Sweet Without Sugar: Ice Cream That's Good For You

Biographical Note:
Les Starks makes great-tasting, nutritious recipes with simple, quality ingredients. He met Craig Claiborne while working as an artist for TV and film in Los Angeles. The New York Times Food editor encouraged him to pursue his interest in food professionally, and after moving to Palm Springs, Starks taught cooking classes and was personal chef and assistant to rock legend Eric Burdon. He began experimenting with using almonds and stevia to make ice cream in the 1990s. This book is the result of that endeavor.

Publisher Marketing:
Ice Cream gets completely re-imagined in a new book about combining nutritious ingredients in innovative ways. Sweet without Sugar, Ice Cream that's Good for You is a step by step guide to making ice cream sweetened entirely with stevia, a super-sweet tasting herb with many health benefits and zero calories. Can you replace ice cream with something nutritious and sugar-free that tastes just as good? Sweet without Sugar is destined to fully realize the concept. Recipes were specifically designed with ingredients stevia enhances as a sweetener. Almonds that have been soaked in water then frozen replace the milk and egg ingredients in conventional ice cream, and stevia replaces the sugar. Making it requires a Vitamix blender. The directions are simple and easy to use, and after you've prepared the almonds, the machine does most of the work. The almonds, liquid ingredients, coconut oil and stevia are blended into a rich, thick cream that gets transformed into ice cream by adding frozen fruit or ice or both, and blending. The secret is knowing exactly how to do it and the detailed instructions are clear and easy to follow. It's easy to make and unbelievable how close this combination of frozen fruit and a few ingredients is to the real thing. The texture is rich and creamy like gelato. The stevia gives it a light, clear sweetness that accentuates the tartness of the fruit making it more fresh tasting than conventional ice cream. The flavor of the fruit blended with the almonds and other ingredients creates a smooth creamy texture and a delicious fresh taste that could never be duplicated in commercially made ice cream. Rather than being a disadvantage, the absence of sugar actually improves the flavor. Stevia, with these ingredients, is a light, refreshingly sweet taste, compared to the sweetness of conventional ice cream. Fruits that compliment one another are combined for rich, intense tasting flavors: Cherry Lime, Blueberry Lemon, Strawberry Tangerine, Cherry Chocolate, Grapefruit Strawberry, Raspberry Lime. The sweet and tart flavor of fresh fruit blended with the creamy almonds and other ingredients gives it a great flavor and consistency. This is ice cream with the unmistakable purity and true flavor of the ingredients. The book is about using a machine to get the maximum flavor and texture out of a few simple wholesome ingredients. In a category all by itself, it's ice cream in name only, reinvented as a healthy frozen dessert made entirely without sugar or artificial ingredients of any kind. It's almonds, fruit or cocoa and other spices artfully combined and quickly processed in a Vitamix that would be a healthy addition to any meal. Sweet without Sugar creates expanded opportunities for healthy eating. Ice Cream That's Good for You is a desirable replacement for our favorite unhealthy indulgence simply because it tastes so good. It could have a profound and far reaching effect for diabetics, pre-diabetics and anyone following a low carb or lactose free diet. Since it is essentially just blended frozen fruit or juice, coconut oil, almonds, ice and flavoring, it could be enjoyed with any meal or used as a nutritious and fun to eat breakfast. Chocolate, Vanilla, and many other flavors would make the ideal low carbohydrate dessert. The book is also bound to appeal to health conscious vegetarians, vegans and anyone following a raw food diet. Nutritionally complete organic food products without sugar, artificial additives and flavorings are almost nonexistent in today's food market. The best alternative is always making it ourselves. Sweet without Sugar is an easy to use guide to making high quality nutritious ice cream that tastes just as good or better than any commercially manufactured product we will ever be able to buy at the grocery store..