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Lab journal: chocolate things
Mar. 7th, 2008 10:01 pmSo, to review...
The first time we tried making these,
I substituted erythritol for the sugar, unsweetened chocolate for the semisweet, and almond meal for the all-purpose flour. The result was a decent cupcake, but far from the crusty-topped, molten-centered thing in the pictures.
The second time, I followed the recipe to the letter (I didn't have "superfine" or "caster" sugar, so I used half-and-half granulated and powdered), and it came out as a crusty-topped, molten-centered thing like in the pictures. The crusty top looked more like brownie than creme brulee, but I'm not complaining. It was heavenly, though perhaps a bit on the sweet side.
The third time, I replaced the 3/8 cup of "superfine" or "caster" sugar in the (halved) recipe with 1/8 cup granulated sugar and 1/8 cup powdered erythritol, but left all the other ingredients unchanged. The result was a decent cupcake, scorched on the edges of the top (although I thought I had baked it for the same time at the same temperature as before).
Conclusion: the sugar really is necessary, or at least erythritol isn't a good substitute for it in this application. Next time, try real sugar, but substitute the flour (and, as![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
minstrlmummr suggests, reduce the baking time a bit for the nut flour). Then maybe try reducing the sugar, replacing some of it with a different artificial sweetener (e.g. maltitol seems to work pretty well for baking applications).
The first time we tried making these,
I substituted erythritol for the sugar, unsweetened chocolate for the semisweet, and almond meal for the all-purpose flour. The result was a decent cupcake, but far from the crusty-topped, molten-centered thing in the pictures.
The second time, I followed the recipe to the letter (I didn't have "superfine" or "caster" sugar, so I used half-and-half granulated and powdered), and it came out as a crusty-topped, molten-centered thing like in the pictures. The crusty top looked more like brownie than creme brulee, but I'm not complaining. It was heavenly, though perhaps a bit on the sweet side.
The third time, I replaced the 3/8 cup of "superfine" or "caster" sugar in the (halved) recipe with 1/8 cup granulated sugar and 1/8 cup powdered erythritol, but left all the other ingredients unchanged. The result was a decent cupcake, scorched on the edges of the top (although I thought I had baked it for the same time at the same temperature as before).
Conclusion: the sugar really is necessary, or at least erythritol isn't a good substitute for it in this application. Next time, try real sugar, but substitute the flour (and, as
minstrlmummr suggests, reduce the baking time a bit for the nut flour). Then maybe try reducing the sugar, replacing some of it with a different artificial sweetener (e.g. maltitol seems to work pretty well for baking applications).
