Bakers--let's chat!

VlpW wrote: »

I feel your pain! Amy's Healthy Baking has healthy and/or low calorie cookie recipes that are really, really wonderful. Most have no weird ingredients (unless they are paleo). I've experimented a lot with subbing Splenda for some of the sugar in her recipes very successfully. Her Ultimate Chocolate Chip, Ultimate Peanut Butter and Sugar Cookies are my go-to recipes for any excuse... I mean, occasion. This is the site : amyshealthybaking.com

Thanks for the site. Don't really know how I feel about this. I checked a couple recipes, like the strawberry tart one... pretty much the only thing that's 'healthier' (?) is that she doesn't put egg yolks in the 'custard' filling for the tart... which is essentially the healthier (and tastier) part of the dish (with the strawberries). And yeah I'll stick to my regular sugar pie crust for it as well.... it just doesn't work as well with a regular pie crust.

And putting honey vs sugar or coconut oil vs butter really doesn't make things that much 'healthier', sorry. The sugar and fat are still there. Or using coconut sugar instead of sugar and whole wheat instead of plain flour. Just rather have the real thing (the calories are probably the same too! so what if there's 1g less of fiber in 2 cookies, really).

Sorry, just a pet peeve of mine I guess! I did laugh at the 'clean eating cookies'.

KMMRN wrote: »

I bake and prepare snacks for a lot of groups in our small community....ladies teas, hikers snacks, teenagers after school clubs, mens football game watching socials, etc. A few different strategies have worked: I don't prepare the food until shortly before I deliver it....if it is around the house or in the freezer, I will eat it. If I make a pan of something, I don't cut a sample out - even if it is for someone else to test....too easy to cut out a second, third, fourth piece. And, amazingly to me, people are raving about my vegetable cups. I buy sturdy cardboard paper cups at the dollar store and put small pieces of a variety of veggies in each one (Cauliflower, baby carrots, snow peas, radishes, mushrooms, etc.). I put a wood pick through a tiny thai pepper and stick that into the veggie cup as a decoration and eating tool. I can partake in these!

But that's not baking

Ok, not gonna lie, part of the appeal for me is to actually get to eat what I make in the first place. I just don't want a whole tray here to tempt me (and I typically don't care that much to freeze the stuff - it doesn't taste as good and if it does, it's still in the freezer to tempt me, lol).

Francl27 wrote: »

KMMRN wrote: »

I bake and prepare snacks for a lot of groups in our small community....ladies teas, hikers snacks, teenagers after school clubs, mens football game watching socials, etc. A few different strategies have worked: I don't prepare the food until shortly before I deliver it....if it is around the house or in the freezer, I will eat it. If I make a pan of something, I don't cut a sample out - even if it is for someone else to test....too easy to cut out a second, third, fourth piece. And, amazingly to me, people are raving about my vegetable cups. I buy sturdy cardboard paper cups at the dollar store and put small pieces of a variety of veggies in each one (Cauliflower, baby carrots, snow peas, radishes, mushrooms, etc.). I put a wood pick through a tiny thai pepper and stick that into the veggie cup as a decoration and eating tool. I can partake in these!

But that's not baking

Ok, not gonna lie, part of the appeal for me is to actually get to eat what I make in the first place. I just don't want a whole tray here to tempt me (and I typically don't care that much to freeze the stuff - it doesn't taste as good and if it does, it's still in the freezer to tempt me, lol).

My issue with freezing is that I like stuff frozen. Frozen brownies - amazing. Frozen cookie dough - so good. Frozen cheesecake... Yum! (you get the idea)

livingleanlivingclean wrote: »

My issue with freezing is that I like stuff frozen. Frozen brownies - amazing. Frozen cookie dough - so good. Frozen cheesecake... Yum! (you get the idea)

Yes, me too! I almost like stuff better out of the freezer. I just can't have it around. In the past I felt like that made me "weak" but now I realize I'm just being honest with myself.

For Easter I am making individual (muffin-size) blackberry lemon cheesecakes. Just enough for our guests and myself to have one or two, send a couple leftovers home with them, and have the temptation be gone!

EmbeeKay wrote: »

abovethecity wrote: »

Oh my, I know the feeling so well. I love, love, love baking, but I seriously don't have enough willpower any more and have really cut down in the past few months. It makes me sad. I tried to believe that somehow I can fit in this 500 cal. piece of Kentucky Butter Cake or only eat one nutella chocolate chip cookie (my absolute favorite!) if I bake them, but that just can't happen any more because I don't have any willpower around homemade baked goodies. I did go baking crazy around Christmas though - so fun!

OMG! I just discovered Kentucky Butter Cake! I always make 1.5 the amount of butter sauce and then make a glaze for the top. That cake is freaking awesome. I have made it with sprinkles for my sons' birthdays (SO much easier than a themed layer cake but they have LOVED their "donut cakes"), with a nut streusel for a potluck, and with mini chocolate chips (tasted like a cookie dough cake). That recipe is the BOMB. Unfortunately, yeah, it's like kryptonite to me. I only bake when I know plenty of people will be eating the stuff and when I can give away the leftovers. Otherwise, if I am honest with myself I know that I will eat it, and eat it ALL, in record time.

So funny....I have a recipe for Kentucky Butter Cake in my recipe box here on MFP. That and Baklava Pie. Like I'll ever make them again with the calories they are. Most things I can manage to trim the calories from, but I love pastries and you just can't trim enough calories from those.

I did make my strawberry tart yesterday. And cinnamon roll for breakfast at our friends. Calories be damned, obviously. Sorry, the tart picture won't upload for some unknown reason.

I'd have a hard time with that. I am notorious for licking batter bowls, tasting my creations, etc. I find that I have to chew a piece of gum whenever I'm in the kitchen so I'm not constantly sticking food in my mouth.

I try to bake for events only. That way I don't have any leftovers to eat. If I have to experiment, I send it to my husband's job or give it to the tech guys at my job. They really appreciate it, even when I am not pleased with the final product.

I can bake bread, cookies and layer cakes fairly well -- what eludes me is making a smooth pound cake(my favorite kind -- I hate frosting!) with no fat streaks, so I experimented a week ago . Big mistake. The first practice cake -- a key lime cake that still had the streak, but tasted perfectly delicious otherwise -- I almost ate single-handedly. That's when I learned to pass it on rather than let it pass my lips.