Consumer Critique: Cooking without Butter, Sugar, or White Flour

Do you or does someone in your family have health issues such as diabetes or lactose intolerance, meaning you can't use butter or sugar in cooking? Or are you just looking for ways to reduce your families intake of refined carbs, sugar, or butter? When I first heard that there were two cookbooks by Emily Rose, Have Your Cake and Healthy Home Cooking for Kids, I was a little skeptical about the types of recipes and how they'd taste - and how she'd avoid things that are often staples of cooking and baking.

If you're looking for a cookbook full of gluten-free recipes, just because there's no flour included - or sweetener-free recipes, because there's no flour - this won't provide. There are some recipes that are completely flourless or sweetener-free, but many of them simply provide other healthful substitutions, such as whole-wheat flour for white and honey for sweetener (which does have a lower glycemic index than sugar, so it is seen by many as a better substitute).

The cookbook comes in Kindle format, which can also be read on laptops and smartphones (so it's not just for those with Kindles). There are lots of delicious-sounding recipes, and I got a sample of the book that includes some of them. The ones I tried taste great - you can't tell that there's no sugar or butter in them. They do taste a little bit different than the "traditional" versions of recipes, but not better or worse, just different.

The cookbook is easy to read and has beautiful pictures illustrating each recipe. The beginning also includes good ingredients to have in your pantry, and ten helpful cooking tips.

To learn a little more about the cookbook author, feel free to read the Q&A here:

Q. What prompted you to write the two cookbooks?
A. Just over 3 years ago I began checking the back of bought ingredients to avoid purchasing foods with lots of additives and ingredients with numbers. I found that there wasn’t much available in the dessert department. I then began baking at home some of my mom’s recipes, however I didn’t feel comfortable feeding my children so much sugar. So I decided to see if I could make a healthy chocolate chip cookie with no butter, no white flour and no added sugar, however my challenge was that I wanted it to still look and taste like a ‘normal’ chocolate chip cookie. We were all surprised when, after a few tries, they did. I began experimenting with other recipes and quickly learnt that as honey and whole wheat flour are a lot denser than sugar and white flour, I needed to add other ingredients such as coconut, almond meal or orange juice to lighten the treats and give them more flavor.
When the kids and their friends were loving my new recipes—so much so that my children were taking extra snacks to school for their friends—I decided to write a cookbook so that I could share my recipes with others. This led to my first cookbook HAVE YOUR CAKE. Shortly after it was published I received lots of emails requesting meals as well, which led to HEALTHY HOME COOKING FOR KIDS.

Q. In both of your books you offer recipes that are free of butter, sugar and white flour. Aren’t these normal to make baked goods taste good?
A. Yes, all those ingredients do make baked goods taste delicious. However all those ingredients can have negative effects on the health of our bodies. Particularly sugar, which can lead to many health issues such as obesity and tooth decay. For me, it’s great to know that there is an alternative for my children and that they can still have delicious foods, even sweets that are made without those ingredients.

Q. Why is honey a good substitute for sugar? Isn’t it harder to mix in than sugar?
A. Honey is a great substitute for sugar, as you only need to use small amounts to achieve the same level of sweetness as sugar. It is also less processed than sugar, especially raw honey, which is pure and unprocessed and therefore retains all of its vitamins and nutrients. Honey is easy to use in the recipes. I always dissolve it first in the wet ingredients, the eggs or oil, before adding the dry ingredients.

Q. Your book, HEALTHY HOME COOKING FOR KIDS has a wide range of recipes and includes popular dishes like Pizza. How can Pizza be healthy?
A. The pizza recipe uses a whole wheat Lebanese flatbread as a base that contains no preservatives or additives and is topped with a homemade Napoli sauce, made from tomatoes, basil and other healthy ingredients, and fresh mozzarella cheese. You can top with other ingredients such as mushrooms, black olives, or fresh pineapple, all of which are good for you.

Q. In HAVE YOUR CAKE, you claim that most recipes take just ten minutes to prepare. How do you put them together so quickly?
A. Most recipes are made using just a whisk and a bowl, and of course measuring cups! Occasionally I will use a hand beater. There’s no sifting of flour or complicated methods. I add all the wet ingredients and mix and then add the dry ingredients and mix. The only recipes that are a little more time consuming are the tarts because you have to allow time to chill the pastry and then to ‘blind bake’ the pastry before you add the filling. However it’s still easy to prepare the pastry, just using a bowl and a blunt knife.

Q. Are the ingredients in your book difficult to obtain?
A. Most ingredients will be available at the supermarket. In America, rice bran oil is available in gourmet markets, health food stores and online.

Q. You use rice bran oil instead of butter. Why is it better?
A. Rice bran oil has 20 percent saturated fat as compared to butter, which has 54 percent saturated fat. Rice bran oil is also trans fat free. Foods high in saturated fats and trans fats can increase the risk of heart disease. Rice bran oil also has a high smoke point, so you can heat it at high temperatures without ruining the quality of the oil.

Q. What are some of the benefits of cooking with your kids?
A. Cooking with your kids is a great way to get your kids to taste new foods. Often when I am cooking, my kids also snack on the different ingredients that I am using for the recipe. I always find that the more involved my kids are in the cooking process the more likely they are to eat the end result. It’s also a great way to spend time with your kids, letting them pour in ingredients and mix the bowl. When my kids lick the bowl I always know the recipe is going to be a success.
Cooking with your kids using healthy ingredients is also a great way to educate them about what foods are good for them.

Disclosure: I received samples of the ebooks to facilitate this review.