Glututen-Free Red Velvet Brownie
While attempting to create the requested red velvet brownies, I noticed that both the flavor and appearance fell short of the decadence I envisioned. As well as removing the brownie from their pans proved to be a bit challenging, and as they cooled, there was a tendency for the brownies to sink in on themselves.
Ice Cream
Tried making ice cream – one time by the book, and another time I went all in with banana ice cream but ran out of cream. Ended up with a bit more of an icy vibe. Lesson learned: for that classic creamy goodness, cream is the secret sauce. But if you're after a lighter treat, throw in some milk, maybe a dash of butter. Ice cream adventures, right? This way it will taste more like sorbet than regular ice cream
Sugar-Free and Vegan Brownies
I recently experimented with a sugar-free and vegan brownie recipe, and I was delighted to find one that met both criteria. Taking inspiration from the sticky pudding I enjoyed in Chiang Mai, I opted to use dates as a substitute for sugar. Finely chopped dates added a natural sweetness to both dishes. While I've only made it once so far, I encountered a minor hiccup: when halving the recipe, I mistakenly spread the batter too thin in the tray, resulting in a slightly thinner brownie. Nonetheless, the flavor was quite satisfying. Lesson learned for next time: if I'm making the full recipe, I'll stick to the original tray size; if I'm halving it, I'll use a smaller tray to ensure a thicker brownie.
SF Chocolate Cookies - My latest attempt was chocolate cookies. I opted for maple syrup, believing it to be a suitable sugar-free alternative, only to discover that maple syrup contains a significant amount of sugar. Despite the setback, the cookies turned out fantastic in taste, but not sugar-free. It's a bummer that these can't be utilized as a sugar-free cookie because, as I mentioned, they were incredibly delicious!
Returning to Toronto this weekend, once I return home my next step is to head to Costco next week and get monk fruit sweetener. With this new ingredient, I aim to revisit the chocolate cookie recipe I used today. Hopefully, this time around, it will indeed be 100% sugar-free.
SF Snickerdoodle- I was finally able to test sugar-free snickerdoodle last week, after being busy for the past few weeks, and boy, was the taste off! After baking and tasting them, I noticed that the natural sweetener, monk fruit, did not hold up against all the spices. It tasted less like sugar and way too much like nutmeg and cinnamon. Lesson learned: don’t try to make heavily spiced cookies sugar-free. Or maybe I just need to figure out the right ratios to find the best taste!
I'm not saying I will give up on sugar-free cookies. I just need to test a lot more, and the more I test, the better they will be. So please be patient with me as I figure this out!
Personalized Vanilla Cake
Last weekend, I had an order for a Taylor Swift-inspired vanilla cake. This was the first time I had done a cake with a lot of details; normally, I keep the design minimal since I am not great at intricate decorations. Boy, was it hard! I used a cream cheese frosting because it worked best with the angel food cake I made, but it was not easy to get it smooth. Writing the letters and doing the shapes around the cake was also very challenging. I tried my best to make it look nice, but it was not perfect. Lesson learned: practice making more cakes. For now, I’ll focus on making simple cakes and perfecting my frosting techniques before tackling detailed designs.
Grain Free Granola
I tried making grain-free granola a while back using a recipe my cousin gave my sister. I really liked it, but I still prefer granola with oats. So, I took a few ingredients from their grain-free recipe and added them to my own granola recipe—things I hadn’t used before trying the grain-free version. Love the new and improved recipe! It’s great with yogurt in the morning for breakfast or as a snack. And if you want more sweetness, you can order it with semi-sweet chocolate chips added in.
Sugar-Free Cheesecake
I recently tried making a sugar-free cheesecake at my mom’s request—and by sugar-free, we meant no refined sugar. So instead of white sugar, I used maple sugar for a more natural option.
The recipe we found used yogurt and gelatin, which made the texture turn out more like flan than cheesecake. The flavor was also pretty bland, maybe because I didn’t add any vanilla and didn’t use the full amount of maple syrup—I used vanilla yogurt and figured it would be sweet enough.
In the end, it set a little too firmly and wasn’t sweet enough. A crunchy topping might’ve helped save it!