Tag Archives: food

Why the extra sugar?

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As many of my friends are aware I am a big fan of honey.  As the son of a second-generation beekeeper, I grew up eating honey in many varieties.  I learned early on that all-natural peanut butter mixed with honey was a great combination, and I have eaten it that way ever since.

I use honey in my tea, I cook with it, and often eat it plain.  In short, I really like honey.

With the major peanut butter companies getting on the bandwagon over the last few years, I am disappointed to see that almost all of them insist on mixing sugar, corn syrup or cane sugar with the peanut butter in addition to honey.  Today while in Wal-mart I noticed a new variety of peanut butter on the shelf and picked it up.  I was drawn to the product labeling which featured a stylized honeybee on the label.  The product was “The Bee’s Knees” by Peanut Butter & Co.  Upon reading the ingredients list, however, I was saddened to see that while the list was short compared to many others, it still included sugar.

I am continually amazed by all the products that use honey and yet insist on adding additional sweeteners to the ingredients.  Of the four different varieties of peanut butter for sale in Valdosta, I found that all of them included sugar, molasses, cane sugar, natural honey flavor (this is NOT real honey) or some combination thereof, in addition to honey itself:

  • The Bee’s Knees – Peanuts, evaporated cane juice, honey, natural honey flavor, palm fruit oil, salt
  • Skippy Peanut Butter Roasted Honey Nut (Creamy and Super Chunk) – Roasted Peanuts, Honey, Sugar, Molasses, Hydrogenated Vegetable Oils (Cottonseed, Soybean and Rapeseed) to Prevent Separation, Salt
  • Peter Pan Honey Roast (Creamy and Chunky) – Peanut Butter [Roasted Peanuts, Sugar, Hydrogenated Vegetable Oils (Cottonseed And Rapeseed), Molasses, Salt, Partially Hydrogenated Cottonseed Oil], Sugar And Honey. Contains: Peanuts
  • Smucker’s Natural Peanut Butter with Honey – Peanuts, Honey, Sugar, Salt.

Now I must admit that the Smucker’s choice is much closer to what I ate as a kid than the others, however it still has that extra sugar involved.  It seems to me that if Smucker’s has been selling natural peanut butter for so many years with the only ingredients being peanuts and salt, then it would have been a snap to just add the honey in and leave it at that.  Why add the extra sugar?

Come on Smucker’s!  Everyone else has joined the “natural” bandwagon that you have been on for years, so why not pave the way to a variety sweetened only with honey?

Aunt Cindy’s Carrot Soufflé

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Here is a recipe that I got from my Aunt Cindy.

Ingredients

  • 1 3/4 pounds of carrots, peeled & chopped
  • 1 cup white sugar
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
  • 3 eggs, beaten
  • 2 teaspoons confectioners’ sugar
  • 1 stick butter

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  2. In a large pot of boiling water, cook carrots until very tender.  Drain and transfer to a large mixing bowl.
  3. While carrots are warm, use an electric mixer to beat with sugar, baking powder, and vanilla extract until smooth.  Mix in the flour, eggs, and butter.  Transfer to a 2-quart baking dish.
  4. Bake 1 hour in the preheated oven, or until top is golden brown.
  5. Sprinkle lightly with confectioners sugar before serving.

Images

Ingredients gathered
The ingredients

The ingredients mixed together.
Everything mixed in the bowl

Out of the oven
The finished product

Notes

  • The confectioner’s sugar is optional, I personally think that it is sweet enough without the sugar coating.
  • When incorporating the butter into the mix, it works best to blend it in using small chunks instead of adding the entire stick at once.  I use quarter-stick chunks.
  • If you are going to be refrigerating this, use plastic wrap and press the wrap down into the casserole dish to contact the top of the food.  This will help keep the moisture in the dish as well as prevent a skin from forming.
  • When cooking this, resist the temptation to check it.  Soufflés can deflate or fall when they are disturbed during cooking.  As Alton would say Just set it and walk away.

The first time I made this I followed the instructions to a T, but this time I was making it with an eye towards someone who has a gluten allergy.  In researching the flour substitution, I did find that some people take the time to mill their own gluten free flour, but this was beyond my particular skill set.  What I ended up using was a gluten-free all purpose baking mix from Arrowhead Mills.