Healthier snack/bakes for autistic dd

[RippleLakers]

Dd is 10 and a bit overweight. She is autistic and has a limited diet, which we are trying to work on.

She has a massive sweet tooth and I am trying to replace her breakfast and after school snack with something lower in sugar. I am a good baker so happy to make some bits as I know exactly what will be going in them, but struggling to find any decent recipes which haven't got hard-to-source and expensive ingredients in.

I'm thinking along the lines of some sort of nutty/seedy flapjack or biscuit type thing. Maybe a lower sugar banana bread. Something like that!

Does anyone have any suggestions of tried and tested good recipes we can try her on?

Cookie & Kate banana bread has no sugar and wholewheat flour.

My autistic DC loves marzipan and has a very restricted diet so am in a similar position

I make bread buns with a bit of cocoa powder mixed into the dough and a small amount of sugar (it's not a sweet dough) and wrap the dough around a lump of ready-made marzipan. It would be healthier if I made my own marzipan which is basically sweetened ground almonds but that's a bit too far.

These! We add either vanilla or orange essence and chocolate chips, or some grated apple and cinnamon, for a bit more flavour.

Homemade pancakes or waffles. Can add no sugar/ mashed banana/ various ground flour or nut alternatives

Banana and peanut butter pancakes.

One sad blackened banana, 1tbsp smooth home brand peanut butter, one egg, 2 tbsp flour plus a tsp baking powder. Thump the heck out of it with a potato masher and it suddenly comes together.
Fry in an oiled pan, makes 3 or 4 fat US style pancakes.

Very filling but probably highly calorific.

My autistic DS also has a sweet tooth and will eat banana pancakes and yogurt, honey and granola for breakfast. He also has toast with peanut butter and jam.

For his afternoon snack I give him sliced apple (he won’t eat it whole) and a small piece of homemade cake or a biscuit. I don’t worry about low sugar or healthy recipes as it’s always just a small piece.

I also used to make these. I can’t get rice malt syrup but barley malt syrup is available at Holland and Barrett.

https://www.nigella.com/recipes/lunchbox-treats

I am very much in your position re autistic kids and breakfasts/snacks. I have 3 recipes which I've been fine-tuning to try to make them as healthy as possible while still being "a cake." Will try to copy and paste them below.

BANANA BREAD
Ingredients
85g dark brown sugar (light brown sugar or caster sugar also work well)
115g butter, softened (can substitute oil for butter; it works fine)
3 small/medium eggs or 2 large eggs
3 tablespoons milk
2 tsp vanilla essence
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp powdered cloves
1/2 tsp grated nutmeg or allspice
225g plain wholemeal flour (white flour or self-raising flour also work well)
2 large bananas or 4 small bananas (need to be ripe or overripe, not green)
N.B. If you have overripe bananas but no time to make this recipe, you can freeze the bananas and defrost them when you are ready. The defrosted bananas will look gross, but will be fine for this recipe.
Method
Preheat oven to 108C/160 fan / 350F.
Lightly grease a loaf tin (approx 22 x 11 x 6cm). If you don't have a loaf tin, you can use a 22cm round tin; it will take slightly less time to cook and will turn out a little bit drier.
Put the butter/oil and sugar in a mixer and mix together for a long time until very well blended.
Add the eggs and mix.
Add all the other ingredients EXCEPT the bananas and flour and mix.
Add the flour and mix.
Mash the bananas with a fork in a large bowl. DO NOT add the bananas to the mixer; if you do this then the cake will have a weird texture and not be so good. Instead you tip the cake mixture into the bowl with the bananas and gently fold them together with a wooden spoon until just combined - it may look a bit curdled, but it is fine.
Bake for about 55 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the middle of the bread comes out fairly clean and the bread is browned. The skewer may not come out totally clean, because the banana is a bit gooey.
Remove the tin to a wire rack and stand for 10 mins. Then remove the cake from the tin and allow it to cool on the rack.

.3WHOLEMEAL BLUEBERRY MUFFINS
Ingredients (12 muffins)
280g wholewheat flour
110g light or dark brown sugar.
½ tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
½ tsp cinnamon
130g fresh or frozen blueberries
1 tsp vanilla extract
67g oil (e.g. light olive oil)
340g plain yoghurt (regular, not Greek style)

Method
· Preheat the oven to 200°C (180°C fan). Line the cups of a standard muffin pan (12 muffins) with paper cases.
· Whisk together the dry ingredients: flour, brown sugar, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon. Stir in the blueberries last.
· In a separate bowl, whisk together the wet ingredients: vanilla, vegetable oil, and yoghurt.
· Pour the liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients, stirring just to combine.
· Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin cups.
· Bake the muffins for 18 to 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the middle of one of the centre muffins comes out clean.
· Remove the muffins from the oven, and after 5 minutes (or when they're cool enough to handle) transfer them to a rack to cool.

A good trick is to add vanilla flavouring to recipes. It's associated with sweet flavours, so makes things feel like they are sweet, even if they're not. Banana bread sweetened just with bananas, with a spoonful of vanilla essence and maybe some sweet cinnamon (aka cassia) if she likes that flavour would work.

WHOLEMEAL APPLE MUFFINS
Ingredients
260g wholewheat flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice or nutmeg
Pinch salt
2 large eggs
340g smooth unsweetened applesauce (or: 130g apple sauce and 210g peeled and grated apple). Gefen brand apple sauce from Ocado is good.
100ml pure maple syrup (about 140g).
70g oil (e.g. light olive oil)
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract

Method
· Preheat oven to 220°C (200°C fan). Line a 12-count muffin pan with cupcake liners. Set aside.
· In a large bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, allspice, and salt together until combined. Set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk the eggs, applesauce, maple syrup, oil, and vanilla together until combined. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, stir well, and then add the shredded apple (if using). With a spatula, fold everything together gently just until combined.
· Spoon the batter into cupcake liners. Bake for 5 minutes at 220°C (200°C fan), then, keeping the muffins in the oven, reduce the oven temperature to 180°C (160°C fan). Bake for an additional 16–18 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean. The total time these muffins take in the oven is about 21–23 minutes.
· Allow the muffins to cool for 5 minutes in the muffin pan, and then transfer to a wire rack to continue cooling, or enjoy warm.
· Muffins stay fresh covered at room temperature for a few days, then transfer to the refrigerator for up to 1 week.

Thanks so much everyone, this is so helpful!

Solidarity to those with autistic kids facing the same battles too. It's so hard to get a decent meal in her at all so I'm trying to make small changes where I can. Will definitely try some of these ideas

Sorry - that oven temperature should say 180C, not 108C!