Baking with Less Sugar (16 page)
Read Baking with Less Sugar Online
Authors: Joanne Chang
SERVES
6
TO
8
- 8 egg yolks
- 170 g/
1
/
2
cup honey - 120 g/
1
/
2
cup Champagne or other sparkling white wine - 1
/
4
tsp kosher salt - 360 g/1
1
/
2
cups heavy cream - 260 g/2 cups fresh raspberries
- 260 g/2 cups fresh blackberries
- 260 g/2 cups fresh blueberries
1.
Fill a large bowl with ice.
2.
Bring a saucepan filled partway with water to a very gentle simmer over medium-low heat. In a large metal or glass bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, honey, Champagne, and salt. Place the bowl over (not touching) the barely simmering water in the saucepan and heat, whisking constantly, for 10 to 12 minutes, or until thick, light, and lemony colored. When the sabayon has cooked for the proper amount of time, the whisk will leave a trail in the mixture as you are whisking, and you will start to see the bottom of the bowl through the tines of the whisk. Remove the bowl from the heat and set immediately in the bowl of ice. Whisk occasionally over this ice bath for 5 to 8 minutes, or until the sabayon is completely cooled. Remove from the ice bath.
3.
Using a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment (or with an electric hand mixer or by hand with a whisk), whip the cream on medium speed until it holds stiff peaks that stand up straight when the whisk is lifted. Fold the cream into the sabayon with a rubber spatula. Layer spoonfuls of sabayon with berries in alternate layers in tall Champagne flutes and serve. Parfaits may be made in advance and stored lightly covered in plastic wrap in the refrigerator for 4 to 6 hours. They should be eaten the same day they are made as parfaits don't keep well overnight.
I have an automatic answer when people ask me what is my favorite dessert of all time: ice cream! I could eat it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner and never tire of it. It makes me inordinately happy. But lately, frozen yogurt has been edging its way into all-time-favorite status. Perhaps it is my maturing taste budsâthe tanginess of yogurt is now more interesting to me than the sometimes overly sweet nature of some ice creams. With a lower fat content than ice cream, frozen yogurt is also a bit healthier for me, so I feel okay about consuming it in copious amounts. It's also simpler to make than ice cream and since it typically has fewer ingredients, the flavors of whatever you are churning really shine. This frozen yogurt is a perfect case in point. When Christopher first tasted it, he exclaimed, “This tastes exactly like a bowl of fresh raspberries!” He proceeded to polish off the whole quart, which for me was the best compliment of all.
MAKES ABOUT
1
QUART [1 L]
- 300 g/1
1
/
4
cups Greek-style whole-milk plain yogurt - 455 g/3
1
/
2
cups fresh or frozen raspberries - 225 g/
2
/
3
cup honey - 1 Tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 1
/
8
tsp kosher salt - 1 Tbsp vanilla extract
1.
Set a fine-mesh strainer over a medium bowl.
2.
Put the yogurt, raspberries, honey, lemon juice, salt, and vanilla in a blender or food processor and blend on high speed for at least 1 minute, or until well mixed. Pour about three-fourths of the mixture through the strainer and, using a rubber spatula, scrape the mixture through to strain out the seeds. Mix the remaining one-fourth of the mixture back into the strained mixture. The final frozen yogurt will have a few seeds, but you won't be overburdened with them.
3.
Churn in an ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's directions. When the yogurt has finished churning, transfer it to a storage container and freeze for at least 3 hours to allow it to ripen. During the ripening process, the yogurt becomes harder and smoother and the flavors have a chance to develop. Store the yogurt in an airtight container in the freezer for at least 1 week or up to 1 month. Remove the yogurt from the freezer about 10 minutes before serving to allow it to soften up.
A scrumptious peanut butter cookie sweetened just with honey was actually one of the more challenging recipes to develop for this book. I started with an unsalted and sugar-free peanut butter. (You'd be surprised at how much sugar your typical jar of Jif or Skippy peanut butter contains.) Honey is the perfect sweetener for peanut butter (who doesn't love a peanut butter and honey sandwich?), but the trick was getting the texture of the cookie just right. Without sugar, the batter has a hard time holding itself together and forming a crunchy, chewy cookie. I adjusted the level of peanut butter, egg, honey, flour, and butter in numerous attempts to keep it from falling apart. Finally my recipe tester Keith came upon the answer: beating each ingredient thoroughly into the batter helped to emulsify the dough enough to hold the cookies together. These cookies aren't traditionally chewy or crispy, but they are soft and cake-like and a super alternative to a sugar-laden peanut butter cookie.
MAKES
16
TO
18
COOKIES
- 140 g/
3
/
4
cup unsalted butter, at warm room temperature - 170 g/
1
/
2
cup honey - 1 large egg plus 1 egg yolk, at room temperature
- 1 Tbsp vanilla extract
- 260 g/1 cup unsalted peanut butter with no sugar (ingredients should just read “roasted peanuts”)
- 105 g/
3
/
4
cup all-purpose flour - 50 g/
1
/
2
cup old-fashioned rolled oats (not instant or quick cooking) - 1
/
2
tsp baking soda - 1
1
/
4
tsp kosher salt - 100 g/
3
/
4
cup chopped raw peanuts
1.
Using a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or with an electric hand mixer), beat the butter on medium speed for 2 minutes, or until it is totally soft and creamy. Decrease the speed to low and add the honey slowly; increase the speed to medium-high and beat until completely creamy and homogenous. If the butter is at all chilled, it will take a long time for this step, so be sure to start with warm room-temperature butter.
2.
In a small bowl, whisk together the egg, egg yolk, and vanilla. Slowly add to the butter-honey mixture. Continue to beat on medium-high for 2 minutes; stop the mixer and scrape the bowl well with a rubber spatula. Continue to beat on medium-high for 5 to 7 minutes more, or until the mixture is light and fluffy. (It will look curdled at first but will homogenize and resemble a silky smooth buttercream as the eggs bring it together. If the eggs are at all cold, it will take longer, so be sure to start with room-temperature eggs.)
3.
Decrease the speed to low and add the peanut butter. Scrape the bowl and mix for about 30 seconds, or until incorporated. Remove the bowl from the mixer.
4.
In a separate bowl, using a rubber spatula or a wooden spoon, mix together the flour, oats, baking soda, salt, and peanuts and stir to combine. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and, using a rubber spatula, fold by hand until the dry ingredients are thoroughly incorporated. Refrigerate the dough in an airtight container for at least 1 hour or up to several days.
5.
Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 350°F [175°C].
6.
Using a small ice cream scoop or a rounded spoon, drop the dough in balls the size of a ping-pong ball onto a baking sheet about 2 in [5 cm] apart. Press the dough balls down flat with the palm of your hand and, using a fork, make a traditional criss-cross pattern on the top of the cookies. Bake for 16 to 20 minutes, or until the cookies are golden brown on the edges and just beginning to color in the middle, rotating the baking sheet halfway through baking. Remove the cookies from the oven and let them cool on the sheet for 5 to 10 minutes, then transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool completely. Don't be tempted to move them until they are set up or they will break. The cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days.
Crisps, sadly, can sometimes be anything but. I've slogged my way through soggy crisps, gummy crisps, and mushy crisps, making me wonder how they got their name. In this dessert we sweeten the crisp topping with a little honey, and the apples and raisins themselves are sweet enough to barely need any additional sweetener. But the absence of sugar in the topping means it can tend more towards the chewy than the crispy. We get around that by baking the topping first on its own so it has some time to dry out and get a little crunchy. For those of you who are experienced pie bakers, think of this as “blind baking” the topping before adding it to the apples. In so doing you'll get a crispy apple crisp that is deserving of its name. (For a fabulous gluten-free version, substitute 70 g/
1
/
2
cup brown rice flour and 85 g/
1
/
4
cup potato starch for the 105 g/
3
/
4
cup all-purpose flour.)
SERVES
6
TO
8
- 60 g/
1
/
2
cup sultanas (golden raisins) - 5 or 6 medium Empire, McIntosh, Golden Delicious, Gala, or other sweet baking apples, peeled, cored, and sliced
1
/
4
in [6 mm] thick - 85 g/
1
/
4
cup honey - 1
/
2
tsp ground cinnamon - 1
/
8
tsp kosher salt
CRUMB TOPPING
- 100 g/1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats (not instant or quick cooking)
- 105 g/
3
/
4
cup all-purpose flour - 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1
/
2
tsp kosher salt - 115 g/
1
/
2
cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled - 85 g/
1
/
4
cup honey - 1 Tbsp vanilla extract
- Unsweetened heavy cream, whipped to soft peaks, for garnish
1.
Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 350°F [175°C].
2.
Put the golden raisins in a small bowl and pour boiling water over the raisins to cover. Let sit for 1 hour. Drain the raisins and discard the soaking water.
3.
In a large bowl, combine the apples, raisins, honey, cinnamon, and salt and toss to coat. Place the apple mixture in an 8-in [20-cm] or 9-in [23-cm] baking pan with a 2-qt [2-L] capacity.
4. To make the topping:
In the same bowl used for mixing the apples, with a wooden spoon, mix together the oats, flour, cinnamon, and salt until evenly combined. In a small bowl, whisk together the butter, honey, and vanilla; drizzle over the crumb topping and mix until well incorporated.
5.
Spread the crumb topping on an ungreased baking sheet and bake for about 15 minutes, or until the topping just barely starts to brown and dry a bit. Remove from the oven and, using a spatula or spoon, carefully scrape the topping from the baking sheet and sprinkle evenly over the apples. Bake for 40 to 50 minutes, or until the topping is crispy and deep golden brown and the apples are tender. Let cool on a wire rack for at least 30 minutes before serving with whipped cream alongside. The crisp can be stored, well wrapped with plastic wrap, in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. To serve, rewarm in a 300°F [150°C] oven for 10 to 15 minutes.
