Posts Tagged ‘natural sweeteners’
This is one of my all-time favorite desserts-the hint of rum against warm bananas and cold vanilla ice cream is simply exquisite! Banana liqueur is often used in many a banana foster recipes but I try to avoid liqueurs as much as possible as they often contain additional refined sweeteners. Make sure to choose a vanilla ice cream that is free of additives and preservatives, and that is sweetened naturally with agave syrup, evaporated cane juice, brown rice syrup, or the like.
Ingredients:
- 2 tablespoons unsalted organic butter
- 1/4 cup light muscavado raw sugar
- pinch of fine sea salt
- 1/2 cup rum
- 2 ripe bananas, split and halved
- 4 scoops vanilla ice cream
Directions:
Heat together butter, raw sugar, and salt. Whisk until smooth. Once mixture starts to bubble, add rum OFF HEAT. Return back to heat, bring to a boil, and then simmer until reduced by 1/3. Add in bananas. Spoon over sauce and let cook for 3 to 4 minutes. Spoon over sauce intermittently during this time. Pour over ice cream and enjoy!
Traditional ice cream is typically made with half and half and/or heavy cream. Here I used whole milk and also replaced the refined white sugar with raw turbinado sugar. While it is nearly impossible to maintain the consistency of soft-serve ice cream (or any type of ice cream for that matter) in the home freezer over-night, it is best to serve this ice cream right away. This recipe makes a large batch of ice cream “batter” which can be kept in the fridge for up to a week until ready for use in the ice cream machine so it can be made in batches. Making ice cream at home is not only a fun activity, it allows you to control the ingredients you put in-in this case only 5!
Ingredients:
- 10 cups organic whole milk
- 1.5 cups raw turbinado sugar
- 4 tablespoons corn starch
- 1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum
- 3 tablespoons pure vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon cardamom powder
Directions:
- Bring 9 cups of milk to barely a simmer.
- Meanwhile, blend together one cup of the remaining milk with the raw sugar, corn starch, xanthan gum, and vanilla until smooth. Set aside for a few minutes.
- Whisk in corn starch mixture when milk comes barely to a simmer and keep whisking until milk mixture is slightly thickened. Turn off heat and stir in cardamom powder.
- Let cool to room temperature and store overnight to chill. Pour chilled ice cream mixture into ice cream maker (use only as much as needed for the day and store the rest in the fridge for later in the week) and churn until you get a soft-serve consistency. Enjoy immediately!
This is an example of true whole-foods based dessert that uses a dal (lentil) and only unrefined sweeteners. Traditionally this ladoo (a round Indian sweet) is made from much more ghee so I decided to use some low-fat evaporated milk to lighten it. Grind the dal to as fine a powder as possible-a few granules won’t hurt but if you must, just pass through a sieve to remove ( I grind a bit coarser than usual as I like the crunch the whole particles add.) Makes about 8.
Ingredients:
- 1.5 cups low-fat (2%) evaporated milk
- 3 tablespoons agave nectar
- 1 cup urad dal (black split mapte)
- 2 tablespoons demerara raw sugar
- 1 tablespoon ghee
- 1/2 teaspoon cardamom powder
Directions:
- Blend together milk and nectar. Put in pot and bring to a light simmer. Turn heat to low and whisk continuously for about 20 to 25 minutes or until reduced to one-half original volume. Set aside.
- Toast urad dal on dry skillet until lightly brown. Set aside to cool. Add raw sugar to mixture and grind to a fine to slightly coarse powder. This will take some time.
- Melt ghee in pan. Add urad dal mixture and reduced milk mixture. Stir with spatula over medium heat until it just begins to come together and leaves the sides of the pan. Add cardamom powder, mix through, and dump mixture onto sprayed plate. Let cool slightly. Form into balls while still warm. Let cool to set completely. Enjoy!
