I had dark chocolate chips on hand. Determined to turn these scraps into something edible and pacify my junk candy craving, I whipped up confections suitable for a vacation-land ice cream shop, that can live in my freezer to be eaten on demand.

This recipe has gone through a few iterations to reach the perfect state it’s currently in. At first, I used mini tart shells and swirled the chocolate and almond butter filling together. While it created an artful design (see photo top right), it was much too large for one serving and too hard to cut into for sharing. My initial peanut butter cup inspiration did not include jam. But the richness of the almond butter and the bitterness of the chocolate called for something tart and sweet. Enter in: any type of jam you have on hand - my favorites for this are raspberry and strawberry. Finally, it was the students in my gluten free desserts class who suggested lining the sides of the muffin cup with a thin layer of chocolate to contain all of that almond butter gooeyness (see photo bottom right for earlier less refined yet photogenic version). Proof that even the best desserts can be made better.

Almond Cookie Butter and Jam Cups in a Dark Chocolate Shell

Makes: 9-12 candy pieces

What You Need:

5 teaspoons coconut oil, divided
½ cup plus 2 tablespoons finely crushed biscuit* crumbs
½ cup creamy almond butter
Pinch sea salt
8 oz dark chocolate
¼ cup jam (raspberry or strawberry recommended)

What You Do:

Line a small baking sheet with silicone muffin cups or mini tart shells (1½ - 2 inches in diameter).
Over a double boiler (or in a glass bowl in the microwave), melt the coconut oil. Set aside 2 level teaspoons of coconut oil to be added to the chocolate later.
Combine 2 teaspoons melted coconut oil, biscuit crumbs, almond butter and salt in the bowl of a food processor. Process until smooth. Add 1 teaspoon more coconut oil if needed to smooth out the mixture.
In the same double boiler or bowl in which you melted the coconut oil, melt the chocolate with the reserved 2 teaspoons of coconut oil. Whisk until smooth.
Drop about 1 tablespoon of the melted chocolate into the bottom of each cup and spread out, turning and tilting the cup so that the chocolate evenly coats the bottom of the cup and runs up the sides about half an inch. Freeze for 3-5 minutes.
Dollop approximately 1 tablespoon of the biscuit crumb and almond butter mixture on top of the chocolate base in each cup.
Dollop ½ - 1 teaspoon of jam into the center of each cup.
Freeze for 20-30 minutes or until jam is firm.
Top the cup with another 2-3 teaspoons melted chocolate (Reheat it over the double boiler first if it firmed up). Spread chocolate evenly across the tops of the cups. Freeze for 30 minutes before enjoying.

To Freeze:

After the cups have completely hardened, remove from their liners and transfer to a freezer safe bag or container. Store up to 6 months. But they will not last this long.

To Defrost:

Remove from freezer and allow to sit at room temperature for about 10 minutes before serving. Promptly return any uneaten portions to the freezer.

*Note about biscuits:

My favorite biscuits to use for these cups are the European graham cookies typically turned into speculoos. Biscoff works particularly well, but you can make these cups equally delicious with any sweetmeal or wholegrain biscuits that come in a cellophane tube (shown on the right), as well as gluten free graham cookies.