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Swapping Russian Gingerbread Thumbprint Cookies

Blogger Cookie Swap 2011 CollageThis year I did something a little unusual for me – I participated in a cookie swap… The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap, to be exact. This was the inaugural swap. I traded cookies with some bloggers I didn’t know – there was a little mystery to it, but I enjoyed that aspect of it. Not to mention the promise of cookies. My verdict – super fun!

I came across this cookie swap via a link on Facebook – the swap is run by Lindsay of Love & Olive Oil and Julie of The Little Kitchen. So, I went to their site, filled out the form and expressed one preference – that the cookies be made with natural sweeteners. I was fortunate to be paired up with people that were open to this preference, and I got two out of three dozen cookies that worked with that preference. They both used coconut sugar, which is very cool.

The first cookies I received were from Anna. She made these absolutely delicious chocolate mint shortbread cookies in fun shapes – fluted circles and stars. They were made with coconut sugar and were decorated with a high cacao content chocolate, too. I loved how they were packaged in a pretty Christmas tin, complete with a beautiful handmade card. Chocolate and mint is one of my very favorite combinations, so this was a serious treat.

Then Kiri’s cookies arrived – cinnamon spiced butterscotch chip pecan cookies. These were made with coconut palm sugar and stevia and were very tasty. I loved them with a cup of chai tea – a perfect combination. I also have a long standing love of butterscotch chips – not the most nutrient dense of foods, but they hold special memories for them, so I smile whenever I eat something that contains them.

Finally, Suzanne’s cookies arrived – cocoa fudge cookies. While they weren’t made with natural sugars, they were made with quality ingredients and a surprise – thick greek yogurt in place of the egg. While you know I do not shy away from eggs, I loved the moistness the yogurt provided in these cookies. They were very rich and chocolaty tasting. My boyfriend loved them, too. They were perfect with a glass of raw milk.

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Brownies – A Conversion Story

brownies

These days I’m not totally refined-sugar-free anymore.  However, I have managed to find a way to eat refined sugars in very small quantities – mostly in a bite or two of gelato here and there, or some dark chocolate, or in a treat made by a friend – and I eat natural, unrefined sugars in small amounts – raw honey in my tea, mostly.  I don’t eat sweets every day, either.  This works for me, and who knows – maybe someday I’ll be able to totally and forever kick the sugar habit, both refined and unrefined!

Earlier this week, I talked about using coconut sugar, a gentle, traditional sweetener derived from the sap of the coconut palm flower.  I used this sugar in a batch of brownies last weekend, and I thought it was a great alternative to refined white sugar.  The sweetness was gentle and light, with no acrid element to it at all.

Not knowing what exact results I’d get by this switcheroo, I felt that brownies would be more forgiving in this experiment – the combination of chocolate, eggs, butter, and sweetener is a pretty safe gamble in resulting deliciousness.

Additionally, I used sprouted wheat flour in exchange for cake flour; this was the first time I’d used a sprouted grain flour and I liked it a lot.  It added a nice texture to the brownie; in the past, I had used whole wheat pastry flour in place of the specified cake flour, and still enjoyed the more uneven texture compared to white flour.

Usually, one can substitute 7/8 cup all-purpose flour for each cup of cake flour, and add 2 tablespoons of cornstarch for every 7/8 cup all-purpose flour used.  However, I didn’t want to use any cornstarch, so I just stuck with the flour on its own.  I knew it would make for a heavier brownie, and I was ok with that.

The chocolate I used was, sad to say, quite inferior, but it was all I had at the time.  I do not recommend using unsweetened Baker’s chocolate for anything, really.  It imparted an anemic chocolate flavor – flat with no depth, no real richness.  Next time, I will search for something of higher quality, preferably organic.

The eggs and butter were fabulous.  The eggs are pastured “beyond-organic”, and come from my buying club.  The butter was Organic Valley Pasture Butter.  Plenty of CLA and Omega-3s there.

Vanilla, baking powder and salt are what’s left.  Nothing remarkable with these ingredients.

It had been a long time since I’d made brownies.  The recipe I use is from Cook’s Illustrated The Best Recipe, and I think it’s a very good basic brownie recipe.  The recipe converted ok, but I think it will convert even better if I use even less flour next time.  The brownies, which normally come out more fudgy than cakey, came out not quite cakey but certainly not fudgy.

My friend Charlene, who was there helping out, also remarked that using the full cup of sugar would also contribute to a more fudgy texture; I used only about 3/4 cup of sugar, because in tasting the batter it seemed sweet enough.  I understand that coconut sugar is not as sweet as white sugar, so the brownie batter tasting sweet enough with 3/4 cup coconut sugar tells me how far along I’ve come in my tolerance of sweet things.

The brownies did improve the day after, I believe.  They got a little softer and a little more intense in flavor, which I enjoyed very much.

My goal is to have a brownie recipe that is nourishing while still being a reasonably sweet treat.  I want to do some more testing with this recipe before I share the details of the adjustments I’ve made, so I am not going to reprint the recipe just yet.  Look for it in the near future, though!

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Coconut Sugar – Update!

coconut sugar

A month or so ago I talked about coconut sugar.  It’s a natural, traditional sugar made from the sap of the coconut palm flower, has a low glycemic index, and can be used 1:1 in recipes that call for regular conventional sugar.  This weekend I cracked open the jar and used it in a brownie recipe (more on that later), and I loved the results.

I was fortunate enough to have purchased the kind of coconut sugar that is more paste-like than rock-hard, because I don’t have the proper tool to break up a hard rock of sugar.  It was fun to unearth the the sugar by cutting through the thin layer of wax used in what I expect was the canning/preserving process.  Kind of like opening a present!

wax

The sugar itself was delicious – very gentle and not harsh at all, sweet but not too sweet, with a taste of maple syrup or caramelization in the background.  I loved it!  I could see using this in tea or coffee, using it in rice pudding, or in any kind of sweet thing that might benefit from a little bit of a caramelized flavor in amongst the sweetness.  I think it would work well in Thai or Southeast Asian dishes, too, like curries.

sugar exposed

I’ve read that coconut sugar isn’t as sweet as conventional sugar, and that was definitely my experience, but I do not consider this a bad thing.  For me, in fact, it’s better – since I’ve drastically reduced my sugar intake, I’ve tasted the natural sweetness in almost everything I eat.  I don’t like things to be too sweet anymore.

I’ll talk a little bit more later in the week about the results I met with replacing conventional granulated sugar with coconut sugar.

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Coconut Sugar, an Intriguing Traditional Sweetener

coconut sugar

As I’ve mentioned before, I have a monster sweet tooth.  However, refined sugar doesn’t agree with me much these days, and I’m having a particularly difficult time with it as of late.  I’m not eating any sweets right now, except for a little raw honey in my tea.  I am sure that won’t last, and when the sweet itch gets bad enough to scratch, I’ll be looking for something that is made with a natural sweetener.

In my pantry right now is a little jar of coconut sugar that I bought on my last trip to Kalustyan’s.  I hadn’t heard of coconut sugar until about three months ago – I was definitely intrigued because I love pretty much anything that involves coconut.  Turns out it’s made from the sap of the flower of the coconut palm, not from the coconut itself, and is used throughout Southeast Asia and the Philippines.

It’s also not highly processed and is low on the glycemic index (35-54).  It is also full of vitamins and minerals – it is high in potassium, magnesium, zinc and iron and is a natural source of vitamins B1, B2, B3, B6 and C.  This link explains the nutritional profile of coconut sugar with a number of easy to read charts.

Traditionally, the sap is usually extracted by the farmer climbing high into the canopy of the coconut trees, then harvesting the sap by gently slicing open the flower. After enough sap is collected, it is boiled in an open kettle and either poured into jars or allowed to cook until hard. The sap can vary from place to place and tree to tree, and even in different seasons, resulting in variations between batches.  Such is the life of an unrefined product.  I do not see this as a bad thing.

Sometimes the terms “coconut sugar” and “palm sugar” are used interchangeably, but they are not the same.

Coconut sugar can be exchanged one for one in recipes.

I haven’t had a chance to taste it, but my understanding is that it can have a hint of a maple syrup taste to it.  In some dishes, I think this could be an advantage, actually.  I be it would be great in my rice pudding recipe.  When I do taste it, I’ll post a follow up.

Coconut sugar promises to be a worthy alternative, traditional sweetener, and I’m really looking forward to experimenting with it.

This post is participating in Fight Back Fridays, hosted by Food Renegade.