Naturally Sweet: Bake All Your Favorites with 30% to 50% Less Sugar (America's Test Kitchen)

I love baking, but do not like all the extra sugar that means consuming, so I tend to reduce the sugar by 1/4 to 1/3 in any recipe that I make. Sometimes the results are good, and sometimes... well, not so good. I am also a big fan of America's Test Kitchen, so naturally when I saw this book I had to buy it. So far I have tried recipes from most of the sections in the book, and for the most part it delivers.The goal of the book is to reduce sugar in their regular recipes by as much as possible, while still having a delicious, satisfying dessert. The first chapter of the book deals with the science behind why this is hard, all of the testing they went through, the tricks they discovered. I would not skip this section, it is important to understand at least a little bit of the science behind baking. One of the most crucial takeaways for me was that honey is not like any other natural sweetener used in the book. Honey is its own separate deal, and so is *not* a good substitute for sugar or maple syrup or other sweeteners.The recipes are laid out much like other ATK recipes, with an explanation at the beginning before getting to the recipe. They hide a lot of tips in these introduction sections, so definitely read them before beginning. Each recipe also includes a before and after sugar count, showing you just how much they were able to cut down the sugar. For many of the recipes, they also include a blurb about substituting the sweetener used in the recipe (usually sucanat) with other sweeteners (coconut sugar or granulated sugar). This is very useful, because I do not have a cheap supply of sucanat or coconut sugar, and unless it's really critical to use sucanat for the success of the recipe, I'd rather not.Okay. So what really matters is how the recipes taste, right? Well here is a list of the recipes I have tried, and my family's opinion of them:* Maple layer cake with maple cream cheese frosting - the cake was moist, plenty sweet, and tasty, though it smelled like pancakes (I guess that makes sense). It used a *lot* of maple syrup, so it wasn't a cheap cake to make. We did not like the frosting. It was gluey and disappointing. I ended up frosting the cake with my usual low-sugar buttercream.* Anise-poppyseed muffins - They were pretty good fresh, but dried out a lot more than regular muffins afterwards. They were only slightly sweet, but my children still enjoyed them and asked me to make them again.* Coconut lime cream pie - This was much more coconut flavored than lime, which was okay, but I was wanting something closer to a key lime pie. The flavor was very mild, almost bland. Also, and this is probably not the recipe's fault, mine didn't set up well. I have never been great at cream pies....* Strawberry chamomile streusel bars - These were delicious. You need to make these.* Maple caramel apples with cinnamon cream - Amazing. Absolutely restaurant quality dessert, I never would have guessed these were low sugar.* Chocolate pudding cake - Deep chocolate flavor, perfectly sweet, amazing texture. Rich and delicious.Bottom line: this is a cookbook well worth owning

This is a great cookbook if you are wanting to learn more about using alternate sugars that are not processed or just want to bake with less sugar/added sugars. I've had it for a couple months and have gotten through much more of this cookbook than many others I own. This is probably due to the wonderful photography for every recipe which has convinced me to try them. The raspberry sorbet was awesome and had a nice tart flavor, we also liked the honey almond coffee cake, Chocolate Creme Pie...We have enjoyed all of the ones we've done except for the lemon squares. I think the target audience is people who like to eat things in their natural/unprocessed state. People who usually drink whole milk or raw milk and aren't worried so much about all the diet rules as much as much as moderation.I think the cinnamon rolls would be better with just regular brown sugar unless you have a really rich coconut palm sugar. Maybe use a South East Asian one not Wholesome's. It just is lacking in flavor. One thing to note, the cinnamon rolls were not too heavy and they only had a 30 minute rise time.The granola is a great base recipe for granola. It sticks together really nice and has a sweet/savory flavor. We make the almond and oat part and then add our own dried fruit when we eat it.The apple danish spirals were beautiful but would be much better with a homemade laminate dough. The store bought puff pastry just isn't that great.The banana creme pie was amazing. It only had 5 TBS. of sucanant and was super easy to make. Decreasing the added sugar allowed the sweetness of the banana to come through. It was rich and a wonderful banana flavor. Just great. Happy baking :)

I like this book a bunch. Most of the recipes use various natural sugar substitutes. Sucanat (67 recipes), Coconut sugar(9 recipes), date sugar (2 recipes), honey (24 recipes), maple syrup (16 recipes), chocolate (11 recipes) and no added sweetener (11 recipes). I can only get sucanat at a health food store and it is quite expensive. Also, sucanat requires use of a spice grinder to make it finer for use.I was a bit disappointed. Then I noticed that each of the recipes with either sucanat or coconut sugar have the granulated sugar substitution also. That makes it more useful for me. I've had the book for a couple weeks and have only made two recipes using regular granulated sugar. Both had 30-50% less sugar than usual recipes and turned out well.I would buy the book knowing about the use of alternative sugars because of the ability to still use granulated sugar. Some of my friends who are more into alternative cooking are really happy about the book. All in all, the techniques are totally accessible, the ingredients are generally available (especially if you live in a larger city) and if you don't mind having to further process the sucanat, it's great.

I haven't cooked anything from the book yet but to me the recipes look great and America's Test Kitchen has never failed me. I will need to go out and buy sucanat and coconut sugar and a spice grinder to cook many of the recipes, but it makes sense with a book of this type that I'll need to get some specialty items. Other reviewers complain about the use of white flour and heavy cream and butter. I agree with the white flour but an easy substitution of wheat flour or wheat pastry flour should work fine in most recipes. For heavy cream, cows milk, and butter, many do support the use of these fats. Anyone following 100 Days of Real Food and Michael Pollan should be happy with this book to make occasional treats as long as they substitute whole wheat for white. Fat is not bad! Fat is very useful tool for anyone who has cut sugar. You can't please all diets but they did what they set out to do - cut sugar. I also love that the book isn't just traditional desserts. It includes some delicious-looking popsicle recipes and some unique fruit desserts, including banana ice cream, which is a go to for low sugar advocates. I do love that there are often substitutions for the specialty sugars, allowing for granulated sugar. For those that want to lower their sugar intake but who aren't following a full real foods diet, that will make the recipes more affordable. Overall I'm exited to try it out, I just wish there was a mash up of this book and Cooking for Two so I could make smaller portions for me and my husband. Guess I'll have to do the math myself!

If you can't have sugar for some reason, I can't, this book is for you. It gives exchanges for sucanet with coconut palm sugar which I can have. This holiday will be filled with yummy happiness.

I've tried many of the recipes and they are all tasty, some very tasty. The book also contains interesting information on alternative sugars and the steps that they took to modify traditional sugar-containing recipes to reduce the overall sugar content.

I have mixed opinions about this lower-sugar cookbook from America's Test Kitchen. The authors do a great job of giving you options when trying to cook lower-sugar recipes in your kitchen. Don't have Sucanat? No problem - the footer of every recipe that calls for Sucanat offers a "Sweetener Substitutions" section, usually involving light brown sugar, coconut sugar, or honey as possible options. Importantly, the test chefs have clearly tested the recipes with these different sweeteners, as different amounts are typically given depending on the sweetener, accounting for differences in taste and behavior during baking.There's a broad selection of different recipes, some are quick and easy, some take a little longer to come together, and some require a little patience while the dough hydrates. Most of the recipes are accompanied by a photo, generally of the finished product, so it's easy to see what you'll be making. As with all ATK recipes, I really appreciate the detailed explanation of why the particular ingredients in the recipe are there and how you'd affect the finished product by swapping them for something else.Unfortunately, I am disappointed to see that while this book has hopped on the lower-sugar food trend, the authors didn't make the decision to use more whole grains, different fats/milks, etc. I realize this is a book specifically about low-sugar baking, but it seems like there's a disconnect between "sugar is bad for you" and "we're going to use healthier sugars but still rely on white flour, heavy cream, and loads of butter". I haven't met very many people who are concerned about their sugar intake but aren't concerned about their empty carb & high fat dairy consumption at the same time. This is particularly true for people who are pre-diabetic or need to be on a low-sugar diet for some other reason. There have been many fantastic cookbooks focused on lower sugar baking that made sensible use of whole/alternative grains and various alternatives to dairy. I hoped this cookbook would join that list, but sadly, it's kind of a one-trick pony.More unfortunately, and the reason I'm giving this cookbook 3 stars, is I've tried two recipes from it tonight - the honey-oat bundt cake and the fudgy chocolate cookies. Both were quite simple to make, the directions were clear and easy to follow, the authors offered great insight into why the recipe called for specific ingredients...BUT...neither product tasted particularly good. I love honey-oat as a flavor, and the cake batter tasted divine, but once it was baked, the flavors were muted and bland, and the cake itself was dry even though I baked it for the bare minimum time (45 minutes). The cookies fared a little better (it's hard to screw up fudgy chocolate cookies), but I would argue that going from 15 g to 9 g of sugar isn't a huge decrease - these are basically bittersweet chocolate fudge cookies that taste fine, are a pain to mix at the end, are prone to rapidly overcooking (mine needed only 8 instead of the 10 called for), and are unlikely to become a family favorite.

I've been a fan of ATK for many, many years. I have cooked and baked a multitude of their recipes-- always with great success. I'm a Type II diabetic cursed with a love of baking. I don't like to bake with artificial sweeteners, so I passed over this cookbook with skepticism for a while. I'm glad I decided to buy this book, because many of the recipes uses sucanat (a new ingredient for me) and coconut sugar (I found it at Trader Joe's). The first recipe I made was the Honey-Almond Coffee Cake that uses 1/2 cup of honey. When I first tasted the batter, I didn't get the hit of sweet that I love. But once I added the honey-almond topping, that was a game changer. So good! Super moist and just sweet enough to appease my wicked sweet tooth. I cannot wait to make more recipes from this cookbook!

My order came very quickly and in perfect shape. I’m happy to add this book to my collection. ATK recipes produce perfect results every time (that is if you are good at following instructions). I made the lemon blueberry tart. It was amazing. My first attempt at making crust (I usually just buy it but this crust was made in the food processor so it was easy peasy) and it turned out beautifully.

I LOVE this book! I have quite a few America's Test Kitchen cookbooks and I watch the shows constantly so I really love what they do. I have made quite a few recipes already and I'm very happy with the results. I appreciate how there are no weird ingredients and no fake sugar at all. It truly is recipes that have had the sugar reduced. I prefer European baking which is usually much less sweet than North American baking. These recipes definitely don't taste sweet at all, more so the flavour of the finished product shines through.

Bonne recettes

Quality recipes, quality book, quality ...what I have come to expect from the American Test Kitchen!

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