Sugar Free Trials

Yesterday was my last day at the assisted living facility I've been working at, but not the end of cooking for seniors. I am keeping my job at the bakery instead, not only because I prefer it, but because it will better prepare me for a future as a pastry chef in a very upscale and snazzy old folks home. We specialize in gluten-free and vegan desserts, as well as the tasty originals, techniques I did not learn in culinary school, and things that will prove to be very valuable in my specialized industry.

But the biggest thing is sugar free baking, something I am just starting to explore, both in the bakery and at home.

Last night, after my last day, I started a new first. My first experimental recipe using xylitol instead of sugar. My boss, and bakery owner, is excited to also start experimenting with xylitol, and since I am the head (and only) baker, I get to do all the recipe development.

My first trial, using things I had on hand (since I didn't want to run out the the grocery store, again), ended up being a loaf of banana bread/cake. I adapted it from a recipe in the only known xylitol cookbook, Sweeten Your Life the Xylitol Way by Karen Edwards (available on amazon), for Banana Cake, baked it late last night, and tried the first slice this morning for breakfast. Not too bad for my first try! And it is definitely sweet.

I will share all my trial sugar free recipes, whether they use xylitol, stevia or no substitute. I doubt I will be experimenting with the harsher chemical sugar substitutes such as aspartame (Equal and NutraSweet), and try to stick with a natural approach.

Xylitol can be substituted for sugar, 1:1. It will not caramelize or feed yeast, but is otherwise a very useful and easy alternate. I have read that xylitol is very deadly to dogs, more so than chocolate, so be very careful to keep your stash and xylitol baked goods away from your K-9 pals!

Banana Loaf Cake
adapted from Sweeten Your Life the Xylitol Way by Karen Edwards

2/3 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
pinch of salt
1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon butter, melted
1/2 cup mashed ripe banana (about one medium-large banana)
2 tablespoons + 2 teaspoons plain yogurt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg, seperated
1/2 cup xylitol

1. Combine flour, baking soda and salt in a bowl and set aside.
2. In another bowl, mix together the melted butter, mashed banana, yogurt, vanilla and egg yolk.
3. In a large bowl, beat the egg white with electric mixer until soft peaks form, then add the xylitol and beat until peaks are stiff but not dry.
4. Gradually fold dry ingredients into beaten egg whites alternately with banana mixture, and stir just until batter is smooth.
5. Pour into and spread evenly in a greased 8" x 4" loaf pan, and bake at 350 degrees F for 15-20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool completely. 
6. Store at room temperature in an airtight container.

Chocolate Strawberries (and cream)

I've mentioned before how fruit is always a big hit, be in canned or fresh or frozen, made into a sauce, a dessert, atop a salad, or standing alone. We always have tons on hand, in every form, from frozen berries, fresh melons, pineapples, strawberries, grapes and citrus fruits, to a dried assortment and canned cranberries and mandarin orange segments.

I try to incorporate fruit into my desserts and salads as much as possible, and always serve fresh oranges and grapefruit with breakfast. I tend to do the same thing over and over again: spinach salad with halved grapes, sliced strawberries, feta cheese, candied pecans and balsamic vinaigrette. Strawberry shortcake (an all-time favorite), berry crisp, black-bottomed banana cake, lemon bars...

But yesterday we had these gorgeous strawberries, bright red, perfect size, shape, sweet and juicy- I wanted to showcase their beauty and flavor, without serving them naked and alone. I decided to serve them dipped or drizzled with chocolate with some fresh soft whipped cream. So simple, so easy, and I've never gotten so many compliments on a dessert.

When the residents saw "chocolate strawberries" on the menu, a lot of them asked what that meant, or asked "chocolate strawberry what?" Chocolate strawberry nothing. Many noted how beautiful they looked, and all commented on how wonderful they tasted. One resident told me she had heard of covering strawberries with chocolate, but never actually had it- I was shocked to hear that someone had not tried these before, but then I heard it several more times. Even my pickiest resident, who is always telling me how awful food my food was (even when she's the only one that thinks so) went out of her way to tell me the afternoon dessert was lovely. That it was such a simple idea, and yet no one had ever served it before.

So if for some reason, the seniors in your life have not tried chocolate dipped strawberries, please do something about it immediately. Spring is here, berries are starting to pop up (not that you can't get anything, anytime these days), and fresh strawberries covered in chocolate and served with a cool fresh whipped cream, slightly sweetened with sugar and vanilla are a wonderful light (but rich) and elegant dessert.

In case you're not sure how, here are the basics:

Fresh strawberries, washed and dried

Chocolate for melting (such as chocolate chips)

Whipping Cream

Powdered sugar (about 1/2 cup per 2 cups cream)

Vanilla (about 1 teaspoon per 2 cups cream)

Melt your chocolate over a double boiler, you might want to add a little cream for smoothness. Dip your clean dry strawberries in the chocolate, roll around or use a spoon to coat all the way up the the green stem. Place on a baking sheet covered with wax or parchment paper to set. Once all are coated, put in fridge. Whip your cream, sugar and vanilla to very soft peaks. Serve together!

(I often sprinkle the still wet chocolate strawberries with finishing salt, or drizzle with stripes of melted white chocolate for garnish)

Scholarship Essay

I recently applied for a partial scholarship to Johnson & Wales University. They offer an amazing culinary nutrition program that would help me move forward in the senior food industry I have found myself. I'm trying not to get my hopes up, I'm not sure that I could afford to go back to school right now anyways, and I have no idea when I'm due to hear back from them.

The program is a four-year bachelor's degree,  the first two years being a culinary education and the second two would be the culinary nutrition part, with classes such as Vegetarian Cuisine, Designing Healthy Desserts, Life Span Nutrition and other great courses.

Since I've already attained my culinary degree, I would get to go directly into the second two years of the program, and probably have many of the science and math classes waved because of my previous college coursework.

Even if I don't get this particular scholarship, I would love to go back to school and get this, or a similar, degree. Going back this fall, a mere five months from now, might not be realistic, but this kind of education would be a great asset to have along side of my culinary education and experience.

I hope I am contacted soon, with the good or bad news! You will hear more...

And now, the essay:


"one-page, typed essay about applicant’s inspiration and passion for food and cooking, goals for the future, and how being awarded this scholarship could help achieve those goals"

I grew up in a home strongly influenced by my pastry chef mother and her out-of-home catering business. I have worked, unofficially, in the food industry since I was 9 years old. At 16, I landed my first “real” job in the industry, and haven't looked back.

After high school, I paused my culinary career to pursue a degree in the field of science at Western Washington University. However, my weekend job cooking at an assisted living facility, and my after school dinner parties, consistently pointed me back to the culinary industry. I enjoyed my studies in chemistry and biology but my passion was cooking. After approximately two years at Western, the Culinary School of the Rockies’ Farm-to-Table program brought me to Boulder, Colorado, where the farm to table movement dominates the restaurant scene.

Working in the kitchen at assisted living facilities and serving the senior parts of our society during the last five years has been a most rewarding experience. I am passionate about creating and serving healthy, nutritious yet delicious foods to seniors, who are some of our more vulnerable members of society. This population will see significant growth in the years to come, as the “Boomers” enter their retirement years and demand higher standards in food service.

My commitment to changing the way we eat extends to the next generation as I recently have been volunteering in the Boulder Valley School District, where I help fight to get healthy and local foods into the cafeteria, and at home. I volunteer in cooking classes to teach the students how to prepare wholesome meals, as well as in lunch-hour tastings to encourage them to try foods that may be unfamiliar. I believe strongly that we must change the diets of our youth to see any lasting changes in our society.

Looking forward, I see myself leading large organizations within the senior care industry or the school system, where I can help shape and lead the changes I am passionate about in the senior and junior members of our population. I have been lucky to have had strong role models to have shaped my self confidence in leadership within this specialized culinary niche. I could not speak more highly of any than my mother who shaped my commitment to integrity, work ethic and the knowledge that I can do whatever I set my mind to.

This scholarship will allow me to finish my bachelors degree uniting my two favorite subjects, cooking and science. The Johnson & Wales Culinary Nutrition degree is what I've been searching for; it will allow me to combine my love of cooking and my desire to adapt recipes to individual nutritional needs and to create healthy foods for all.

This culinary nutrition degree would help me achieve a position in which I would have greater ability to make changes in the way our society, old and young, eat, prepare and think about food. The program will help me gain the additional knowledge, skill set and confidence required to plan and execute preparation of well-crafted foods with unique dietary and nutritional requirements in mind.

Your enabling of my educational objectives will be an investment in our existing and future generations.  Thank you for this great opportunity.

Sincerely.

Sydney Davidson

Cheesecake Parfait

It's been a while since I've posted, and I'm starting to realize how blogging is much less formal than I originally thought. I've neglected to update since I've taken bad pictures, been too sleepy (or tipsy), had little time, and few new ideas. Oh, and that I got a new doggie! That's really when my posts ceased. But from now, I will treat this as my food diary (specific to my job/passion as a cook for the elderly) and go with the flow.

I love the Food Network Magazine, it is by far the most fun and light-hearted of the cooking magazines- no stuffy pretensions of what cooking should be and how culinarians should act. It feels very true to the reason I love everything food: it's fun, exciting and makes people happy. 

I was skeptical of the cookbook they are now publishing, based on easy and quick weeknight meals. I have nothing against quick cooking, it's the desserts that peeved me. In the latest edition (April 2011), they feature 23 10-minute desserts, which on it's own is fine, I love a quick-fix sweet treat, but most of these kinda suck.

A ten minute chocolate glazed pound cake = store bought pound cake + melted chocolate. Or, sandwich ice cream between cooled toasted frozen waffels for an ice cream wafflewich. Things that are not by any means bad ideas, and actually great tricks, but nothing that deserves to be circulated in a culinary publication.

There were a few jems in the magazine section, and hopefully more to come in the cookbook (because I will buy it), including a simple microwave fudge recipe, a grapefruit brûlée and the idea of combining ricotta cheese, balsamic reduction and fresh berries for a dessert.

My favorite: Cheesecake Parfaits. Almost every [non-pastry chef] friend of mine is intimated by cheesecakes. For some reason most people think they are incredibly difficult. Maybe it's the waterbath or the excessively long cooking time at a low temperature, or the "fancy" spring-form pan needed to bake the cake,  I'm not sure, but most people I know won't bother to try it. I hope the cheesecake parfait changes their minds. It tastes as great as a cheesecake, perhaps better, and takes a mere 10 minutes to prep.

I know my seniors like cheesecake, but it is a difficult thing to fit into my day, if only because of the cooking and cooling time they require. I have never made a cheesecake at my current home- I'd gotten away with cheesecake brownies, and decided to leave the actual cakes up to the other cook and the grocery store.

Thank you Food Network Magazine for the idea of cheesecake parfaits! Basically you layer graham cracker crumbs in the bottom of a glass, top with a "cheesecake" cream layer and fresh fruit, and voila! Fantastically easy and delicious.

This is my variation of the recipe I found in the Food Network Magazine, soon to be published in their first cookbook. (Click here for original recipe.)


Cheesecake Parfaits
yield enough for 25 seniors

Pulse graham crackers in food processor until fine crumbs are formed. Put a heaping tablespoon of crumbs in each of 25 small glasses.

Beat 24 ounces softened cream cheese (3 packages) with 9 tablespoons sugar, 9 tablespoons heavy cream, and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, and 5 diced large strawberries (or other fresh fruit, optional). Pour equal amounts in each glass.

Top with fresh fruit (I used strawberries) and whipped cream.  --I ended up topping with whipped cream first, then sliced berries.

I believe this is slightly healthier than real cheesecake, no eggs or sour cream, no butter... Could even be made with milk instead of cream and reduced fat cream cheese. But I made it the delicious way, because my audience won't be around that much longer anyways.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Banana Cake

Is there a better combination than banana, chocolate and peanut butter?

I've been craving peanut butter and bananas recently, and I've settled for just smearing fresh bananas with the creamy goodness. But my new job at the bakery has left me wanting to make cake all the time, surprisingly enough. So when I got to work this morning and saw all the bananas, I decided on Banana Cake with Peanut Butter Frosting.

I went to open the fridge and saw a batch of chocolate frosting I had made the previous weekend, and was initially bummed I hadn't yet thought of a way to use it.

While the residents were going over the menu, one mentioned that peanut butter in frosting did not sound good. I told her that I had some extra chocolate and I could frost her piece with that instead, but that peanut butter and bananas are delicious together. She said that was true, and that she'd give it a try.

Once again, my chocolate frosting goes unused. I leave it out at room temperature, just in case.

It was not until the cakes are out of the oven and my peanut butter icing is made that I decide to use the chocolate. I used it as the filling between the two layers of cake, then frosted the outside with the peanut butter, and garnished with chocolate chips to tie it all together.

Yummmmm!

Banana Cake

makes 4 8'' cake rounds, or 2 finished cakes

ingredients:

1/2 cup butter

1/2 vegetable oil

1 cup water

2 1/4 cup flour

2 cups sugar

1 teaspoon salt

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/3 plain yogurt

1 1/2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar

1/2 cup whole milk (minus 1 1/2 teaspoons- I put the apple cider vinegar in the measuring cup, then fill it up to the 1/2 cup mark with milk)

3 large bananas, pureed in a blender

preparation:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line 4 8-inch round cake pans with parchment paper and spray lightly with cooking spray.

If you haven't already, combine apple cider vinegar, vanilla and milk together to curdle.

Melt butter in small saucepan with oil and water.

Sift and combine flour, sugar, salt and baking soda in the bowl on an electric stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Turn on low speed to mix.

Slowly pour melted fat mixture into bowl with paddle running at low speed. Scrape bowl and paddle, mix again briefly.

Combine the curdled milk mixture with the eggs and yogurt, and pour into mixer, running at low speed.

Scrap down sides of bowl, add banana and mix again, just to combine thoroughly. (Do not over-mix- this will form gluten and make your cake tough.)

Divide evenly amongst your 4 pans, place in pre-heated oven and bake for about 20-25 minutes, until a toothpick inserted near middle comes out clean.

When cool, un-mold and place one round on a plate, slather with chocolate frosting and stack on the next layer. Frost the entire cake with peanut butter frosting, decorate as you wish. Repeat with second cake.

 Frostings

I didn't follow a recipe or write one down for the frosting. They are easy to make up as you go.

For peanut butter, I used equal parts butter and peanut butter (about 1 cup each), and mixed until smooth, then added a teaspoon of vanilla, and powdered sugar until the desired consistency and flavor was reached.

For chocolate- same thing, just no peanut butter, add about 1/2 cocoa powder, and a few teaspoons of milk

Portion Size

The thing that shocked me the most when I first began working with the elderly was the portion size of their meals. Maybe it's because I belong to the super-size-me generation, that portion sizes really were that tiny 60 years ago, or maybe when you get old you just eat less. I suppose the baby boomers and the next aging generations will tell us more, but I suspect it is a combination.

 

The elderly folks (that I work with) don't do much, so their caloric needs are much less than that of an active adult. They get up, they shower, they use their walkers to shuffle to the dining room for breakfast, then to the TV room until lunch, then back to the TV until dinner, maybe a game of scrabble, then to bed. A day in the life of a senior at XYZ assisted living revolves around meal time.

Everything is smaller: appetites, plates, bowls, bagels

The entree plates we use at the old folk's home are not a common size. They are in between the sizes of a small hors d'ourve plate and the (present) standard dinner plate. Paper plate size. The perfect size to make a little portion still fill it up and look like an adequate meal, which it is.

Old people can be very particular. The current ones came from an age where food was not in abundance, where they ate everything on their plates, when they couldn't get any ingredient on the planet like we can today.  Many of them get very overwhelmed by the amount of food I sometimes load onto their plates, so overwhelmed that instead of working away it it and eating what they can, they don't touch it. So my ignorance to their preferred portion size results in their skipping of a meal. Respect their portion control. Use a small plate, give them one scrambled egg for breakfast, half a sandwich for lunch, I know it doesn't seem like much, but it's enough.

I've got a list of my "big eaters" and my "small eaters". The big eaters get a whole sandwich for dinner! The smaller or half-portion eaters get, well, a half sandwich. Even the so-called big or "good" eaters eat much less than your average American these days. It becomes very apparent when I feed the staff- their plates are often 1.5 to 2 times larger than the "good eaters." I'm not saying that all non-seniors eat too much, we are much more active in our youth and have higher metabolisms (especially in Boulder, Colorado), and require more calories.

Their little appetites are another reason seniors should be fed nutritious foods; they are only going to eat so much, so there is a much smaller opportunity for them to get all their required nutrients. It is recommended that seniors take a multivitamin, and most do, in addition to their other numerous pills and medications.
...but that's a topic for another day.

The one thing most of my seniors don't skimp on is dessert. I send out the daily menu and receive half orders for the entree, salad and soup, and double orders of dessert! But I like to believe it's because they love my baking.

Lemon Prune Tart

I was in search of a delicious dessert using prunes- because old folks eat them all the time, and we always have tons in the dried fruit box. I came across a recipe for a lemon prune tart- sounded yummy, so I put it on the menu. When the time came to put it together, I realized how odd the recipe was, that I didn't have the time or the resources to make it, and so I came up with my own.

I used the custard from the "Fresh Lemon Bar" recipe in Cookies at the Academy (only the best cookie cookbook ever!), with a different crust, adapted it into pie form and added prunes. It turned out really good, and because it's such a good lemon bar recipe, you could make it with or without the prunes, or use another fruit instead.

Lemon Prune Tart
Makes 4 pies

Crust:
4 1/2 cups flour
2 cups powdered sugar
2 1/4 cups butter

Custard:
16 eggs
8 cups granulated sugar
1 1/2 cups lemon juice
zest of 4 lemons
dried prunes

confectioners' sugar for topping pies

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Combine ingredients for crust in an electric mixer bowl and mix until a soft dough forms. Divide evenly between pie pans and press onto bottom and sides. Bake at 370 degrees for about 20 minutes, until golden browned. Cool.

Decrease oven temperature to 350 degrees

While crust bakes, combine eggs, sugar, lemon juice and zest and gently stir to blend all ingredients, do not beat.

 

Place prunes in cooled tart crusts, about 10-15 per pan,

and pour lemon custard over top. Bake at 350 degrees for about 18-22 minutes, until custard is set and lightly browned.

Sift confectioners' sugar over top and cut when cooled. Serve cool, or room temperature.

Enjoy your healthy-digestion dessert!