EdibWasa Winter 2012 : Page 14

by Amy Thompson illustration by Clayton Thompson E ach year we try to make our holiday celebrations just a little simpler, a little slower, a little saner. It’s so easy to get swept up in the holiday madness: the whirlwind of parties, the decorating, the shopping, always the shopping, and all this while on a steady dose of high-octane holiday treats! Connie Bennet, author of Sugar Shock! calls sugar, “mood-damaging, personality-bending, health-destroying, [and] con-fusion-creating.” Kids are particularly susceptible to becoming over-stimulated, sugared up, exhausted, and finally cranky and miserable. And there’s nothing merry about that! Avoiding sugar during the holiday season can seem near as impossible as avoiding holiday music on the radio or bell-ring-ing Santas on the street corners, but you can certainly create an proactive plan to minimize the damage. In our home we cook plenty of treats so no one feels deprived. Holiday is, after all, a joyful time of year and we love to celebrate with food. We concoct all manner of sweet treats using only honey, molasses and occasionally a less refined sugar such as Sucanat–which is evaporated cane sugar cane juice. When we are out and about we try not to be uptight about avoiding sugar altogether. Holiday treats are almost always made and offered in love, and so we teach our children to graciously accept, but not overindulge. And we train ourselves not to be uptight on the occasion that they do. One of the wonderful benefits of limiting the more refined holiday treats is a greater feeling of peace, health and calm, and of course, a trimmer waistline with the arrival of the new year. We find that when we’re making a mindful effort to keep our bodies still and balanced internally, that the feeling extends into other areas of our lives. It becomes easier to say no to the deluge of commercialism, to decline social invitations in favor of quiet evenings spent at home with the family, and to be grateful for gifts of time and love, and the opportunity to reflect on the meaning behind the merriment. The following recipe is a family favorite that satisfies the craving for a sweet treat without the sugar-hangover. We also enjoy baked apples, and homemade hot chocolate sweetened with honey and sprinkled with cinnamon. I find that most recipes can be adapted to contain all or a good part whole wheat. Spelt has a lighter consistency and can be a more convincing substitute for white flour. Sucanat can be swapped for white sugar in most recipes. It may affect the color a bit and has a deeper, richer flavor, but certainly isn’t an undesirable taste. Honey is a little trickier because it is liquid, but I’ve had quite a bit of success using honey in reci-pes and reducing the amount of other liquids. If you don’t expect identical results and can be a bit fearless in adapting recipes, you just might come up with some new favorite family recipes.

The Progressive Pioneer

Amy Thompson

Honey Sweet Holiday Illustration By Clayton Thompson Each year we try to make our holiday celebrations just a little simpler, a little slower, a little saner. It's so easy to get swept up in the holiday madness: the whirlwind of parties, the decorating, the shopping, always the shopping, and all this while on a steady dose of high-octane holiday treats! Connie Bennet, author of Sugar Shock! calls sugar, "mood-damaging, personality-bending, health-destroying, [and] confusion-creating." Kids are particularly susceptible to becoming over-stimulated, sugared up, exhausted, and finally cranky and miserable. And there's nothing merry about that! Avoiding sugar during the holiday season can seem near as impossible as avoiding holiday music on the radio or bell-ringing Santas on the street corners, but you can certainly create an proactive plan to minimize the damage. In our home we cook plenty of treats so no one feels deprived. Holiday is, after all, a joyful time of year and we love to celebrate with food. We concoct all manner of sweet treats using only honey, molasses and occasionally a less refined sugar such as Sucanat–which is evaporated cane sugar cane juice. When we are out and about we try not to be uptight about avoiding sugar altogether. Holiday treats are almost always made and offered in love, and so we teach our children to graciously accept, but not overindulge. And we train ourselves not to be uptight on the occasion that they do. One of the wonderful benefits of limiting the more refined holiday treats is a greater feeling of peace, health and calm, and of course, a trimmer waistline with the arrival of the new year. We find that when we're making a mindful effort to keep our bodies still and balanced internally, that the feeling extends into other areas of our lives. It becomes easier to say no to the deluge of commercialism, to decline social invitations in favor of quiet evenings spent at home with the family, and to be grateful for gifts of time and love, and the opportunity to reflect on the meaning behind the merriment. The following recipe is a family favorite that satisfies the craving for a sweet treat without the sugar-hangover. We also enjoy baked apples, and homemade hot chocolate sweetened with honey and sprinkled with cinnamon. I find that most recipes can be adapted to contain all or a good part whole wheat. Spelt has a lighter consistency and can be a more convincing substitute for white flour. Sucanat can be swapped for white sugar in most recipes. It may affect the color a bit and has a deeper, richer flavor, but certainly isn't an undesirable taste. Honey is a little trickier because it is liquid, but I've had quite a bit of success using honey in recipes and reducing the amount of other liquids. If you don't expect identical results and can be a bit fearless in adapting recipes, you just might come up with some new favorite family recipes. Molasses Spice Cookies These cookies are delicious plain or rolled in a little Sucanat to be extra fancy. The dough is also sturdy enough that if you chill it, it can be rolled out and cut into shapes and decorated, perhaps even to make the walls and roof of a small gingerbread house. For frosting, try blending cane sugar in a high-power blender to make your own powdered sugar. You can use it in any regular frosting recipe. 1 cup Sucanat or Rapadura 3/4 cup butter 1 egg 1/4 cup molasses 2 cups whole wheat flour 2 teaspoons baking soda 1/4 teaspoon salt 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon 1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger 3/4 teaspoon ground cloves About 1/4 cup Sucanat or Rapadura for rolling (optional) Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Cream the Sucanat and butter in your mixer. Add in the egg and molasses. In a separate bowl mix together all the dry ingredients. Add the dry ingredients to the mixer a bit at a time, mixing until everything is incorporated. Grease the cookie sheets and place spoonfuls of dough, loosely rolled into balls (it shouldn't stick to your hands, just give it a quick roll between your palms to make the cookies uniform and pretty) onto the cookie sheet. Bake for 10-12 minutes. The cookies will be soft when you press with your finger, this is okay. Let them cool on a cookie rack. If you're decorating, I suggest pressing nuts and dried fruit bits into the still warm dough. Once the cookies set up a bit, the decorations should stay well enough in place. For a gingerbread house, consider using a little cream cheese mixed with honey, or powdered Sucanat or cane sugar to hold the decorations on. Pretty, gem-like bits of dried fruit (papaya, pineapple, cranberries, blueberries etc.) would look lovely decorating a little edible cottage.

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