baking: does it come easily to you?

Oh sorry to hear that! I didn't realize that Swerve is erythritrol, I use it regularly without incident but clearly different strokes etc. Would using overripe bananas be possible? Obviously that's sugar but also comes with a fair bit of vitamins and minerals, though you'd have to juggle proportions of the rest of your ingredients accordingly.

yeah swerve is like a combo of erythritol and other stuff

bananas may def be an option although i may need a few more tools since they do kinda limit you in terms of flavor

You can get pure monkfruit powder and liquid drops and I can attest it is a pain to deal with and you use such a tiny amount that it throws recipes off. I basically stopped baking when Mr. Jaq got the type 2 diagnosis so I wouldn't be contributing to his downfall. So now I bake favorites only very infrequently.

I do use Just Better fiber (corn based soluble fiber) in my coffee for the prebiotic factor but the bag says you can sub it for up to half the sugar in baking. So maybe it might be of use?

Hmm also maybe see how you respond to tapioca syrup or Vitafiber syrup (made from either corn or peas) - both much lower carb and glycemic index sweeteners with no sugar alcohols. You could bake with them if you reduce the liquid in the recipe you use.

thanks for the advice jaq! i will investigate those

it definitely seems like very infrequent “special occasion only” baking is going to be my new normal :(

One more: look up the various keto egg loaf recipes. You basically blend eggs and softened cream cheese into a batter. I've baked it in a loaf pan, sliced, toasted, and eaten with ChocZero maple syrup for keto french toast and baked it in a cast iron skillet with sausages dropped in and some mustard powder added to the batter for keto toad. Might hit some of the baking target.

oh interesting! thx

Is bread flour appropriate for quick bread (in this case a cheddar Jalapeno bread)?

sure, it'll work

Cream of Tartar, yuck.

I’m thinking of making my own sourdough starter but after some initial searching all the recipes I’ve seen say to start with whole wheat and feed with all purpose. Can I feed with whole wheat too? It’s all that I have.

Yes, it'll be fine!

Awesome, thanks!

have been preparing meals for my pops and his wife lately, she is gluten intolerant (sometimes she is tolerant I guess? she drinks beer so I dunno who knows) but I discovered Brazilian Sequilhos which has been a big hit, corn starch + condensed milk + butter

and then whatever else, have incorporated lemon/almond extract, and actual lemon/almond, tastes like a fancy sugar cookie, peanut butter/chocolate turns it into a more traditional cookie but anyway super simple and easy and delicious cookie base even if you don't care where the starch came from

Recipe pls!

worth experimenting with ratios but basically

1/2 cup room temp butter (~1 stick)
1/2 cup condensed milk (~half adorable lil can of the stuff)
~1 cup corn starch

350 for 10-15mins, 15-20 cookies

have been eyeballing the corn starch, erring on the conservative side yields a spread out/crispy caramelized edges thing while bumping it up makes a tighter dough, shortbread/Pfeffernusse territory

lately I split the dough in half, dash of lemon/almond extract/sliced almonds with a lemon juice/confectioners sugar icing on one pan and then vanilla extract/spoonful peanut butter/crushed peanut/chocolate on the other

So I figured I haven't done anything weird in a while, and so I decided to try to make chocolate chip cookies with prunes.

i would eat those! (i love prunes)

how did they turn out?

Texture was off and they weren't quite sweet enough, but not bad considering it's a first attempt! They weren't very airy so I'll probably reduce the number of prunes or bump up the baking soda. I was inspired by a base/crust I made once with prunes and walnuts, which I remember being pretty chewy.

Did you purée the prunes or just dump them in whole/chopped?

Pureed. Chopped would've been like big raisin chunks.

Which I think I would like actually!

prunes cut into small oieces would help the cookies to rise more, puree would make them too moist imo

Moisture of chopped pieces giving off steam and creating air pockets?

roll em in flour

Moisture of chopped pieces giving off steam and creating air pockets?

I tried making these at my wife's request (she saw the recipe online): https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1018450-pistachio-rose-and-strawberry-buns

Did not get the dough to come out right, it didn't rise as much as it should. Still tasted OK, and the filling is very good. Two things, though — to some degree it just tastes like a fancy peanut-butter-jelly sandwich; and there is evidently no way to puree pistachios for "pistachio cream" and not have the resulting mix look kinda like poop lol.