Knowledge Base > Fran Costigan - Refreshing Fruit Desserts
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Fran Costigan - Refreshing Fruit Desserts
This event was on
Tuesday, July 16, 2024 at 1:00 pm Pacific, 4:00 pm Eastern
Join Chef Fran Costigan, Rouxbe Director of Vegan Pastry, for an enticing, interactive presentation in which she will explore the vibrant world of summer fruit desserts! From juicy b… Read More.
Question:
![Anne E](/assets/users/default_thumbnail-c14152f0fe89cae1cce32e15cdc92f426d801796f87b61f4bb21b89f4b1704ab.jpg)
Is monkfruit a suitable sugar alternative for baking cakes, pies, cobblers, etc.?
— Anne Erdfelt
Answer:
What are monk fruit is a class of sweet of sugar that is called a non-Sugar. Sugar, that's what they're called. And I don't like them at all. I don't like using them. And more and more information is coming out about them being actually harmful to your health. I know that, again, I'm gonna talk about Dr. Gregor. He, he liked erythritol, that's what it was. And he has now put out a statement saying no, because it seems to be causing perhaps some heart problems. There's no free ride. I would rather use make a no sugar dessert for people who cannot have any added sugar or as Chef Char knows. And my friend Kathy Gold, who is on this call, chef Kathy knows I serve a smaller piece of something that tastes really good and fill the plate out with fruit. And that's what I did. So you've got this Rouxbe Live event to look at Monk fruit. Many, many, many years ago when it was just starting to be used or people didn't know how to use it. I was hired by a corporation to do some recipe testing and this white powder came to my home and it was awful. You can't use it one for one. And it has an aftertaste and it's really not monk fruit sweetener. It's from a berry called Lohan. And in order to get the really vile taste out of it, and there is thinking that like quinoa has a taste that has to be washed out, that's to keep the birds off, it has to be so highly processed. So I don't like using that. I don't like using any of them. I'm going away on, I'm going away this week. I'll be the guest cooking teacher in TE Mexico at a wonderful, wonderful resort called Ranch Rancho Lata. And they, everything comes out of the organic gardens and they have, next to the beverages, they have Stevia leaves. Now I don't use Stevia again because it's so highly processed, but I use those leaves to sweeten my drinks.
Links:
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