Danielle Cochran’s Craveworthy Baking is a unicorn, magical and rare. Finding good, easy recipes that are gluten free or dairy free is harder than you think, and finding both, *throws hands up in despair.* I have not only preordered this book, I have ordered a copy for a friend.
Now I will confess that I’ve taken my attempts at some of the recipes a step further, I made some of them sugar free too. On Sundays I bake for family dinner, and family includes 3 people who need to minimize dairy, two gluten free eaters, and two people who can no longer eat sugar. I have been adapting my cooking to people’s diets for my entire adult life. The combination of dairy free, gluten free and occasionally sugar free has been a challenge.
I started with snickerdoodles, everyone’s favorite cookie. I made one batch exactly as stated in the recipe, and one that was also sugar free (I use a monk fruit erythritol blend that gives baked goods a slightly cooling mouthfeel). Both were delicious. The sugar free cookies were puffier and cakier, but flavor wise equally good.
I made a peach pie using the pie crust recipe and was pleased with the flake. The sparkling water I used was Topo Chico. I meant to taste just the crust to see if the mineral flavor of the Topo Chico transferred, but I was distracted and then there was none left. The strawberry shortcake blondie bars were also a big hit. I appreciated the note that the bars would look underdone, but would firm up. They did look underdone and they were perfect by the time we finished dinner.
At this point, there are still a bunch of recipes I want to try but I’m also convinced that I want this cookbook. I’ll try the cinnamon roll recipe and the flan recipe once I get my hands on the physical book. It’s out on October 1.
I received this as an advance reader copy from Fair Winds Press and NetGalley. My opinions are my own, freely and honestly given.
