Baking with Less Sugar: Recipes for Desserts Using Natural Sweeteners and Little-to-No White Sugar

First day I immediately looked to see what I could bake with ingredients on hand and decided on the Pain D'Espices (Spice Bread). It was sweetened with honey and used whole wheat flour, yum!Second I baked the Apple-Walnut-Maple Cake. The only difficulty I had was trying to figure out how to translate the called for 3 medium apples to my 3 large. I settled on 2 1/2 apples but it seemed like a lot of apples for the batter. Baked it anyway and it looks and tastes simply amazing, so moist and maple-y flavored, mmmmm mmmmm mmmmm.Please don't let other less favorable reviews stop you from buying this book. It's beautifully written and photographed and it's exactly what it says, baking with less sugar. The recipes also make ample use of more healthy substitutes like honey, maple syrup, fruit, fruit juices, spices, etc. You'll love this book!!

I love this book. Let me say that again — I love this book.I have both the kindle and the physical book.The hard back book has wonderful features. I love the texture of the cover and the way the pages are organized.I love the links inside the kindle book allowing me to jump from various recipes to other items needed (like a pie crust).RECIPES — GLUTEN FREE NO SUGAR LIFE:When we purchased this book we were facing a major health crisis. We were gluten free and completely off sugar (honey was only consumed for allergies). We were headed into another holiday season with NO BAKED GOODS. (As much as this isn’t the end of the earth, every holiday was missing something.)This book provides amazing recipes that can easily go gluten free or are already gluten free. Combine this with the alternate sweeteners (honey, dates, maple syrup, etc) and I truly felt like I found paradise.RECIPES — Regular life:Thankfully we’re back to enjoying small quantities of gluten and sugar. And, even though I could use other recipes I’ve loved my entire life … I continuously pick this book up. It’s by far my favorite baking book!Top 3 Recipes:#1: Maple-Pumpkin Pie (and the crust)Are there words for this pie? No. It’s rich, smooth, and tasty. I’ve made it every year for the last FIVE YEARS. It’s now expected and required at our Thanksgiving table.#2: Warm Apple Raisin CrispThis is everything you want to enjoy in the fall. The texture and flavor are a perfect balance of fresh and sweet.#3: Yellow Birthday CakeThis cake was the first thing I made from the book — and I made it gluten free in my (at that time) new lodge fluted cake pan. I preheated the cast iron, ran my stick of butter around it melting the butter and coating the sides, then added the batter. The results were out of this world! Although I now make it with four, I still use my cast iron — it turns out perfectly, every single time (even when I’ve messed up the directions).

I appreciate what Joanne Chang is doing with this book. She states that she is baking with LESS sugar, not "no sugar", not for diabetics, she does not claim that it's "healthy". She also explains the process of developing these recipes and how decreasing sugar doesn't just affect the taste - it affects texture and shelf life too. She's completely up front of all of these things, so I think it's unfair that people are giving negative criticisms for what the author has already told you. Even though I am used to eating things with less sugar, the first two recipes I tried came out bland and downright salty - the bacon scones and pecan coffee cake. The banana bread is stellar though. I'm still working my way through the book but I think it's a good introduction to thinking about baked treats differently.

Checked this book out at the library and loved it so much, I had to buy a copy. Love the recipes to make healthier choices

Her books are on my best favorite cookbook shelf..My friend, Maryanne Muller, takes out some sugar in almost every recipe she makes where that is possible. Old style Betty Crocker recipes maxed out the amount of sugar in recipes.We have gotten use to very sweet tastes and think we prefer it….Less sugar is a gentler world! Baking with Less Sugaris interesting to read, you can imagine a thoughtful discussion of a recipe with Joanne , as though in a baking workshop.with other bakers….The Birthday Cake is impressive with 7/8 cup of white granulated sugar and 3 cups of cake flour.The Unbelievable Banana Ice Cream , not a speck of sugar…I did read every page and recipe in the book and found it very interesting with recipes I plan to make

I tried two of the recipes: the White-Chocolate Chip Cherry Almond Cookies and the Carrot Cake. I had reasonable success making the cookies. I can tell you that it does not taste anything like a chocolate chip cookie, not even close. But in it's own way, it's pretty good. Note that the baker says you can store for up to two days, she wasn't kidding. Even in an airtight container, they will become dry and crumbly on the third day. The carrot cake, however, was an epic fail. Not only was it so complex that it took me two days to prep starting with the frosting, which inevitably never held u. That's probably because it contained no sugar (which is what gives frosting that stiff structure), only apple juice reduction "syrup." You can see in the picture, the frosting sludging downward even after leaving it in the fridge overnight (24 hours). The frosting was also not white as the picture in the book showed, likely because the apple juice reduction was more molasses in color. The cake itself turned out dense, had more fruit than cake, and came out raw despite baking it for an extra 10 minutes. It tasted OK, but more like a fruit cake than carrot. The frosting had the distinct flavor of apple juice. There were a ton of ingredients required, I filled my dishwasher completely just making this cake. In the end, because it was largely inedible, it ended up in the trash can. That was one expensive experiment down the drain and I'm not planning to try it again. I'm sending the book back.

So, we are great fans of Joanne Chang and her Flour Cookbook and Flour Too. I think her recipes are very well explained, there are adequate pictures, and if you follow the recipe as laid out, I don't know how you can have a failure. We have made almost everything in the two first books,so we decided to try the Baking with Less Sugar and found the same great results. It is always a good idea to completely read through a new recipe before attempting it, so you can figure out questions ahead of time. We did not notice the desserts "spoiling" sooner than usual, because they are never left over for very long! We visited Boston last year and made a beeline to one of her bakeries - what a treat!

Book with great condition!!! Super fast shipping as well :) very happy with the purchase

Brill book

Joanne Chang never disappoints. She makes baking easy and fun.

great for diabetics

I purchased this book with the hopes of finding a "healthier" way to eat and prepare desserts. It delivered. However it is not a baking book I will wear out anytime soon. Maybe I'm still detoxing from sugar.

Lovely looking book. Great quality and well madeA lot of text though explaining about using less sugar etc and the bakers own experiences. Too much for what I wantedLovely recipe pages but not all have pictures of the cake or desert which is a shame