Bakers--let's chat!

I'm a baker who's not that into sweets. Irony I know. However, I can kill some homemade bread and butter.

I used to bake a lot, but my lifestyle and eating habits have changed so I rarely do any baking anymore. My poor kitchenaid doesn't get much use these days!

I used to make things and give them away, until I realised how much money I was spending on things that I didn't even eat!

I've done the "healthy" alternative thing, or tried to lower calories or make more macro friendly options... But, who are we kidding? They usually taste like crap! If I want cake, I want full fat, real sugar, butter filled cake!

@racheldix92 I bake a lot. I totally feel you. It is the best stress release ever. I've began to bake small batches or freeze some of what I bake.

Kids want cupcakes. Great. I make 6 instead of 12. That way I only eat 1. Or, if I make twelve I freeze 6. When we want them again I pull them out and let them defrost on the counter. Same thing with banana bread. I actually make and freeze that all the time.

I made soft pretzels last week. They also freeze beautifully. If I can fit one, I take it out of the freezer and nuke on the defrost setting. If not, they stay in the freezer. Kids like them in their lunches too.

enterdanger wrote: »

@racheldix92 I bake a lot. I totally feel you. It is the best stress release ever. I've began to bake small batches or freeze some of what I bake.

Kids want cupcakes. Great. I make 6 instead of 12. That way I only eat 1. Or, if I make twelve I freeze 6. When we want them again I pull them out and let them defrost on the counter. Same thing with banana bread. I actually make and freeze that all the time.

I made soft pretzels last week. They also freeze beautifully. If I can fit one, I take it out of the freezer and nuke on the defrost setting. If not, they stay in the freezer. Kids like them in their lunches too.

This.

I love to bake with my kids so we freeze a lot of cookies and cupcakes. This is also great if I want a cookie or cupcake at 10pm instead of getting a whole pack from the store.

I totally hear you. Have you ever considered baking and selling your cakes/goodies? That's exactly what I do. I get the stress relief of baking, with the bonus of sending it out the door with a client! It's actually turned into a great side-business for me, and there's no chance of me eating any! As far as healthy buttercream, I did come across this website...granted, I haven't tried this myself, but the ratios seem about right. If you try it, I'd love to know how it tastes!

http://www.veggiebalance.com/healthy-vanilla-buttercream-frosting-low-sugar/

Girl, let me just tell you that the struggle is REAL. I bake cookies and boy is it tempting not to try one, ya know for "quality control" and by the time you realize it, you've ended up eating more than you anticipated.

I would suggest that when you absolutely have to bake, maybe make things that you don't like or necessarily would not choose for yourself. As much as I love a good cookie, there are a few that I make that I just don't like so if I know I have a function to go to then I will make those because I won't eat them.

It's not that they are not good cookies, it's just not my favorite. This whole portion and freeze and it sounds like it's a good one. Maybe try that.

Another baker here who is not into the sweets.

Some tips are already mentioned.

Fill your sink with soapy water and clean as you go. No licked spoons!

I often replace most the oil from muffin recipes with applesauce. I've reduced the oil to a tablespoon with no harm.

Get volume and good protein by doubling up the egg. Whip the whites for extra volume and fewer calories for the same muffin.

The protein cheesecake thread offers all sorts of potential to experiment.

I'm toying with the ratio of fat free condensed milk to chocolate chips for a chocolate glaze.

I'm also experimenting with Knox gelatine and various fruit juices for a satisfying glaze.

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.

OP I hear you 100%. I LOVE baking. But I also don't exactly have the best self control around baked goods unfortunately (I could live off them, pretty much). Sweet or savory... really doesn't matter to me. I love it all. I grew up eating croissants or pastries pretty much every day, you know?

I volunteer to make desserts (and/or bread) when we have get together with friends or for Holidays, but now even my friends have all said to me that they've gained weight since they met me (which is possible, honestly), and I'm probably not going to go to one of the groups I was baking for anymore, so it's pretty limited nowadays. I still bake our own bread. I volunteered for the bake sales at school (even though it wasn't for my kids' grade) just so I could make everything I wanted to try and just have a small piece of each. I think I made 3 or 4 different things for each of them, lol. My husband's office is very small and I don't work so just bringing the extra to work isn't really an option.

Right now I haven't baked much recently and it's killing me, lol. I also watch the Great English Baking Show and it's always giving me new ideas of stuff to bake, which arguably doesn't help...

Also lower calorie versions are almost never worth the calories for me (Skinnytaste has some ok stuff... but I'd still rather use the whole egg for 50 more calories, you know?).

I do also try to have at least 15k steps a day to fit in more stuff.

But yeah, the struggle is real. Still planning on making Gruyere sourdough rolls and a strawberry or raspberry tart for Easter. I want to make bakewell bars, walnut/Stilton bread, and danishes too, but I have no idea when that's going to happen. I guess the funny thing is that I just want to try making new things, instead of the same old ones. I've done eclairs, croissants, cinnamon rolls, all kinds of pies, quiches, or tarts (pear/almond tart is probably still one of my favorites), financiers, madeleines, a Cannoli cake, banana/zucchini/carrot breads... all of that in the last year or so. Honestly at this point I really don't care about making regular buttercream cakes though (I grew up in France, never even saw buttercream until I moved to the US at 23)...

I do have a baking problem.

One of the reasons I've failed at weight loss in the past was that I tried to cut out baking until I couldn't stand it anymore and then I would bust out and bake cookies and eat the whole batch and then lose all will to continue with my healthy life changes.

This time around I'm doing a lot of the sensible things listed above. I've been baking my own chocolate protein bars for snacks and baking breakfast bars and muffins that work for the calorie ranges I want for meals. I've also been inviting people over for dinner every once in a while so I can bust out and bake real cake or cookies or whatever for dessert when there will be extra people to eat them. Any leftovers get portioned out, labeled with their calories and frozen. It seems to be working so far. We have a freezer full of foods that we can eat and track easily.

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.