Sugar-free Braided Apple Strudel
Being a home-cook who has a penchant for anything sweet is not a good thing when you have a husband who's been a type one Diabetic from the tender age of 7.
Diabetes & Hypoglycemia
Hubby has to inject himself with quick-acting insulin before every meal and a long-acting and quick-acting one at bedtime.
Trying to maintain his glucose levels at a normal level is quite a balancing act.
Of course he is tempted when I make sweet treats, so I try to make something that he can nibble on as well, otherwise his glucose levels go through the roof when he overindulges in something sweet.
He now and then makes a mistake by injecting too much insulin and then ends up with a hypoglycemic episode; quite scary for him and the person he is with as it causes extreme confusion, pounding heart, trembling, irritability, racing pulse, poor coordination; more severe reactions are seizures, passing out and going into a coma. Thankfully he has not had the latter three.
Our sons both know the symptoms and when they were growing up and I was not at home, they would give him a sweet drink or a sweet to get his glucose levels back to normal again. The diabetic undergoing a hypoglycemic attack often doesn't realize what's happening, so it's vital to let one's close family, friends and even work colleagues know what to look out for so they can react accordingly.
Fortunately these episodes don't last long if they're given something sweet.
The diabetic must always have glucose sweets close at hand in the car, or in their pockets when attending meetings.
Sugar-free Apple Strudel
I will always be thankful to @plantstoplanks for introducing me to Dates as a natural sweetener in cooking and baking as this is a much safer choice for the diabetic as dates have a low GI.
The Recipe
- 1 roll store-bought frozen puff pastry, brought to room temperature
- 3-4 Granny Smith Apples, cubed
- 1 stick Cassia or Cinnamon bark
- 3/4 cup Dates, diced
- 1 Egg, beaten for glazing the pastry
- Approx 3 tsp Sweetener for sprinkling on top of egg glaze
I should have made my own pastry, but a gal can take a short-cut now and then in the kitchen, not so!
Method
Steam Apples and dates with cassia till apples soften, leave to cool before using
Place pastry in a rectangular pan and arrange cooled filling along centre of pastry
Cut slits on either side for braiding
Paint with an egg glaze, sprinkle a little sweetener on top of the egg glaze & bake at 180°C for approx 40 min or until golden brown
Yummilicious guilt-free, sugar-free Apple Strudel - we won't talk about the pastry, don't do this too often ;)
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Yum... you sure know what to do!
Do you have a daughter, and has she learned from you?
Well, no matter, we will learn from you!
No daughter, only sons, and no grandchildren either!
Glad that you enjoyed it, really so easy with bought pastry, thanks @silversaver888 😉
Aha... hungry stomachs, big eaters are the best motivators to cooking good food!
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Thank you so much @taco.cat and @foodiesunite, much appreciated!
Wow! Looks yummy and healthy too!
Awe thank you @purepinay, love the gif! It was delishhh and super easy with the store-bought pastry🤗
It's delicious and we eat this food to make feel better. I never see it and maybe taste great. I like you it very much.
You're so right, i just love sweet treats and this one was really good! Thank you for popping in @phuong.sitha
Excellent preparation, it looks delicious!!
It was super easy and really delicious, thank you @baptisttadg
My wife and I are both type 2. This recipe looks marvelous, I will be trying it SOON. It has really been hard on my wife, she was diagnosed 6 months ago and she is a BIG dessert person, you know the kind that orders dessert first when you go out to eat!? Just to make sure she has room for it! LOL She settles now for fresh berries with home made whipping cream most of the time now. I did find a pretty decent cheese cake recipe using Swerve sugar substitute but it is difficult and expensive to make. This is a nice alternative and looks much easier.
Please read @chocolatescorpi's response below, so perhaps rather try prunes to sweeten the apples or simply add sweetener. I believe type 2 is much more difficult to control as one has to be extra careful with your diet, whereas the type 1 can at least inject a little extra if they're going to indulge a little!
Dates have been an amazing discovery. I added them to something the other day that needed a bit of sweetening. I can't remember what. I also like your use of cinnamon / cassia rather than cloves which can be a tad overpowering. Also, I don't like raisins... Oooh I sound so fussy! That said, I love that combination and you make it look so easy. And, mostly, that's the type of pastry I use...for us, anyway! lol
Going to have to give this a go.!
I learned that sweetening trick from @plantstoplanks and must say although I like raisins in other bakes, I really don't enjoy it with stewed apples, but the dates were really delicious!
I'm going to be buying pastry more often as it's very handy to put something together quickly. It really was very easy & delicious!
You won't be sorry if you try it;)
Ahh, I'm glad you tagged me again because I almost forgot to stop back by! I just snacked on a few dates with breakfast myself. I think dates and apples are a fantastic duo! It is coming up into apple season here soon, so I'll have to get my apron on for some baking when the time comes. This looks delicious @lizelle!
It's the first time I tried this and it indeed is a delicious duo!
That's my kind of treat @lizelle, looks so delicious. I like the sugar free part very much. Thanks for sharing.
It's really delicious with the dates my friend, I was lazy so used frozen puff pastry, so much easier! Thank you for popping in here, but missing seeing you for real.
Me too, been thinking of you guys a lot. Stay safe my friend, love you lots.
Yes, I used to have to inject mum and what a rollercoaster ride it was- more for me than her cause she didn't even realise that a few times I gave her too much act rapid and into hypo she went- so I'd be waking her up at all hours of the morning to make her eat her jellybeans and drink juice...
When a Diabetic has stage 4 bowel cancer and somehow gets Dexmethasone put in her blister packs- which makes the BGL SKYROCKET...so much so that the machine couldn't even read it it was so high, so it would say error, then I'd do it again and again until I got repeated readings of 29.9- apparently the highest it could read before saying error error....
So I have been experimenting on and off for a while now (since then) with the best NATURAL, sugar free sugar and Prunes come in at best. Just a few days ago I was going to try dates until I saw the info below...
..."dates contain about 45% more calories than prunes (289 calories compared to 200 calories per 100g). With 66 grams per 100g, dates have more than twice as much sugar as prunes, which have 31 grams of sugar per 100 grams of fruit. Dates (14mg/100g) also have twice the sodium of prunes(7mg/100g)...."
Please read the rest here, very interesting info...https://www.caloriecounter.com.au/dates-vs-prunes/
And never having eaten a lot of prunes or dates before (atleast never intentionally anyway...)...I made my vanilla Ginger Chia pudding which is freakin delicious and you might like that too, cause it's not very sweet- doesn't need to be and the little amount of sweet I put in there, was from the prune juice that I actually made and when I tasted it by itself, I actually went yummmm- something I thought I'd NEVER say about Prunes...lol...
https://peakd.com/hive-120078/@chocolatescorpi/plant-based-cooking-challenge-week-20-i-am-joining-you
Anyway, thanks for sharing that recipe- especially the way that you cut the pastry to be able to braid it. I'm definitely going to try that!
There was also a natural sugar replacer that I used to buy for mum from the state called....Just like sugar- a bit expensive but then you don't actually need a lot either and it's made from the Chicory root and it's supposed to be great for Diabetics...
https://justlikesugar.shop/collections/frontpage seems to be all sold out...not sure whats happenening there now...but anyway, proably best to stick with something you know and can get a hold of easier...but try the Prunes and pls have a go at that Chia pudding. It's even suprised me at how good it is...plus it's great for the digestion and everything else having the ginger in there too...
Diabetes is a hard journey for everyone around, so good luck and thanks for sharing!
Oh my word, so you've been through the mill way worse than me! I totally agree though that those sugar lows are way more scary for the carer than the diabetic as they often are so totally out of it that they don't even know what's going on. My hubby went on Keto once, lost a lot of weight BUT those lows at night got really bad at times! One night when it was really bad, I gave him jubes and then ran to put honey into his mouth; then only tested him and his reading was just over 1, so it must have been zero before all the sweet stuff! That was the end of Keto for him, even though he keeps on saying he needs to go back on it; definitely not while I'm around!
He also injects Byetta now, which is supposed to help with the control and I must say he;s more careful now and hasn't given me such a fright for a long while; it's the night time lows that I find dangerous.
I will experiment with using prunes instead of dates, although I did not put that many dates in; those were huge apples!
Thank you for sharing all this valuable info with me, much appreciated!
Yeah see during that time, I also got mum on TumeriX which is fantastic for Diabetics, but that combined with the act Rapid put her BGL wayyyy down and I couldn't sleep a wink at night cause everything was all over the place.
Simply having stage 4 cancer (bowel) means that the BGL is extremely high anyway (cancer is an infection and any infection causes the BGL to naturally rise...) then the act rapid down, then the dexmethasone up, then the TumeriX down..and then infections causing delerium...loop Illeostomy...and "Stewart" her very high maintenance Stoma...chemo...radiotherapy and the list went on....and it was impossible to keep it on any sort of an acceptable level.
I'm sure she's resting in peace now...hopefully after all that anyway...
Not sure if you know much about TumeriX...?
https://buyturmerix.com/pages/faq
I take this every day myself... and I know that not only does it work wonders for arthritis, but I am more than 100% certain that it killed most of the tumours in mums lungs and NOT the chemo...
Some of the Indian nurses told me about Indians drinking tea every day with FenuGreek in it for diabetes.....https://www.diabetes.co.uk/natural-therapies/fenugreek.html
and there's far more awareness about the highs than the lows yet the lows are the acutely dangerous situations- especially overnight, whereas the highs are more of a longterm danger...
Glad to hear that he's behaving himself...lol....
Goodluck to both of you.
xXX
You made it so pretty and even sugar free! I love apple strudel in anyway, but yours looks so perfect!
Now I'm hungry for some strudel 😋
It was so delicious with the dates, I will definitely pair those two again, was really delicious!
I wanted to make something like your blueberry babka bread but using apples & dates but would have had to use a bread dough, the pastry would not have worked!
Dates are so tasty that they rarely make it to be included in my cake, usually I can't resist eating them the same moment I can lay my hands on. 😅
I think you're right, yeast dough I really easy to shape and I'm not sure how harder would be making it with puff pasty or phyllo dough, or how it might look when baked. My clumsy ass kind of had problems braiding yeast dough, as soon as the blueberry sauce started dipping all over my working surface. 😂
You obviously skilled at braiding and making detailed decorations, you can even make a simple Strudel looking so beautiful!
My God, woman! This looks delicious and sugar-free! That is a pretty scary event with your husband. Going high is spooky, but, going that low is dangerous.
That aside, I am quite taken at how yummy this looks and I am truly going to give this one a try. I like using dates myself as I love how moist it keeps many cakes and desserts.
Thanks so much, @lizelle and @plantstoplanks for the idea!
HHave a great Sunday!
Awe thank you for the lovely feedback @dswigle. I loved the dates and apples combination, it was really delicious and so easy with the readymade pastry! Definitely making this again.
Those sugar lows are very scary indeed!