Fruit sweet and sugar free - information #1

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Fruit Sweet and Sugar Free by Janice Feuer 1993 Royal Teton Ranch The Ranch Kitchen Restaurant and Bakery *************************************** : Just north of Yellowstone National Park on Montana's breathtaking Route 89 in the Paradise Valley is The Ranch Kitchen, a log-cabin-style restaurant offering the best of Montana home cooking.

: The Ranch Kitchen is in Corwin Springs, just eight miles north of Gardiner, Montana, which is the northern entrance to Yellowstone Park. Actually, along with the Cinnabar General Store next door, The Ranch Kitchen is Corwin Springs. Built as a dude ranch lodge in the twenties and expanded to include a large dance hall during the thirties, the original building has been remodeled into a cozy country restaurant housing a professional dinner theater.

: Since it became The Ranch Kitchen in the summer of 1982, its all-American breakfasts, hearty lunches, home-style dinners, and elaborate theater buffets have made the restaurant a favorite of local residents and park visitors.

: The Ranch Kitchen's breads, muffins and desserts have become a trademark of the restaurant. Many of the recipes developed that first summer have been grand-prize and blue-ribbon winners at the local county and state fairs. We still use those recipes today, along with many new ones, and have since switched to fruit sweeteners for all of our baked goods. No meal at The Ranch Kitchen is complete without something from the bakery.

: Each of the recipes presented has been developed and served at The Ranch Kitchen. Guests are always asking, if, how, and when they can have the recipe from the Very-Berry Syrup on their pancakes to the apple butter on their toast, to the french bread with the spaghetti to the carrot cake or pumpkin pie they had for dessert.

People always want to know how we do it, how we get our desserts to taste and look so delicious without using refined white sugar.

: Part of the answer stems from the standard of excellence held by everyone at the restaurant. Our goal is to offer the best, and to show that healthier food doesn't have to be heavy. We are always working to produce lighter, better, and tastier pastries, sweets, and breads, while lowering the content of sugar, fat, and cholesterol.

: Throughout the years, as our techniques in the bakery improved and our palates were refined, our offerings evolved. As we studied more about healthier food and nutrition, we adapted out recipes accordingly. The first year we used a lot of white and brown sugars and dabbled with honey. Year two found us switching to fructose. Year three was our love affair with maple sugar and maple syrup. In year five we began experimenting with natural fruit sweeteners, and by year six we had found the mixed fruit sweetener we still prefer today.

: We've also experimented with different flours, substituting brown rice flour and whole wheat flour for unbleached white flour and using rolled oats and finely ground nuts where possible. We've also lowered the cholesterol in many items by eliminating eggs and dairy products and replacing them with oil, almond or soy milks, or unsweetened applesauce.

: Working with alternative sweeteners and whole grains always puts one's skills to the test. Here I share with you the techniques and tips I've developed over the years, so that you can make your own quality baked goods at home.

Fruit Juice Concentrates ************************ : Natural fruit juice concentrates are an excellent alternative to refined white sugar in baked goods as they give excellent flavour and texture. They contain many micro nutrients, the vitamins and minerals that are necessary for their assimilation and our metabolism. And their flavour is so rich and sweet that it is possible to reduce the total amount of sweetener by at least 50 per cent in any recipe that uses them.

: Fruit juice concentrates are fruit juices evaporated in a high vacuum using low temperatures (the mixtures boil at 110 degree fahrenheit) until they reach a thicker consistency. Fruit concentrates come in a number of flavours and are readily available in the refrigerator section of most natural food stores in pints, quarts, or gallons.

: If you can't find a commercially made fruit sweetener, you can substitute frozen fruit juice concentrates, such as unsweetened apple and orange juice, which are available in almost every grocery store, but you will have to cook them down to concentrate them.

: Here's my general rule for adapting a recipe that calls for sugar: Simply reduce the amount of sugar by half and replace that amount with a concentrated fruit sweetener. You will then have to adjust only your techniques and not the liquid or dry ingredients. If there is a slightly acidic aftertaste in the finished produce, it is from too much sweetener and you can reduce it even more next time.

: Another substitution we have made for refined white sugar is coconut powder to replace powdered sugar. Once the coconut is finely powdered, it is mixed with a little dry milk powder and sifted over pastries to resemble the delicate look of powdered sugar. We also use raisin water (the liquid remaining from plumping raisins) and fruit-sweetened james as other replacements for white sugar.

Submitted By JIM WELLER On 10-09-95

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