Like I mentioned in my last post; one of my goals this summer is to try a new, healthy ingredient every week. This week I’ve decided to feature ‘organic coconut palm sugar.’
Coconut sugar is considered healthy for a few reasons:
Low glycemic food
It’s considered a low glycemic food, which means it doesn’t spike your blood sugar near as much as regular sugar. This is a good thing. It’s important to keep your blood sugar stable to prevent developing diabetes, hypoglycemia and weight gain. Keeping your blood-sugar stable also prevents you from craving refined sugar & carbs.
A source of vitamins & minerals
Coconut sugar contains B vitamins and is a rich source of minerals such as: potassium, magnesium, zinc and iron.
Safe
Coconut palm sugar is safe for diabetics and those that are on a low sugar diet for another reason (ex. someone with irritable bowel syndrome or candida).
1:1 ratio
Coconut sugar can be used in place of any other sugar or sweetener with a 1:1 ratio (ex. sub ½ cup brown sugar for ½ cup coconut palm sugar).
Tastes Delish
Coconut sugar is subtly sweet, and has a nice caramel flavour. I’ve tried it in a bunch of recipes this week, and it works great as a sugar substitute. And, it’s available at Bulk Barn!
Healthy Baking
I’ve developed a great healthy granola recipe using coconut palm sugar. My whole wheat granola is a healthy alternative to super-sweet packaged cereal, makes a great topping on Greek yogurt or Kefir and is a perfect healthy snack when paired with a piece of fruit. It’s also super-easy to make so it’s a nice thing to serve if you have guests over for breakfast…enjoy!
Whole Wheat Granola
Ingredients
2 cups rolled oats
½ cup whole-wheat flour
1/3-cup coconut palm sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp ground ginger
3 tbsp grapeseed oil or coconut oil
¼ cup cranberry juice or apple juice
3 tbsp real maple syrup
½ cup pumpkin seeds or nut/seed of choice
¼ cup sunflower seeds
¼ cup California raisins
Method
Preheat oven to 300 F
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or Silpat (silicone liner)
Combine all ingredients in a bowl, and stir to combine
Spread the mixture out onto your baking sheet, and bake for 35 minutes, tossing after 15 minutes to prevent burning
Remove granola from the oven and let it cool to room temperature. Store in an airtight container.
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Thanks for the recipe Lauren! I want to try it next week, be a nice change from the standard
Love the post!
Thanks Sarah! Hope you like it!
That looks great… in Colombia they have this stuff called Panela (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panela) that is made from unrefined sugar cane. I wonder if its a good alternative to sweetner or refined sugars. If you do some research on it, let me know what you find!
Sounds interesting! I’ll definitely look into that!
Lauren,
I have tried to “Pin it” from your site but it always comes up with a “no account” message? However, it does take me to my boards? Just nothing appears for me to Pin/Repin? Can you help? Thanks, … ~ L
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