Milk Alternatives in Baking

Linda Cicero's Cook's Corner column in the Miami Herald had a solid tip about using soy milk as a substitute for milk in baking.

Q: I recently started using soy milk, and I've gotten used to it in coffee, but don't know if I can use it in my baking or even in something like instant pudding. Do you have suggestions?

S.K.

A: Instant pudding must need dairy proteins to set up properly. I tried using less soy milk than the package calls for -- 1 ½ cups rather than 2 -- and produced a pudding-like consistency.

My vegetarian daughter says she has been making pudding -- though not instant -- with soy milk, rice milk and almond milk for years using recipes that call for cow's milk. The same goes for muffins, cakes and cookies. She notes that rice milk is a bit sweeter and almond adds a bit of flavor. She recommends soy cream, which is thicker (find it near the refrigerated coffee creamers) for sauces like alfredo or scalloped potatoes.

Olive Oil Baking

What made a barbarian barbaric? People in Greece and Rome in the ancient days found almost anything that the northerners did to be less than appealing, but their habit of using smelly butter instead of olive oil, the gift from the gods, was almost unbearable to the sophisticated southerners.

Go to an Italian restaurant today and the better ones - or the ones that want you to think they're better - provide a plate of olive oil, often delicately spiced, for dipping the bread in. Butter needs to be asked for.

So why not substitute olive oil for butter in baking as well? It's mostly a matter of chemistry, olive oil producing results that require some adaptation and experience in changing amounts and cooking times.

Olive Oil Baking: Healthy Recipes That Increase Good Cholesterol and Reduce Saturated Fats, by Lisa A. Sheldon, tries to be the guide you need to work your way through the change.

Product Description
Recent media attention has focused on research showing the health benefits of a Mediterranean-style diet. Olive Oil Baking is a unique addition to the growing selection of Mediterranean diet cookbooks, applying the lessons learned from this research to familiar desserts.

The focus of Olive Oil Baking is the whys and how-tos of substituting olive oil and other healthy oils and fats in favorite desserts and treats that typically use margarine and/or butter. These recipes also introduce other simple changes and options that make them healthier than traditional recipes and store-bought bakery goods. In every case, these changes preserve or improve on the familiar tastes, smells, and textures we have come to expect from a baker's kitchen.

Olive Oil Baking is not just another pretty face in the crowd of dessert cookbooks. In addition to more than 120 recipes for healthy, irresistible cookies, bars, and other desserts, it helps home bakers learn how to make healthy changes in their favorite recipes without sacrificing flavor or texture. It presents techniques and tips that show how to make healthy changes in cooking that do not require families to adopt a new diet or eat foods they won't enjoy. It is filled with recipes that are simple to prepare, using easy-to-find ingredients that are within any budget.

Olive Oil Baking is for anyone who enjoys baking, from the novice to the experienced baker. An indispensable reference for traditional home bakers who want to make healthy changes in the family diet, it can also help small-scale bakeries interested in offering fresher, healthier alternatives to their customers, in contrast to the mass-produced "low fat" cookies and treats found on supermarket shelves.

Jennifer Gish of the Albany Times-Union put the book to the recipe test.

We tested two recipes from the book -- chocolate chip cookies and apple crisp -- which we figured would best test olive oil's skill as a butter stand-in.

The apple crisp features an oatmeal crumb topping that utilizes 1/2 cup of olive oil. The texture of the apple crisp was the same, and the taste was good, although that creamy butter flavor was noticeably absent. The recipe also called for baking the dessert in a 9-by-13-inch pan, which was a little wide and kept the apple crisp from standing tall.

The chocolate chip cookies -- called "Classic Chocolate Chippers" in the book -- were similar to a traditional chocolate chip cookie in texture and thickness and pretty close in taste. Because the flavor of the cookie dough was a little weak, the chocolate chips tended to overpower.

As for appearance, Sheldon says olive oil baked goods can sometimes be a little paler than their buttery counterparts, but we realized that baking them on the oven's middle rack or higher helps them brown up nicely.

She also has some advice for those who want to go beyond the book and try some adaptations of their own.

Avoid recipes that call for more than 1/2 cup of butter. Use a combination of half butter, half olive oil for those. Any extra virgin olive oil will work, not just light olive oil. Expect that recipes will take longer to bake.

Manischewitz Dairy-Free Chocolate and Vanilla Frostings

OK, you probably never heard of the R.A.B. Food Group. But they are probably the biggest name in kosher foods. They own Rokeach, Mother's, Mrs. Adler's, Goodman's and many others.

And Manischewitz.


Which is filling a tremendous need in the dairy-free community by introducing Dairy-Free Rich & Creamy Vanilla Frosting and Dairy-Free Rich & Creamy Chocolate Frosting to go along with their pareve Extra Moist Yellow Cake Mix and Extra Moist Chocolate Cake Mix.

Those with dairy allergies who were disappointed that Duncan Hines discontinued its line of dairy-free cakes mixes now have something to turn to.

And the frostings, they say, are the only dairy-free frostings on the market. They're sold in a 12 ounce re-sealable canister with a suggested retail price of $2.29.

Beware Whey Low

A sugar substitute that is low is calories and has no aftertaste sounds like an achievement. But what if one of its ingredients is lactose?



Lee Zehner, who holds a doctorate in chemistry, developed Whey Low after his wife, Sue, was diagnosed with diabetes in 1999, wrote Rosalie Robles Crowe in the Arizona Daily Star.

He makes it out of sucrose, fructose and lactose because he:

theorized that if the three sugars could be formulated the right way, they wouldn't be fully absorbed by the body, thereby making the sugar more healthful. Not only that, it would eliminate the gastrointestinal problems that often accompany the use of sugar alcohols.

The chemistry of Whey Low is interesting:

"There is an interaction among the three sugars that prevents the sucrose and lactose from being fully absorbed in the small intestine."

Basically, that's where nutrients are broken down and absorbed into the body, he said, adding, "If it doesn't happen there, it doesn't happen."

Instead, the sucrose and the lactose pass into the large intestine, which contains good and bad bacteria.

"Lactose is known to feed the good bacteria, forcing out the bad bacteria. Meanwhile, sucrose is simply consumed by all bacteria," Zehner said.

This reads to me as if Whey Low dumps undigested lactose into the large intestine. True, those people with the right bacteria may not experience any symptoms. But a good many of us with lactose intolerance do not have the "good" bacteria.

Whey Low is just beginning to reach the market.

Retail stores, mostly in the East and Midwest, are beginning to stock Whey Low. A few commercial bakeries and other such companies also are using it in their products.

Worse, you'll find it in some restaurants, such as Rock Creek Restaurant in Bethesda, MD.

On the Whey Low FAQ page, they address lactose intolerance:

8. Is the milk sugar (lactose) in Whey Low® problematic for lactose-intolerant individuals?

The small amount of milk sugar in Whey Low® has not caused any problems of which we are aware. The three lactose-intolerant consumers in our Consumer Survey reported no gastrointestinal disturbances at all from the use of Whey Low®. Lactose-intolerant people can ingest as much as a single dose of 12 grams of lactose per day (equivalent to the lactose in one 8-oz. glass of milk) without any symptoms, according to Suarez FL, Savaiano DA, and Levitt MD, N Engl J Med. 1995 Jul 6;333(1):1-4. Normal daily consumption of Whey Low® as a tabletop sweetener should not cause any problem for lactose-intolerant individuals.

It's obviously true that the small amount of lactose in a single packet of sweetener is probably not an issue for most people with lactose intolerance, just as the amount of lactose in a single pill is not an issue.

I am concerned, though, that the amount used in baking may add up. And the oral testimony of three people is worthless as an actual test measure.

My conditional advice, therefore, is to avoid Whey Low or use it very sparingly to see what it's effects will be.

And the same holds true for people with dairy allergies. Pure crystalline lactose should contain no dairy proteins, and those who are not known to be anaphylactic to dairy probably will not have any reaction to it. As always, though, be very cautious.