Bingo 9: N is for Not (‘N’ Square)
Not Too Sweet is a little bit of a misnomer. Just because the dessert recipes avoid sometimes white sugar does not mean they are low sugar or low sweet. Maple syrup seems to be the general swap, and that’s not exactly low sugar or unprocessed. Dates might be more natural, but those are really sweet. White sugar is still present in some things too. The options for “[something]-free” (gluten, grain mostly) and vegan optional don’t really seem to have a pattern or reason why certain swaps are present, while others not. Dairy-free and vegan are rightly not fully interchangeable here, but again, the “optional” tag is sometimes applied in places (often chocolate in some form) but not others thigns in the same recipe. Just for an example, there is a chocolate chip cookie recipe labeled gluten free, grain free and vegan optional. Why does this recipe make the chocolate chips vegan optional, but not the butter? Vegan butter or conventional is noted, but the ‘if desired’ is only reserved for the chocolate. It does not make sense. It sounds almost like I could do vegan chocolate but not butter (or vice versa), but then the recipe wouldn’t be vegan.
There actually are some pretty interesting looking recipes in this book; I don’t think it’s a bad recipe book, just that I don’t understand certain editorial decisions and that makes me wonder about the rest of what I’m looking at. The Plum Caramel Shortbread Sandwich Cookies actually sound pretty good, although finding dried red plums for the color in the picture sounds like more trouble and expense that it’s likely worth. Standard dried plums (aka prunes) will do just fine. I’m also a sucker for turnovers, and the roasted grade turnover sounds like it might be worth trying out too. I also find the coconut milk pudding with plum jelly something worth bookmarking.
There are also a few recipes in here that are just a little odd. For example, the slow-roasted peach ice cream. Conceptually this sounds great. The ingredients list is simply “3 pounds of frozen peach slices”. That’s it. You defrost, roast, cool, refreeze, then blitz. I do not believe that simply fruit technical is an ice cream. Might be tasty, but it’s not even close to the technical definition. I have never heard of watermelon pudding; it’s pureed watermelon, cornstarch, and a few other things, plus maple whipped cream. Apparently this is a traditional Sicilian thing? The recipe looks like it would either be amazing or revolting, nothing in between.