The Sugar Revolution

For Lent I decided to give up refined sugar. Please note that I am not a Catholic, but the vague, I need to change something for the healthier notions I had at the New Year have not manifested in much more than the occasional dance-out with the kids, which while somewhat aerobic really does not do much for regaining Ye Olde College Weight. Thus when my Catholic ILs were discussing Lent and it occurred to DH & I that it was Pancake (Shrove) Tuesday, I thought perhaps it would be a good timeframe to try out a change for the better as regards my sweet tooth and sugar in general. My SIL gave up refined sugar and non-whole grains for about six months and lost a ton of weight and felt better, so I thought I could handle a small step toward a healthier life by saying goodbye to refined sugar.

Now, for the purposes of my Lenten fast, I have defined refined sugar to be any sugar that is processed in any way beyond being crushed out of the cane (or beets, but all the sugar beet sugar is refined so it's out). Thus I am okay with stuff that has been left to dry after being crushed out of the sugarcane (i.e. sucanat) but not okay with brown sugar or organic sugar. Unfortunately high fructose corn syrup is out too, because well, it's highly refined sugar, even if it's not sucrose (table sugar).

Big deal, you say, you don't have sugar in your coffee and you use Splenda in baked goods. Ah, but there is the rub. Do you know how many baked goods contain sugar? Well, let me tell you--a LOT! Fortunately for me we had just made the switch to an eight grain bread with no high fructose corn syrup, but it's pretty tough to find baked goods sans sugar. That also means I cannot eat any of the ice cream, candy, or cookies we have in the house. If we had any Splenda ice cream I could eat that, but I won't let myself buy more ice cream until what we have is eaten, because it would be wasteful; and thus I am stuck until DH and DD manage to consume about a gallon of ice cream...something that I doubt will happen until near the end of Lent.

However, to satisfy my sweet tooth I have been doing a whole lotta baking. I have purchased sucanat and brown rice syrup and Splenda. (I am still on the fence about the brown rice syrup--is it really refined if it's a syrup? Ditto maple syrup...for my purposes I am considering them unrefined as there is no separation of extraneous stuff other than extra water from the sugar molecules, but I digress...) My first foray into baking sans real sugar involved brown rice syrup, Splenda, and maple syrup. I used Splenda to bake a banana cake, then found a vegan caramel sauce recipe and made some of that, and sweetened some whipped cream with the brown rice syrup. It made for a lovely riff on banoffi and we even served it to guests, who raved about it. The cake was bit dense for my taste, due to the use of whole wheat flour, but overall it was a hit.

We finished off the banoffi cake yesterday, and I was stuck without a dessert option or any option (other than a teaspoonfull of leftover caramel sauce) for my sweet tooth today. I thought cupcakes would be nice, and since I'd had luck with the vegan recipe I googled more vegan recipes. I should have known better when I couldn't find a vegan cupcake recipe that sounded palatable, but I figured I could work something out and set out to bake with sucanat and vegan margarine instead of butter. Why not go whole hog, I thought, although I did pull back at the last minute and used real eggs instead of tofu. And for kicks I used up the rest of the potato flour I had in the pantry--2 cups, plus about a 1/2 cup of wheat flour. Wholesome, nutritious, good, right?

Wrong. I have experienced my first complete and utter baking disaster in twenty years. TWENTY YEARS! I have ruined a twenty year record of delectable baked goods! These burnt shells holding puffy raw dough are about the worst thing I have baked, EVER. I could have cried...there was just nothing salvageable about these wastes of ingredients. The travesties are sitting on my kitchen counter right now, DH having tried one and insisting they are sort of like mini vegan brown breads...except with egg...and they would probably be delicious cut in half and toasted and buttered. He is being kind--they are terrible. I think their likely destination in the morning is the trashcan, DH having convinced me to leave them overnight and decide in the morning.

I have no dessert. Well, I was going to have no dessert, but I was so shaken by my utter baking failure that I HAD to bake something else with sucanat, just to prove that I could make something, ANYTHING that tastes good with it. So I made the recipe from the package, a Marilu Henner jobbie that is supposed to be brownies. I did change it slightly--used some cocoa powder, used real butter (not soy), and used a bit more all purpose flour and some baking powder to make it more cakey. I have 22 more cupcakes in the oven, and they are rising and looking good. The batter even tasted good. I have high hopes for this batch. Now if only the Tofutti fake cream cheese icing turns out well...