FAQ

This will be a growing list, so if you have a question, feel free to leave a question in the comments and I'll do my best to answer it. I've removed the email contact at this time due to spam.

How accurate are the Nutritional Facts you sometimes post?

I use a program called MasterCook to create my recipes, and within that program there is a nutrition fact calculator based on the exact ingredients I list when creating the recipe. This means that the "facts" may vary depending upon the type of ingredient(s) you use. If you follow the recipe, and use the same ingredients, then it should be accurate.

Only a few of the recipes currently have Nutritional Facts. This is due to time, and that I don't have a lot of it. 

Do you use salted or unsalted butter in your recipes? 

I always use unsalted butter. This is a personal preference for both taste, and as a way to cut out unnecessary salt from the diet. Sometimes I'll use Earth Balance Vegan Buttery Sticks-almost the same exact taste, but a vegan alternative.

Why do you prefer dark cocoa to regular? 

I prefer the taste of dark chocolate to a lighter version, so other than with chocolate chips, whenever I'm using cocoa or chocolate in a recipe, there's a 90% chance it is dark, unless stated otherwise.

Do you always use skim (non-fat) milk?

Yes, again a personal preference. I've never found that a recipe which calls for milk cannot use skim milk rather than full-fat or even reduced-fat.  Having said that, I will sometimes mix a quart of powdered milk if I'm baking a lot. I do this because I buy organic milk and it can get pricey if I'm baking all day. When I list buttermilk, I'm using buttermilk or heavy cream, I'm generally using the highest quality of what I can get at the local market. On occasion I might use powdered buttermilk when creating a dry mix.

Do you ever use a mix as a base for a recipe? 

Not unless I made the mix. I like homemade because I prefer to know what's going in my food. 

Is making everything from scratch more cost-effective than buying ready-made? 

I can't answer that for everyone because costs will differ from region to region. I've done both ways (college-years), and I find that with as much baking and cooking as I do, it's more cost-effective to purchase ingredients I can use in multiple recipes rather than a box of something I can only use once. Each person would have to determine what works best for them and their budget. 

What brand of sugar do you use? 
I use Wholesome Sweeteners Fair Trade Organic Sugar because I can buy 10-pound bags at Costco. I prefer the taste and quality of the sugar, but keep in mind that any recipe in which I use sugar, regular granulated sugar works just as well. For brown sugar, I also buy this at Costco and I use C&H brand, again because of the quality. When I want to use a sugar substitute, I use Truvia, though I don't do this often. There is a taste difference between Truvia and regular sugar, but it's my preferred alternative when I need to bake a sugar-free (or no-sugar-added) dish.

Here's a little something about brown sugar from the C&H website: 
Brown cane sugar is a natural combination of sugar and molasses, refined without any added colorings, flavorings or coatings. Formed using the traditional method of crystallization, each C&H® brown sugar crystal is brown all the way through. If cane sugar is not specified on the label, the sugar may be beet sugar. What beet sugar makers call “brown sugar” starts out as white sugar crystals that are then sprayed with a brown coating.