Diabetic Desserts

Updated November 03, 2008

These low-sugar and sugar-free desserts can help make life a little sweeter for people with diabetes. 

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Orange Pumpkin Tarts

Credit: Lee Harrelson; Styling: Mindi Shapiro

Orange Pumpkin Tarts Recipe

Offer these individual tarts as a reduced-sugar alternative to pumpkin pie at your next holiday meal. The crust is made with crushed sugar-free oatmeal cookies and the filling is a low-sugar version of pumpkin pie filling with a splash of orange juice.

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Chocolate Mousse

Credit: Lee Harrelson; Styling: Mindi Shapiro

Chocolate Mousse Recipe

This easy 4-ingredient dessert features frozen whipped topping and sugar-free chocolate syrup and has only 11 grams of carbohydrate per serving.

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Peanut Butter Cookies

Credit: Lee Harrelson; Styling: Mindi Shapiro

Peanut Butter Cookies Recipe

These cookies will remind you of the peanut butter cookies your mom used to make you when you were a kid, but these have only 5 grams of carbohydrate per cookie.

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Peanut Butter Ice Cream Sandwiches

Credit: Lee Harrelson; Styling: Mindi Shapiro

Peanut Butter Ice Cream Sandwiches Recipe

Stir peanut butter into low-sugar ice cream and spread between gingersnaps for an easy, low-sugar frozen treat. Wrap individually in plastic wrap and store in an airtight container in the freezer. Then you'll have a single-serving snack ready for an easy indulgence.

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Classic Pumpkin Pie

Once slice of this classic holiday pie from Cooking Light has 35 grams of carbohydrate–not totally low-carb, but certainly much less sugar than a slice of traditional pumpkin pie. If you choose to make this recipe even lower in sugar, replace the brown sugar with 3/4 cup of Splenda, and top with plain whipped cream instead of sweetened.

Recipe: Classic Pumpkin Pie

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Fudgy Cream Cheese Brownies

Use regular sugar in the brownie batter–but only 3/4 cup–and you get a tender instead of rubbery texture. Then swirl in cream cheese that's sweetened with a sugar substitute, and you get a decadent brownie that has only 14 grams of carbohydrate per serving. For more tips on making these brownies, watch the video.

Recipe: Fudgy Cream Cheese Brownies

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Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich Cookies

Peanut butter and jelly break aren't just for the kids' sandwiches–here they're featured in tender, sweet cookies filled with low-sugar strawberry spread. The red strawberry spread is festive for the holidays, but you can vary the recipe by using any flavor of low-sugar fruit spread.

Recipe: Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich Cookies

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Cookies 'n' Cream Crunch

What's not to love about a 4-ingredient frozen dessert? If you're serving it to company, you can make it up to a week ahead. And you can transform this one recipe into several different desserts by varying the flavors of the ice cream and the cookies. For more tips on making this easy dessert, watch the video.

Recipe: Cookies 'n' Cream Crunch

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Black Forest Trifle

Rich chocolate cake and sweet cherries are the stars of this luscious make-ahead holiday dessert. If you don't have a trifle bowl, you can use a straight-sided glass bowl. For more trifle tips, watch the video.

Recipe: Black Forest Trifle

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Chocolate Peppermint Cookies

Savor the flavor of Christmas with just one bite into a chocolate and peppermint candy cookie. Using sugar substitute and sugar-free peppermints helps reduce the carb content of the cookies, but they still taste like Christmas.

Recipe: Chocolate Peppermint Cookies

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Double Chocolate Pudding Pie

Layer sugar-free chocolate and white chocolate puddings in a graham cracker crust for a double dose of chocolate delight. This recipe makes two pies, so you can serve one now and freeze the other one for later.

Recipe: Double Chocolate Pudding Pie

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Raspberry Mocha Cake

Add raspberry sweetness to the coffee-flavored chocolate cake by brushing the cake layers with melted raspberry spread after they're baked. Transform plain whipped topping mix into a fluffy chocolate cake frosting by stirring in sugar-free cocoa mix. This impressive cake is worthy of special occasions.

Recipe: Raspberry Mocha Cake

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Banana Nut Cookies

The only sugar in these cookies is the natural sugar in the bananas and raisins. Not only do the cookies taste great, they are a good source of heart-healthy fiber from the oats, raisins, and walnuts. In addition to enjoying them as a dessert, they also make a great choice for a breakfast on the run.

Recipe: Banana Nut Cookies

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Ice Cream Sandwich Dessert

Who knew you could turn no-sugar-added ice cream sandwiches into such a decadent dessert? The trick is changing plain frozen whipped topping into a mocha treat by stirring in coffee and melted sugar-free chocolate, then spooning it onto the ice cream sandwiches. For more tips on making this ice cream sandwich dessert watch this video.

Recipe: Ice Cream Dessert

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Chocolate-Almond Cookies

Start with a box of sugar-free chocolate cake mix to make these tasty almond-topped cookies. With only 3.6 grams of carbohydrate per cookie, you can treat yourself to two or three along with a cup of tea or coffee on a cold winter afternoon.

Recipe: Chocolate-Almond Cookies

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Red Grape Sorbet

The antioxidants in red grapes and red grape juice may offer significant protection against certain types of cancer, heart disease, and rheumatoid arthritis, so why not enjoy your grape juice in a refreshing frozen dessert? This treat contains no sugar other than the natural sugar of the fruit juice.

Recipe: Red Grape Sorbet

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Chocolate Macadamia Nut Pie

This company-worthy frozen dessert is sure to impress. Make a crust with sugar-free sandwich cookies, combine no-added-sugar chocolate ice cream and whipped topping, spoon into a springform pan, and freeze. The toasted nuts are optional, but add a wonderful crunch to the chocolate pie.

Recipe: Chocolate Macadamia Nut Pie

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Fig Bars

Dried figs and coconut provide a good bit of the sweetness in these good-for-you treats. And since these bar cookies don't have a delicate crust, they're a great choice when you need a portable dessert.

Recipe: Fig Bars

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Chocolate Peanut Butter Balls

With only 5.5 grams of carbohydrate, these chocolate-peanut butter balls are a good source of heart-healthy protein and are great for snacks or when you just need a small bite of something chocolate. The healthy crunch comes from Grape Nuts cereal and crunchy peanut butter.

Recipe: Chocolate Peanut Butter Balls

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White Chocolate Mousse

For an easy holiday dessert, make a short-cut sugar-free mousse with only 3 ingredients. To dress it up, serve in stemmed compote glasses and garnish with fresh berries and mint springs.

Recipe: White Chocolate Mousse

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