Sugar-free...Really?

As previously mentioned, I was tasked to make a sugar-free dessert recently. I gave the client three options: peach cobbler, chocolate cake, or peanut butter cookies. I bought Stevia in the Raw which measures cup for cup like sugar for what ever dessert she chose. I am not advocating the complete use of Stevia, but if I had to make another sugar-free dessert, I would definitely use it again. It's made from plants and is more natural than Splenda and other artificial sweetners.

She eventually decided on the peach cobbler and it was probably the best choice she could have made. The cobbler didn't taste like it was missing something. It was actually good and the Stevia didn't give off a nasty after taste like Splenda can. I was actually happy with the cobbler. It had a homemade biscuit topping and I made vanilla whipped cream to go with it. I used the good mexican vanilla that my wonderful friend and coworker Donna gave me in both the whipped cream and the cobbler. The rich vanilla flavor added another depth of flavor to mask the lack of sugar in the desserts.

I also wanted to try to make my chocolate bundt cake sugar-free. It really didn't turn out. The cake was more bitter than usual, but it still had the dense moistness that the cake should. It also didn't rise as much as the regular cake would have. I would have to experiment with that one again before making it for someone else.

Roger was really excited about the desserts. He said it was so thoughtful for someone to take that much time and effort to make him a dessert. I didn't tell him that Kacy asked me to.

It was a really good experience and I am glad to have done it.

Client vs. Beliefs

One of my managers recently asked me to make a dessert for someone who does not eat sugar. He is not diabetic, but had a close scare and has stopped eating sugar completely. He told me that he's more afraid that if he eats a little bit of something sweet, that he won't be able to stop and he will be right back where he was before. I understand wanting to prevent diabetes and other health issues. However, I do not agree with artificial sweeteners. They are all made of chemicals that I believe will eventually cause more health problems including cancer. I would rather eat the full fat, full sugar item and just not eat a lot of it. It's what the Europeans do and they have a much lower obesity rate than we do. It's all about eating less processed, all-natural foods. We have forgotten that food should be grown, not developed in a chemical lab. The only thing that should have zero calories is WATER!

I will step off my soap box now.

Anyways...the client for this order wants me to use the new Splenda for Baking. I told her I would do some research and get back to her. I thought it over and I just can't bring myself to actually purchase The splenda and sell a product to a client that I did not think was 100% me. It's like on Project Runway where the judges tell the loser that week they lost their design aesthetic in order to please the client. I refuse to let that happen to me.

In my research, I found that Stevia is now available in a large bag for cooking and baking use. For those that are not familiar with Stevia, it's a plant. It looks kinda like a mint plant, but if you taste the leaves, they are sweet like sugar. I am much more comfortable with the idea of using Stevia in place of the sugar. The manufactuer says it can be used cup-for-cup, but with further reading, I found people have reduced the amount of Stevia because it is much sweeter than regular sugar. This might take a couple of trials to make sure I have the right ratio of Stevia. But I guess I should first choose a recipe.