Diabetic Pastry Chef, The [Hardcover]

Stacey Harris (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 25, 2009

Because everyone deserves sweets! For the more than 20 million Americans who have diabetes, decadent desserts are no longer off-limits. By using blended flours and a combination of sugar and sugar substitutes, reducing milk carbohydrates, and eliminating trans fats, pastry chef and diabetic Stacey Harris has transformed more than 200 desserts into diabetic-friendly delights. Harris shares the sweet secrets of her simple-to-use formula that will convert most any recipe into a lower-carb alternative without compromising taste or quality. Now diabetics can enjoy Chocolate Truffle Cookies, Blueberry Tartlets, Cream Cheese Cupcakes, Coffee Bread Pudding, and hundreds of others.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

While training to become a pastry chef, Harris discovered she was diabetic. Rather than hang up her apron, she decided to adapt her favorite recipes for her dietary needs, and the resulting collection will prove a welcome, trustworthy resource for diabetics who had given up on chocolate chip cookies, apple pie and crème brulee. Harris provides sage advice on the properties of various flours, the care and feeding of a sourdough starter, and plentiful consideration of sugar and the unique characteristics of its substitutes (like Splenda). Harris does a terrific job keeping her recipes accessible by offering plentiful options: among 13 recipes for muffins, she includes Two-Ingredient Muffins, which call for nothing more than a can of pumpkin puree and a boxed chocolate cake mix. Not all recipes are so simple (or rely on pre-made ingredients): Harris's tangy Sourdough Pancakes require a starter, and her cheesecake asks cooks to mix and bake their own crusts, rather than simply crushing cookies. Harris' directions are to-the-point and employ easy-to-find ingredients, but she often fails to describe the finished dish, leaving readers to imagine what the final product should look and smell like. END

From the Inside Flap

Stacey Harris was diagnosed with diabetes while training to become a pastry chef. She thought her career--not to mention her lifetime love affair with desserts--was over. Her devastation gave way to innovation, resulting in the inventive and simple substitution system presented here. Now Harris, and the more than twenty million other Americans who also have diabetes, can enjoy desserts specifically designed to satisfy the sweet tooth without sacrificing flavor. Hundreds of nutritionally sound low-calorie, low-carbohydrate recipes ranging from Cinnamon Coffeecake and Gingerbread-Jam Muffins to Key Lime Cream Cheese Pound Cake, Coconut Custard, and Chocolate Mousse are presented here, accompanied by easy-reference nutritional information for each entry. Tips about what types of substitutes work best, no-fuss shortcuts, and basic baking techniques enhance the volume. From the familiar to the fancy, the dishes make use of a creative arsenal of alternative yet easy-to-find ingredients to lower the carbohydrate and calorie counts. Harris experimented with different combinations of flours (from conventional cake flour to the exotic coconut flour) and sweeteners (Splenda , agave nectar, and white sugar, to name a few) to discover what works and what doesn't work for traditional desserts. Some low-carb flours, for example, work better for piecrusts than for cookies. So start blending the flour, swapping out the sugar, eliminating the trans fats, and cutting the milk carbohydrates. Delicious and satisfying Pineapple Upside-Down Cake, Chocolate Chunk Muffins, Best Banana Bread, and Easy Peanut Butter Cookies are only a substitution away.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Pelican Publishing (November 25, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1589807472
• ISBN-13: 978-1589807471
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 6.9 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #86,890 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #34 in Books > Cookbooks, Food & Wine > Baking > Pastry
  • #79 in Books > Cookbooks, Food & Wine > Special Diet > Diabetic & Sugar-Free

More About the Author

Stacey Harris was attending culinary school when she was diagnosed with diabetes. She thought her career--not to mention her lifetime love affair with desserts--was over. Her devastation gave way to innovation, resulting in the inventive and simple substitution system presented in her book. A caterer specializing in pastries, Stacey Harris has been baking and collecting recipes since she was a teenager. She is a member of The American Diabetes Association and her baking techniques have been featured in their magazine, Diabetes Forecast.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars THE DIABETIC PASTRY CHEF, February 3, 2010

By 

Haley Mathiot "Haleyknitz" (North Carolina) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Diabetic Pastry Chef, The (Hardcover)

The Diabetic Pastry Chef is a wonderful cookbook with more than just recipes. Stacey gives standard and metric conversions, lots of easy to read and easy to understand information about diabetes and food, descriptions of the various kinds of flour, how to use sugars and substitutes, and wonderful hints and tips for spices, various substitutes, and nutrition.

The recipes themselves are sorted into 8 categories, like Tea Breads, Cakes, Puddings, Breakfast, etc. They are clear and easy to understand, and at the bottom of each is a Nutrition Facts graph like on the back of most food, with all the information about what you're eating.

Here is a photo of one of the pages:

The only complaint I have for this book is that there are no photos of any of the pastries. I like a book with photos... however. the pages are not glossy and have wide margins, so they're the kind you can easily make notes and write on with no problem.

Overall I recommend this book to anyone who loves desserts but needs to watch their blood sugar, or even to those who want to watch their weight.

Visit Stacey at her blog: [...]

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars dissapointed, January 17, 2010

By 

Foodie/bookie (South Surrey, BC, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Diabetic Pastry Chef, The (Hardcover)

I gave it 2 stars because there is some useful information in the book, but all the recipes just use Splenda. In the first part of the book there are descriptions for an array of flours and sweeteners, but if you look at the actual recipes, there is little more than whole wheat flour and Splenda used. I understand you should make up your own, but if there are no examples that actually work, it is really difficult to invest the time and money (amaranth flour at my supermarket being almost $10.00 for a little bag and agave nectar about the same for even less) in making something that might just altogether fail.
I appreciate the effort and as I love to bake and a family member's diabetes making it difficult I think the idea is good, but at the same time at a lot lower price I could have bought a Splenda baking book which doesn't have a lot less. Not to mention I buy a baking book with the intentions of baking my own, not to use cake mix.
All in all, if you just want to make lower calorie desserts and baked goods, it is a lovely addition to your library, but if you are a diabetic, don't get your hopes up too high.
I would like to add that I do not think using cake mix, even if you use lower sugar mix make this a good baking book, even less a good diabetic baking book. I do not understand the other reviewers, you do not need a baking book to make a cake from a box. I do not recommend this book, unless someone never ever baked anything before.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A core collection for community library cookbook shelves, January 16, 2010

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Diabetic Pastry Chef, The (Hardcover)

Just because you or a family member has diabetes does not mean having to give up delicious pastries. Not when you have access to "The Diabetic Pastry Chef", an impressive 192-page culinary compendium of pastry dishes, each and every one of which is diabetic diet appropriate and kitchen cook friendly. From breads to cakes to cookies, pies, puddings, and more, "The Diabetic Pastry Chef" offers a wide range of delights that are as palate pleasing as they are appetite satisfying -- some of them are downright gourmet in quality and attraction. The easy-to-follow recipes range from Sourdough Pancakes; Apple Bundt Cake; Coconut Jellyroll; and Double Chocolate Cookies; to a Graham Cracker Piecrust; Mexican Fruit Pies; Strawberry Panna Cotta; and Lemon Meringue Cups. Each recipe comes with an informative 'Nutrition Facts' sidebar. Of special note is the chapter devoted to 'Hints and Tips' that will be especially appreciated by the novice family chef. Enhanced with an opening chapter about diabetes, another on flours, and a fourth one on sugar and sugar substitutes, "The Diabetic Pastry Chef" is a core collection for community library cookbook shelves in general, and family cookbook collections for anyone having to accommodate the dietary demands and restrictions of diabetes.