Creating Low Glycemic Load Desserts and Snacks

By Dennis Teets

I confess I have a sweet tooth. I believe I got it naturally when I was growing up, because my grandmother was constantly baking cakes, cookies and pies, and my dad loved to bring home two-day-old discounted sticky buns. However, as far as I know, neither my grandmother, nor my father, had health issues related to the consumption of carbohydrate-based foods. While I inherited my dad’s love for sweets, I also found myself, at the age of 66, facing diabetes and began wondering if there was a role in my life for sucrose- based chocolate, since most available chocolate snacks and desserts are both high in calories and high in carbohydrates.

Since I was recently diagnosed with diabetes but I still wanted to be able to enjoy sucrose- based chocolate as part of my diet, I set out to develop a platform for producing desserts and snacks with a low Total Glycemic Load and a serving size of around 50 grams that still had the flavor release and texture of traditionally formulated products. In addition, I wanted the product to keep my glucose level under 180 mg/dL for a two-hour period after eating. I also had a goal to keep it under 140 mg/dL for
a two-hour period.

I started to compare some of my favorite chocolate snacks and desserts. In order to compare these different items with different serving sizes, I decided to turn Total Glycemic Load values, from GL per serving to GL per gram. I found that most desserts and snacks have a Glycemic Load per gram between 0.51 to 0.67. This equated to a Total Glycemic Load per serving between 13 and 25, which placed these items in either a medium or high Glycemic Load category.

Understanding Glycemic Load

The glycemic load of a product determines how quickly and how much of an effect the digestion of that product will have on blood glucose. In general, a person who does not have diabetes will have a glucose level that stays below 140 mg/dL. A person considered to be prediabetic will have a blood glucose level that is no greater than 180 after the consumption of food. In order for you to produce low Glycemic Load products, there are two control parameters you can utilize to understand how the finished product will affect the consumer’s blood-sugar level: the Glycemic Index of each ingredient and the total amount of carbohydrate in the product.

You can obtain the glycemic index of an ingredient by comparing the glucose curve of the ingredient to a curve of a similar amount of pure glucose. You can find these numbers online or from a reference source, such as Table 1. This number provides an indicator of how quickly a food containing a carbohydrate will raise an individual’s blood sugar level. Note: these numbers are general numbers, as each individual will digest a food slightly differently.

• Low GI 55 or less
• Med GI 56 – 69
• High GI 70 to 100

You can obtain the quantity of total carbohydrate from the nutrition label. It is presented in units of grams per serving. This number is the number of grams of total carbohydrate per specific serving size. The higher the number, the more grams available to affect blood sugar levels. Neither Glycemic Index or Total Carbohydrates alone give an absolute picture of how a food will affect a person’s glucose level when they consume it.

Table 1: GI of Common Foods

Table 2: Glycemic load calculation of Wrap

This is because products may contain ingredients that have a very high Glycemic Index in a very low quantity. Or the ingredient may have a low to moderate GI, but be a large percentage of the product.

Determine the Glycemic Load for an ingredient by multiplying the Glycemic Index of an ingredient by the grams of carbohydrate in that ingredient and dividing that number by 100. Add the totals for all ingredients to find the Total Glycemic Load of the product. (Measure Glycemic Load in units of GL, which stands for grams of pure glucose. Break down Glycemic Load into three categories.)

• Low glycemic load: 10 or less
• Moderate glycemic load: 11 to 19
• High glycemic load: greater than 20

Understanding how carbohydrates affect the Total Glycemic Load of a product allows you to manipulate the three components that affect the Total Glycemic Load so you can create a wide variety of textures and flavor profiles, while achieving a finished product with a Total Glycemic Load of ten or less. These components include the cacao percentage, the total amount of chocolate in the product and the glycemic load of toppings.

An Example: Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter wrap

By using these three components, you can create a dark chocolate peanut butter wrap (Picture 1) that uses only 20 grams of chocolate in an item with a Total Glycemic Load of 9.7 GL and a total weight of 53 grams. This produces an article containing 0.18 GL per gram Total Glycemic Load (Table 2). When I used Continuous Glucose Monitoring (CGM), this product did not raise my glucose level above 140 when I started at 100 mg/dL. And the product did not raise my glucose level more than a 29 mg/dL over a two-hour period, though it was an indulgent and satiating dessert.

Table 3: CGM Result

You can make this product by using the following formation process:

1. Temper the chocolate.
2. Place 20 grams of chocolate on the centerfold line of a 5.5” parchment paper square.
3. Press the chocolate between the two sides of the folded parchment paper.
4. Unfold the parchment paper to expose the chocolate slab.
5. Spread peanut butter on one side of the chocolate slab.
6. Pull the unloaded side of paper overloaded side and compress lightly into the peanut butter.
7. Refrigerate the product for 15 to 20 minutes or until it is hard enough to handle and the paper releases.

Closing Comments

The flavor profile presented in this article is just one of many you can create using this wrap format. Creating various formats can be as easy as changing the type of chocolate you use or as complex as adding multiple layers of textures and flavors. To learn more about this process and products that you can prepare by using it, go to sweetanchors. podia.com or contact Dennis Teets directly at [email protected].

Dennis Teets spent 30 years working in the confectionery industry as a product developer, researcher, scientist, trainer, innovator and consultant. He now runs a confectionery coaching website: https://sweetanchors.podia.com.

(This article appeared in the Spring 2025 issue of Pastry Arts Magazine)