Real sweet : more than 80 crave-worthy treats made with natural sugars

327 Pages·2015·6.16 MB·English

by  Beisch

Dedication
For Scott, Caroline, and Andrew,
the sweetest things in my life
DEDICATION
INTRODUCTION: A WORD FROM THE REAL SWEET TOOTH
SWEET SWAPS
IN THE REAL SWEET PANTRY
OTHER INGREDIENTS
REAL SWEET TOOLBOX
1. All-Day Snacks and Lunch Box Treats
Coconut Sugar: The Femme Fatale
2. Bake Sales and Edible Gifts
Muscovado: The Bad Boy
3. Picnics and Potlucks
Turbinado: The Hero
4. Candies and Confections
Evaporated Cane Juice: The Sidekick
5. Dinner Party Fancies
Honey: The Sweet Sophisticate
6. Spoonable Sweets
Agave Nectar: The Girl Next Door
7. Frostings, Fillings, and Accoutrements
Maple: The Gentle Giant
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
UNIVERSAL CONVERSION CHART
SOURCES
THE SWEET SORTER: RECIPE INDEX BY SUGAR
INDEX
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
ALSO BY SHAUNA SEVER
CREDITS
COPYRIGHT
ABOUT THE PUBLISHER
INTRODUCTION
A Word from the Real Sweet Tooth
I HAVE A LEGENDARY SWEET TOOTH. In the way that a college kid might brag of
his drinking prowess, I can sugar-imbibe you under the table. Brownies for
breakfast, lollipops for lunch. Don’t even play; I’ll take you down.
But as the years go on, and my body chemistry and palate change, and we
add more tiny people to our household who become demonically self-propelled
in the presence of all things sugary, I’ve started rethinking our sweet treats here
and there. Not a complete overhaul or elimination—let’s not get crazy!—but
definitely a shift, leaning into a diet heavily influenced by buzzwords like
“balance” and “moderation.” Snore, right? Wrong! I’m in it to win it with a real-
world approach to desserts and sweet treats these days—tons of flavor, high
pleasure factor, just a bit of a rethink in terms of ingredients. And it’s been
blowing my mind, friends.
Here’s the thing: while much of my work to this point has been fueled by a
steady stream of granulated white sugar (“Hi, my name is Shauna and I wrote an
entire book on homemade marshmallows”), behind the scenes I’ve spent
countless hours playing around with more natural, unrefined, and less refined
sugars. What started as an experiment to introduce a few more nutrients into the
treats I keep around the house for my husband and our two little munchkins
(and, ahem, myself) quickly became a bit of an obsession. Forget nutrients, man!
I became positively starry-eyed at the potential of alternative sugars to add layers
of crave-worthy flavor and texture to sweets.
* I swapped in dark muscovado sugar and discovered the Bad Boy of
natural sugars. Basically dark brown sugar on steroids—rich,
smoky, and heady with molasses—it turns out the kind of blondie
that bar cookie dreams are made of.
* Turbinado sugar plays the Hero in the natural-sugars pantry; using it
instead of white granulated sugar not only gives a flavor boost but
also adds a subtle crunch and gorgeous sparkle to streusel toppings,
cookies, and quick breads of all sorts.
* Coconut sugar acts as the exotic Femme Fatale in the story of
unrefined sugars, accomplishing many of the same results as white
sugar in candies while amplifying caramelized flavor with its toasty,
almost musky quality (and being a nutrient-rich, low-glycemic
sweetener to boot).
* Even white sugar bombs like marshmallows can go au naturel with
maple syrup and maple sugar (the Gentle Giants of the natural-
sugars kitchen, with their combination of mild sweetness and
powerhouse flavor), flipping the script on every campfire s’more
experience for the rest of your days.
And that’s just the beginning. After years of relying on white sugar’s ability
to add sweetness to recipes without interfering with other flavors, I made an
exciting discovery: the job of flavor-packed natural sugars isn’t just to sweeten,
it’s to totally interfere! Equal parts sweetening power and seasoning!
Brainstorm!
Soon I was creating an arsenal of recipes—everything from lower-sugar,
good-for-you treats that are perfect for lunch boxes and any day of the week, to
twists on bake-sale classics that swap out the usual refined suspects for better
sugars, to divinely indulgent desserts that outshine the rest of the menu at the
fanciest dinner party—but always with a fun, modern (read: not hippie) vibe.
These are real sweets with seriously real ingredients, no doubt about it.
Since we’ll be spending a lot of time together, let’s just get one thing clear
from the outset: sugar is sugar. Your body will process every sugary calorie in
these recipes in more or less the same way. By no means am I touting the recipes
here to be “health food”—this book is decidedly non-diet-y, which is my top
requirement of a good sweet treat. You will never convince me that a brownie
made with black beans will make life worth living. But! I do often notice a
difference in how I feel when I have a treat with alternative sugars (the burn
tends to feel a bit slower, less crazy-making), and I also like the fact that
sometimes I can add a nice little nutrient punch along with the sweetness. But
above all, it’s about flavor and satisfaction. And we’re going to get there with
better, higher-quality ingredients, better sugars, and better techniques that work
in the home kitchen.
So that’s what I’m going to share with you in these pages—a collection of
my favorite sweet treats that use the kind of flavorful, natural, less processed
sugars and sweeteners that have their place in a balanced life. To me, this is truly
baking, and eating, in moderation. Prime your sweet teeth, friends—we’re goin’
in.
SWEET SWAPS
I know what some of you might be thinking—Do I have to buy all these
sugars to use this book?—and the answer is no! Of course, using the
ingredients as listed is the best route, but as long as you swap dry sugars
for other dry sugars and liquids for liquids, experimenting is encouraged
(see “In the Real Sweet Pantry” and the sugar profiles peppered
throughout the book for tips on the best applications for each). And
although you’ll have some loss of flavor and color, you can even use
conventional supermarket sugars in equal measure for dry natural ones in
most cases: white granulated 100 percent cane sugar in place of turbinado
sugar, coconut sugar, maple sugar, rapadura, and evaporated cane juice;
dark brown 100 percent cane sugar for light or dark muscovado.