Smart Sweets: 30 Desserts to Indulge your Sweet Tooth 1 © 2011 Katie Kimball | Kitchen Stewardship, LLC Smart Sweets: 30 Desserts to Indulge your Sweet Tooth 2 Table of Contents Introduction Why Desserts?................................................................................................................4 Are the Recipes Healthy?................................................................................................4 Snacks? Sweets? What's the Difference?.......................................................................5 Why White Sugar?...........................................................................................................6 What Sweeteners are there Other than White Sugar?....................................................6 What Sweeteners Aren't Recommended?.......................................................................8 Where to Find Alternative Sweeteners............................................................................9 Three Tips to Trick Your Tongue......................................................................................9 Supplies You Might Want to Have Around.....................................................................10 Homemade Ingredients ................................................................................................10 Ingredient Notes............................................................................................................11 Features of the Text.......................................................................................................12 How to Use an eBook....................................................................................................14 Special Diet Notes (gluten, casein, egg).......................................................................14 Cookies 1. Pumpkin Cookies............................................................................................15 2. Honey Molasses Cookies...............................................................................18 3. Coconut Macaroons........................................................................................20 4. Cinnamon Raisin Spelt Drops.........................................................................24 5. Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookies...........................................................26 Bars and Brownies 6. Fudgy Brownies with Chocolate Chips (with sprouted option)........................28 Bonus: Soaked Fudgy Brownies..............................................................30 7. Traditional Brownies with Walnuts (with sprouted option)...............................31 8. Black Bean Brownies and Blondies................................................................32 9. Butternut Spice Bars ......................................................................................34 10. Peanut Butter Bars (or cookies)....................................................................36 Cakes and Cupcakes 11. Cider Doughnut Spiced Cupcakes................................................................38 12. Whole Wheat Carrot Zucchini Cake.............................................................40 13. Classic Butter Cake with Whole Grains........................................................42 14. Coconutty White Cake..................................................................................44 15. Sourdough Chocolate Cake..........................................................................46 16. Mom's Famous Almond Frosting (or chocolate)...........................................48 © 2011 Katie Kimball | Kitchen Stewardship, LLC Smart Sweets: 30 Desserts to Indulge your Sweet Tooth 3 Pies 17. Magic Coconut Pie........................................................................................50 18. Whole Wheat Fruit Pizza..............................................................................52 Candy 19. Peppermint Coconut Bark.............................................................................54 20. Dark Chocolate Truffles................................................................................56 21. Peanut Butter Kisses....................................................................................59 Frozen Desserts 22. Kelly's Probiotic Fudge Bars.........................................................................60 23. Apricot Sorbet & others.................................................................................62 & More! 24. Grain-free Baked Apples...............................................................................64 25. Cherry Almond Crepes ….............................................................................67 26. Easy Brown Rice Pudding............................................................................70 27. Apple Crisp (slow cooker, soaked, gluten free).............................................72 28. Buñuelos.......................................................................................................75 29. Better-for-You Chocolate Syrup....................................................................77 30. Real Pudding: Easy Vanilla, Creamy Maple Almond, French Vanilla............79 Photos........................................................................................................................81 Bonus Recipe: Chocolate Peppermint Lotion Bar.....................................83 Other Desserts Recipes and Resources.......................................................85 © 2011 Katie Kimball | Kitchen Stewardship, LLC Smart Sweets: 30 Desserts to Indulge your Sweet Tooth 4 Why Desserts? We have to begin with the obvious question: Why bother with an eBook about desserts? Aren't sweets inherently unhealthy? Why would a real food lover choose to make a dessert using sweeteners that, no matter how “unprocessed” they are, still aren't actually adding any nourishment to your diet? Well. Mostly because it's fun. Most folks simply enjoy having desserts and sweets from time to time. Even the most die hard whole foods advocate may still want to indulge their sweet tooth, no matter how well they've trained that sweet tooth to be quiet and appreciate the natural sweetness of apples, carrots, or coconut oil. I say it's better to indulge in an occasional wiser dessert than fall completely off the wagon and cavort with Sara Lee or Betty Crocker. The desserts in this book are “smart sweets” for many reasons. All of them incorporate at least one of the following, if not many: • less sugar than a conventional recipe • unrefined sweeteners instead of white sugar • healthy, real fats that have been consumed for thousands of years • whole grains, soaked or sprouted grains, and many with no grains at all • vegetables or fruits • nutrient-dense foods like milk, yogurt, and nuts • zero ingredients you can't pronounce...unless you don't know how to say “sucanat” (notice I don't include a pronunciation key with the word!) They're also delicious. That being the case, another reason to make real food desserts is to tempt others to eat wholesome foods. For those who would rather have their Twinkies and french fries, embracing a better diet can be a tough sell. Introducing some sweet treats that are actually good for them (more or less) and also taste great is an excellent way to entice newbies to the real food lifestyle, a little “real food evangelism” if you will. Are the Recipes Healthy? I asked my mother-in-law to taste some of the homemade chocolate syrup (p. 77) the first time I made it, and she asked me, “Is it healthy?” A few thoughts ran through my head before I stumbled through a not-very-complete answer. 1. Well, sucanat is certainly healthy-ER than high fructose corn syrup. 2. And it's healthy-ER than white sugar. 3. But it's still sugar. 4. And any sweetener has calories, plus an impact on blood sugar. 5. So...is it healthy? Not exactly. © 2011 Katie Kimball | Kitchen Stewardship, LLC Smart Sweets: 30 Desserts to Indulge your Sweet Tooth 5 The real answer about the recipes in Smart Sweets is that some of them are healthy- ER than most homemade dessert recipes, and some of them could be called healthy-“ish” since they've got some really good ingredients along with the sweetener. All of them are head and shoulders above anything you could buy in an average grocery store, but I don't know that they go all the way to “nourishing” since we're not exactly talking bone broth and plain yogurt here...although the latter is included in a couple recipes. They're smart sweets...but no one is hiding the fact that we're still making desserts here. Snacks? Sweets? What's the Difference? It's a pretty common American picture: The mother welcomes her kids home from school with a warm plate of homemade chocolate chip cookies and a tall glass of milk. Of course, in the real world it's often a package of Chips Ahoy and a carton of skim milk, and the mother may or may not be included. The point is this: Cookies are often seen as an acceptable snack, when, clearly, they're a sweet. A dessert. The lines are easily blurred, and one can see why: Some desserts are easy to grab, tasty in a hurry, and ready when you are. They fit the definition of a snack quite nicely. Some snacks, especially muffins and storebought processed yogurt tubes, have as much sugar as many of the desserts in this book. In fact, if you are familiar with my first eBook, Healthy Snacks to Go, you may notice that a few of those recipes got tucked into Smart Sweets. Is there much of a nutritional difference