My Lessening Sweet Tooth

I think one of the first indications I was becoming "old" was when I began to consider some recipes too sweet. 

I used to take a lot of pride in my love of sugar. "Oh, I need my sugar," I would say, and even when I no longer consumed it on weekdays I would still profess my love for it. 

Don't get me wrong, I still like a hit of sweet every now and then, but I've been experimenting with cutting back on sugar in recipes, and I've been amazed how low I can go. 

Take the beloved family bundtcake, which calls for 2 cups of sugar. I read somewhere that one can take off one quarter of the sugar called for in a recipe with no ill effects, and it was a success with 1.5 cups. Then, what they hey, I cut it down further to 1.25. Still excellent. 1 cup did not turn out so good, so I've been sticking with 1.25 cups of sugar. It still tastes really sweet to me, and Ben loves it. 

Then the strawberry fluff (the recipe I posted back in 2014, so freakin' long ago, has been heavily modified since, so I owe an updated one) calls for 1 cup of sugar. I went down to 3/4 cup. Then 1/2 cup. It's so good with a 1/2 cup, I'm not kidding! Half the sugar, and it's excellent! 

I make Busy in Brooklyn's blueberry apple crisp nearly every Shabbos. It calls for 1/2 cup of sugar, but I don't put any in. That's right. I've found if I cover the crisp and bake it for a long time—90 minutes to 2 hours—the fruits caramelize to such an extent that it tastes sugar sweet. (I also halved the oil.)  

And so it goes. I've been cutting back on sugar in recipes left and right and I've been amazed how the results are still plenty sweet. Our sweet registers are really unnecessarily high. 

I'm not claiming that cutting back on sugar automatically makes a dessert "healthy"—but it is certainly "not as bad" as the full amount called for. 

Sugar is a part of our lives. The people need sweet! But we don't have to be SO sweet. (I was watching Sugar Rush with my nieces and I nearly barfed. I'm so old.)  

Experimentation can be daunting, I know. But give it a try. See what happens. Or better yet, if anyone notices.