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I have been subbing date paste or syrup in place of other sugars/syrups after following Chef AJ…should I swap 1 for 1 in all cases?

Ask Me Anything (Office Hours)

Char Nolan - Ask Me Anything (Office Hours)

Recorded

This event was on October 8, 2024

Join Chef Char Nolan in her virtual office as she welcomes all of your questions. This event was created for you and we encourage you to ask anything – from cooking techniques to course-specific questions, to how to turn your cooking passion into profit or simply hearing the perspective of a professional chef, Chef Nolan is ready to answer them all.

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Question

Mollie Bower

I have been subbing date paste or syrup in place of other sugars/syrups after following Chef AJ…should I swap 1 for 1 in all cases?

Answer

So first I wanted to show you that this is a bottle of date syrup. It's also called silan, S-I-L-A-N. And I have this jar here, and I'm just gonna show you it's a little bit more viscous than, um, maple syrup, but you can see that it is rather thick and viscous. So when you are cooking with any kind of syrup, you have to also consider the other ingredients that you're using using such as your flour and other dry ingredients to that. I spoke to Chef Fran this morning and she does discuss this type of, uh, sweetener cooking in the Essential Vegan desserts program. Her recommendation is to take notes while you are preparing the recipe and see what works and what didn't work, and just keep your notes so that the next time that you go to use it, you'll have some sort of foundation to help you get to the next step of what you're baking. Um, I'm a creature of habit. I either use maple syrup or I use organic maple sugar, which I discussed last week when I was here. So you're a scientist in the kitchen plant-based baking is a terrific skill.

Char Nolan

Chef Instructor

Char Nolan is a serious crusader for plant-based education, armed with a degree in public health from Philadelphia’s Temple University. She teaches nutrition and plant-based cooking throughout Philadelphia, and in many underserved communities. Char holds a certificate in plant-based nutrition from eCornell and completed Rouxbe’s Plant-Based Professional Certification course in 2015. In 2019, Char completed post-graduate course work in social media marketing at the University of the Arts. When she is not cooking or teaching, she manages social media accounts for several plant-based influencers. Char prides herself on learning everything she knows about cooking from growing up in her grandparents’ Italian restaurant. Her favorite vegetables are Brussels sprouts and kale, of course. Char originally hails from Queens, NY, but has lived in Philadelphia most of her adult life. She is a former Peace Corps Volunteer.