Sometimes the best menu ideas come from customers, as Sunrise Senior Living discovered. A resident at Sunrise of Beaconsfield, one of the company’s 300 long-term care communities, shared her recipe for Lemon Loaf with the chef because her family requested it often when they visited. It became a brunch and dessert hit among residents, but like many heirloom recipes, the cake’s sugar and fat content were on the high side. Caitlin Rogers, director of dining and nutrition services for Sunrise, updated the recipe to improve its health profile.
- The 2015 U.S. Dietary Guidelines recommend that consumers limit sugar to no more than 10 percent of daily calories—or about half what most people now consume. Rogers simply cut back the recipe’s sugar content by one-half cup and it did not noticeably change the texture or flavor, she says. If clean ingredients are a goal, she suggests using palm or coconut sugar instead of refined white sugar.
- An easy substitution for butter is Greek yogurt—it doesn’t affect texture and adds protein to the dessert, Rogers says. Here, Greek yogurt stands in for half the butter, saving 48 grams of fat per cake. “The recipe already has citrus notes from lemon juice and grated zest, so you don’t notice the tang from the yogurt,” Rogers says. Since some older diners have less acute taste buds, a slightly more assertive flavor is an advantage, she adds.
- Reducing the fat also may reduce baking time, Rogers finds. To ensure accuracy, she suggests using the toothpick test; it should come out clean when the cake is completely baked through. To boost nutrition and appearance, Rogers sometimes serves the cake with a side of lightly macerated berries.