Fruit-Sweet and Sugar-Free: Prize-Winning Pies, Cakes, Pastries, Muffins, and Breads from the Ranch Kitchen Bakery (Healing Arts Press) [Paperback]

Janice Feuer (Author)

Book Description

Series: Healing Arts Press | Publication Date: November 1, 1992

A professional pastry chef for twenty years, Janice Feuer has translated delicious, traditional American and French bakery and sweet favorites into healthier, sugar-free alternatives while maintaining the excellent taste, lightness, texture, and appearance one would expect in fine baked goods.

Everyday favorites to celebration specialties are included, from the classic American Beauty Apple Pie, Cranapplenut Muffins, and Cinnamon Swirl Raisin Bread to the rich, tempting Black Forest Torte, Stawberry Custard Cake, and Raspberry Cream Roll. 

The author provides over 150 recipes for pies, cakes, muffins, breads, and pastries, sweetened only with natural, nationally-available fruit sweetener and prepared using unbleached whole wheat or rice flour and fresh fruits, berries, and nuts.

Many of the recipes have nondairy options and are low in cholesterol. 

Clear directions explain the tips and techniques of professional chefs to guide both the novice and the serious cook to successful results guaranteed to please both the sweet-tooth and healthy conscience in us all 

Editorial Reviews

Review

"This book is a must-have! Janice is a great cook and baker, and she has perfected a wonderful technique for making delicious desserts without sugar."
(Maida Heatter )

"Janice Feuer, a professional pastry chef for 17 years, has transformed traditional American and French bakery favorites into healthy, sugar-free alternatives without compromising their fine taste, lightness, texture and appearance."
(The Joy Gazette )

"This innovative cookbook is a dessert lover's delight!"
(Living Without, Winter 2002 )

About the Author

Pastry Chef at the Ranch Kitchen Bakery in Montana, Janice Feuer was trained at the London Cordon Bleu School of Cookery and the Wilton School of Cake Decorating. She is the author of several cookbooks, including Chocolate Decadence and Sweets for Saints and Sinners. 

Product Details

• Paperback: 216 pages
• Publisher: Healing Arts Press (November 1, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0892814497
• ISBN-13: 978-0892814497
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 8 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #30,966 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #16 in Books > Cookbooks, Food & Wine > Cooking by Ingredient > Fruits
  • #89 in Books > Cookbooks, Food & Wine > Baking > Desserts
  • #94 in Books > Cookbooks, Food & Wine > Natural Foods

More About the Author

The Cordon Bleu, Berkeley, and On-the-Job Training

I completed a Certificate Course at London's Cordon Bleu School upon graduation from U.C. Berkeley with a degree in Communications and Public Policy. With my Cordon Bleu Certificate on my resume, jobs were offered to me, and I found my calling.

For more than three decades I cooked and baked and catered in restaurants, hotels, a university cafeteria, a spiritual community, a natural foods deli and private homes and businesses.

Along the way I taught cooking classes and wrote 5 cookbooks: Chocolate Decadence, Sinful Strawberries, Virtuous Vanilla, Sweets for Saints and Sinners and Fruit-Sweet and Sugar-Free. For the past 6 years I have written a food column (article, recipe and photograph) for Montana's bi-monthly Natural Life News and Directory.

Living in Montana, enhances my appreciation of each of the seasons and the fruits and veggies particular to each season. There are barely enough adjectives to describe food fresh-from-the garden--either my own or from the farmers at either of our 2 local farmers' markets. Being mostly vegetarian, such great produce tastes best when prepared simply and cleanly. I have developed many such recipes and continue to do so. As a professional chef and teacher and home cook, I also appreciate the value of clear and precise recipes and make it a point to write them that way

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I brilliant cookbook!, January 7, 2002

By 

J. Montlake (Jerusalem, Israel) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fruit-Sweet and Sugar-Free: Prize-Winning Pies, Cakes, Pastries, Muffins, and Breads from the Ranch Kitchen Bakery (Healing Arts Press) (Paperback)

This is a fantastic collection of delicious tasting cakes and pastries, prepared according to the level of a fine pastry chef. You can skip some of the finer points (like roasting the nuts before you use them and sifting the flour 3 times!) if you want to speed up the prep time and aren't so particular. THis is what I do. Recipes show a deep knowledge of natural ingredients and interesting combinations of ingredients that I would never have thought of myself.

While some people complain that they cannot fine the fruit juice concentrate she uses, one can easily substitue any concentrated fruit juice, as she clearly explains in the brilliant introduction. I live in Israel and have had great success with the concentrates I can find here. Even die-hard sugar fans wouldn't guess that some of the cakes I have made are sugar free. A great cookbook!

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Culinary masterpiece!, May 29, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Fruit-Sweet and Sugar-Free: Prize-Winning Pies, Cakes, Pastries, Muffins, and Breads from the Ranch Kitchen Bakery (Healing Arts Press) (Paperback)

My wife and I keep this cookbook handy in the kitchen at all times, where it can be easily reached when we feel the desire to whip up a tantalizing and healthy dessert. After sampling these recipes, we could never go back to sugar! The Very-Berry syrup is a delight on waffles, pancakes, and French Toast, and the Cranberry Banana Walnut bread graces our table every Sunday morning.

The author explains how to acquire commercially made fruit sweetener, or if one prefers alternative frozen fruit juice concentrates, there is an excellent explanation in Chapter 1, "The Fine Art of Baking", on how to prepare them. We found that chapter to be enlightening and inspirational, and it sets the tone for the entire book.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good book but you need to experiment with substitutions, December 3, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Fruit-Sweet and Sugar-Free: Prize-Winning Pies, Cakes, Pastries, Muffins, and Breads from the Ranch Kitchen Bakery (Healing Arts Press) (Paperback)

I wanted a book that would give me ideas about how to cook without sugar - the proportions one would need of a liquid ( of any sort) that would replace dry sugar in a recipe. I have not used the sweetener the author uses but substitute what I can find - i.e. apple butter, fruit sweetner from Black River in Mississauga, Ont, Canada (comes in small 500 ml sizes for about $5.00 bottle)and the recipes have turned out very nicely. I would love to try her sweetener too but oh well..
This book was a good introduction to how to cook without sugar- if you like experimenting with anything sweet that is not straight sugar. You just need to be a little inventive and use her proportions!