Customer Reviews

Naturally Sweet Desserts: The Sugar-free Dessert Cookbook

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4 star:		(3)
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1 star:		(2)

 

 

Healthy? Almost all of the cake and cookie recipes call for eggs -- usually a minimum of 3 and most 6 or even 12! They have to be separated, so egg substitutes aren't an option... Convenient? If you happen to have 4 cups of dried apricots, maize flour and 3 cups of ground nuts to go in the 12 egg recipe... Thorough and tested? By the way, the recipe that lists apricots as an ingredient doesn't ever USE the apricots...

I just hate wasting my time trying to make a recipe from a cook book like this. For one thing, the author says things like, "Put batter in a pan." Um, what size pan?? And she makes no recommendations for which sweetener she uses for each recipe. Well, a half cup of raspberry jam used as a sweetener is going to have a whole different taste than a half cup of rice syrup. I have made one recipe from the book and it's a disaster; there was obviously a typo, probably in the amount of flour she says to use. I don't recommend this book to anyone.

I agree with the other reviews that this book could have used a more discerning editor but there are some very helpful ideas in here for anyone trying to eliminate processed sugar from their diet. The sugar-free crumb toppings are a nice easy way to turn any fruit into a dessert and their are good substitutions recommended for sugar, dairy, chocolate, peanut butter, eggs and baking powder (which I hate to use). If you are a creative cook and baker and I think you will appreciate some of the authors ideas.

This book is great for giving multiple option on what alternative natural sweeteners to use, as well as alternative flours, thickeners, etc. Its great for anyone dealing with unusual food allergies, as it doesn't cater to only the Top 8 allergens most allergy cookbooks do. The recipes are healthy, for the most part considering it is a book on desserts. It includes a lot of additional information, including instructions on how to make your own soy & nut milks for baking, as well as making substitution & working with a lot of different ingredients not used in typical baking, but that are common in allergy baking.

As for the other reviewer finding fault with ONE recipe calling for large amounts of ingredients, such as 4 cups dried apricots, 12 separated eggs, 6 cups ground nuts, etc, it is called a "Forbidden Fantasy Cake", so it is not something you would be making every day. And it makes 3- 8" spring form pans, which is a lot of cake; divide everything 3 and it looks like a pretty typical recipe. Many of the recipes are actually egg free and/or gluten free, and are labeled as such. I love that the author give me options, if I need to make something GF, I can make using flour x, if not, use flour z. As for listing pan size, its typically listed in the same line as preheating the oven, where it tells you to prepare x-sized pan type, so it doesn't need to be repeated when it comes to pouring batter into pan.

I'd recommend the book to anyone who is looking for way to continue to enjoy sweets while trying to avoid the most commonly used refined sugars- cane sugar, beet sugar, or corn syrup, whether due to allergies or other dietary or personal reasons. Even if you don't end up using every recipe, the book is a good reference & guide.

Got my book on time. Some of the pages are falling out, but I didn't expect too much for a 50 cent book. Thanks.