Questions?

Do have questions about sugar-free, gluten-free baking? Check out the Frequently Asked Questions.

Do you want in depth explanations of the ingredients I use in Healthy Indulgences recipes? Check out the Ingredients Guide. 

Do you want to know what exactly “sugar-free” means? Here‘s your answer!

If you have any other questions, please leave a comment down below, or over at the Facebook page. Happy baking!

Disclaimer: The answers to these questions are not intended to replace medical or other professional advice. The information presented here is solely meant to inform and entertain. Please consult your physician or another trusted health professional for advice regarding weight loss and diabetes management.

36 Comments on Questions?

  1. desiree
    September 27, 2012 at 2:44 am (11 years ago)

    what do you think would happen if i made the vanilla cupcakes (with the beans) and substituted the beans for fresh pumpkin? of course i woud have to add spices but how do you think the consistancy would be?

    Reply
  2. V.A. PROSTHETICS
    October 22, 2012 at 7:06 pm (11 years ago)

    LAUREN WHERE ARE YOU? WE MISS YA.SINCERELY RUSS,CECE & GREG!

    Reply
  3. V.A. PROSTHETICS
    October 22, 2012 at 7:10 pm (11 years ago)

    WE MISS YA.SINCERELY,RUSS,CECE & GREG!

    Reply
  4. Mike
    November 10, 2012 at 4:42 pm (11 years ago)

    AMAZING AMAZING AMAZING website and info!

    Thank you so VERY much for taking the time to do all of this.

    I was wondering have you ever experimented cooking with Oligofructose?

    Or do you have any opinion on its healthiness etc?

    Thank you!

    Mike

    Reply
    • Lauren B.
      December 23, 2012 at 1:49 am (10 years ago)

      Hi, Mike! Just getting to answering comments during my school break. I have not tried baking with oligofructose, but I recently picked up a sweetener at the healthfood store (“Sweeten Me”) that contains oligofructose as one of the ingredients. I believe I tried a chocolate bar containing the fiber and it had some mild side effects. My tummy can’t seem to handle too much of it. Going to start out using small amounts. Will report on the blog if I have any success with it. 🙂 Do you have any tips for using it?

      Reply
  5. Julie
    December 27, 2012 at 12:51 am (10 years ago)

    Hi Lauren! I have been trying out your recipes for the last few months and I have to say that I am so impressed! Thank you so much for all of your hard work. I have been looking forever for recipes that are both sugar free and gluten/flour free! I just purchased your e-book and I’m so excited to cook my way through it 🙂 So here is a question I’ve been searching and searching for the answer to: I REALLY love “dump cake” …like the kind where you would sprinkle dry yellow cake mix on top… so I was wondering if you had a paleo/primal-ish recipe for dry yellow cake mix and/or just a recipe for an “all-purpose” flour mix that I could try to figure out how to make a dry cake mix out of?
    Thanks so much!

    Reply
    • Lauren B.
      January 3, 2013 at 9:01 pm (10 years ago)

      Hi, Julie! Could you link me to your dump cake recipe? There seem to be a few variations out there. I would need to know what other ingredients are in it. 🙂 Very happy to hear to love the recipes and purchased the e-book, Julie! Thanks for supporting the blog.

      Reply
  6. Lolita
    February 4, 2013 at 10:08 pm (10 years ago)

    Why in the world are you not cooking on youtube? You would reach so many people this way. I have a channel on youtube and have reached 202 countries with the gospel. You could really help a lot of fat, sick, diabetic people with a youtube channel. If you already have one I could not find it, so let me know and think about it.
    God Bless
    Lolita

    Reply
    • Lauren B.
      February 6, 2013 at 5:15 am (10 years ago)

      Lolita, thanks for bringing that up! I would love to do some cooking on youtube. 🙂 Unfortunately I do not have the equipment nor the time to make videos as professional looking as I’d like lately. Hoping to change that when I get a break from school! Feel free to post a link to your channel here. I’d love to take a look!

      Reply
  7. Dee
    February 6, 2013 at 8:19 pm (10 years ago)

    Hi Lauren! Just stopped by to see if there are any new entries on the site, and decided to say hi! Your recipes have been an enormous help to me, and it’s really neat to have all of them handy in one e-book 🙂

    Can we expect any new recipes from you soon? I would love some inspiration for breads and pies, both sweet and savoury!

    Thank you <3

    Reply
    • Lauren Benning
      September 10, 2014 at 12:45 am (9 years ago)

      Dee, I am going to post some of the recipes that have been accumulating in my kitchen for the upcoming holiday season. Thank you for the sweet note!

      Reply
  8. Todd
    April 27, 2013 at 2:39 am (10 years ago)

    Hi Lauren. I’m a new visitor to your page. Before the important stuff, have to mention noticing your name and pic, you look very much like a girl I had a big crush on throughout high school (many moons ago). Her name also was Lauren and after she accomplished her glory days she married the doctor, and lived happily ever after which of course included having several children. For just a moment I thought you might really be one of her daughters, but it’s a different last name. If I had a son who was eligible I would definitely send him your way. : ), God bless you with all that.

    Now for the brain stuff. I’m not a cook, but am now attempting to learn for dietary reasons. The quest for the grain-less loaf of bread seems to be one which has stirred all kinds of creative ideas, but continues to struggle mostly for the believed reason of cooked carbohydrate structure complexes being the key to strength of holding an expanded loaf of bread together, or perhaps the protein glutens. Something that protein by nature does is form cross-links between adjacent amino acids like what we see in DNA. Add a small amount of water to 100% pure protein powder and a sticky glob forms. The decreased stickiness in fat-rich (denser) nut flours makes loaf rising especially difficult without yeast, which in turn require glucose, which in turn moves us away from a Low-Carb diet. But …what if there were a suitable gluten substitute? What if zero plant four is necessary to bake a perfectly healthy and tasty loaf of bread? Neither by plant field grains, nor nuts? How possible would it be to substitute 100% unflavored Whey Protein Isolate for every baking recipe? Obviously this would cause the goodly nutritional protein content to skyrocket. But there is something else very important… Sugar alcohol sweetening has a couple of weaknesses, one is the minor extra taste perceptions and the other is the inhibition of yeast metabolism. Amino acids each have their own individual taste perception on the tongue. The wide variety of aminos in whey exhibits a collective taste of all these sub-components. This high concentration form of mixed amino acids very possibly would mask sugar alcohol taste aberrations much better than any plant flour (grain or nut) for the simple reason that there are more aminos to affect the whole taste. It might also mask the taste of leavening bicarbonate powders. And regarding the yeast metabolism, if there are several kinds of sugars they can eat for energy, then it might be possible for them to be able to derive energy in a less efficient manner from a few select amino acids. If amino feeding is too poor for leavening purposes, doing a timed experiment with bakers yeast under low sugar content warm water to evaluated when new bubbles are no longer created would help in obtaining the correct weighted amount of sugar to add. One very important key here is to know true dextrose seems to be favored by most every organism, so when sucrose (half fructose, half glucose) is consumed by yeast, the glucose is preferentially used first. For the folks who use Splenda, the maltodextrin filler is nothing but nice long chains of glucose, so because of its uniform biological substrate effect, my choice to feed yeast would be maltodextrin (even though the rising time might possibly be slower). But actually, if whey protein powder were used for flour, bicarbonate leavening may prove to be simple, effective, and without taste compromise, with the exception of not having that lovely yeast aroma.

    Here is an example of someone who baked a rising loaf of protein powder:
    http://www.lowcarbsosimple.com/simple-and-fluffy-glutenfree-lowcarb-bread/

    So I know the idea can work. Lauren, I hope with your great capacity for creativity you can figure out for all of us the key to baking protein powder loafs of bread, even without the almond four this person used. When I Google inquired of using milk protein as flour, there were very few hits, though one did say the leftover remnant of lactose left in whey protein can feed yeast. I see this as a tremendous opportunity for someone… to brain-storm figure out and present to the world a way to give us back our bread in a form that will tremendously help us instead of hurt us.

    Reply
    • Lauren B.
      May 7, 2013 at 5:33 am (10 years ago)

      Todd, I appreciate your thoughtful comment – lots of great ideas there re: grain free bread! I should have more free time in late July (have a couple of academic benchmarks coming up to take care of!) to play with bread recipes. Have you tried baking any loaves with cashew flour (ground cashews)? There’s one on Against All Grain that seems to be popular. I’m going to try that recipe with a bit of arrowroot and flax when I get time to bake. Your comment gave me lots to think about, so I’m glad you shared all that helpful info. Have filed it away for closer reading.

      Re: your other remarks – I hope to *be* the doctor as opposed to/in addition to marrying one, haha! 😀 Thanks for your other kind remarks as well.

      Reply
  9. Kelly
    June 1, 2013 at 1:23 am (10 years ago)

    Hi, I love your recipes!. I signed up for your newsletter, but haven’t received it yet. Hope I get one soon.

    Reply
    • Lauren B.
      June 13, 2013 at 8:23 pm (10 years ago)

      Hi, Kelly! You will get a notification when I start posting again. I have a big test to take in July, but a nice chunk of free time after that during which I hope to become an active blogger again. Thank you for checking back!

      Reply
  10. Sarah
    July 30, 2013 at 1:57 am (10 years ago)

    Hi Lauren,

    Just wanted to know if you had a recipe version of the black bean cake with real sugars. I have tried the recipe as is, but want to try with real sugar as well for a birthday party this weekend.

    Thanks!
    Sarah

    Reply
    • Lauren Benning
      September 10, 2014 at 12:44 am (9 years ago)

      Sarah, you can definitely use real sugar in place of the erythritol and stevia. Just use 1 cup of sugar, and taste the batter to see if it is sweet enough.

      Reply
  11. Lynn
    July 30, 2013 at 7:15 pm (10 years ago)

    Hi Lauren,
    I just found your blog and am fascinated by it. Can you post your basic pantry staples for beginners? I would like to try a few recipes before jumping in with both feet!
    Also, you seem to use erythritol and xylitol interchangeably. Do you prefer one over the other? And why?

    Reply
  12. Gayle
    September 23, 2013 at 1:11 am (10 years ago)

    My 4 yea old grandson has been diagnosed with Juvenile Diabetes. Does the book state carb values? 5 carbs or less are “free” foods for him. Would love to make him special treats that would be okay for him to eat with no worries. Thank you for your recipes!

    Reply
    • Lauren Benning
      September 10, 2014 at 12:42 am (9 years ago)

      Gayle, the book lists the nutrition information with every recipe.

      Reply
  13. mercy
    October 31, 2014 at 12:56 pm (9 years ago)

    I have several containers of Truvia, bought with coupons.How do I mix it with sugar to make the Bakeing Blend…

    Reply
    • Lauren Benning
      November 1, 2014 at 5:26 pm (9 years ago)

      Those blends are 50% sugar, 50% Truvia. Mercy, you would need to add equal amounts of Truvia and sugar to a container and shake it up well before use. It’s that simple!

      Have you seen my cheaper Homemade “Truvia” sweetener? Might save you a few dollars, and it tastes just as good as the storebought kind.

      http://healthyindulgences.net/2012/02/truvia-sweetener-review-how-to-make-your-own-truvia-substitute-in-bulk-much-cheaper/

      Hope that helps!

      Reply
      • mercy
        November 1, 2014 at 9:04 pm (9 years ago)

        Thanks..

        Reply
      • mercy
        November 2, 2014 at 6:42 pm (9 years ago)

        Thanks will try…I also have 6 containers of Netresse..Have you used it at all.I have not used in bakeing.I thought maybe a blend of it and sugar..Any thoughts..thanks…

        Reply
        • Lauren Benning
          November 10, 2014 at 7:40 pm (9 years ago)

          Mercy, I have not baked with Netresse. After trying other Monk Fruit products and not enjoying the taste, I’m quite suspicious of this new one. 😉 Please let me know what you think of it.

          Reply
        • Lauren Benning
          November 17, 2014 at 7:49 am (9 years ago)

          Mercy, I haven’t tried Netresse. If you do some experimenting with it, please let me know how you like it!

          Reply
          • mercy
            November 17, 2014 at 10:10 am (9 years ago)

            Its ok for drinks,I use some with sugar,as to cut back.And have used it to sprinkle in when I need a bit of sweetness.The little container is so handy.I had coupons and got it for low price.I use part sugar and part Erythrol usually.I love your recipes and have tryied many.I took the bean brownies to a coworker with gluten problems.He loved them and treated himself to one every day..

          • Lauren Benning
            November 17, 2014 at 12:51 pm (9 years ago)

            Mercy, thanks for sharing your feedback about Netresse! It’s great that it helps you to cut back on sugar consumption. 🙂 Sounds like you’ve found a way to make it work for you! And I’m so glad your co-worker enjoy the black bean treat! You opened his eyes to a treat he probably never would have discovered. So happy that you’ve enjoyed the recipes here. Since you are a long time fan of the blog, I was wondering if you had any requests for holiday treats? Trying to put together a little something special for the season.

          • mercy
            November 17, 2014 at 12:59 pm (9 years ago)

            I love to bake and have tried lots of recipes.You know lowsugar or sugarless treats are good.But they do not have that zip that sugar gives.Its like low salt,good but not as good as regular salt.Why are the good tasting treats not so healthy..I would love it to say,,Oh boy look grapes and celery sticks.haha.Yeah I like them,but,over a homemade Coconut cake naaaaaa.i don’t suppose theres anyway to lower the sugar in CrackerCandy..All my friends love it as a gift…You have done a great job with your recipes..

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    August 8, 2016 at 11:48 pm (7 years ago)

    What is wrong with all of you? If you aren’t into the blog or the blogger don’t keep visiting the site. You can find nothing better to do than read and analyze other peoples lives line by line? The only conclusion I can draw is that you guys must all be completely obsessed and jealous of kath to be paying so much attention! Everyone on smugnom.com seems ignorant and hateful so have fun dissing people on the internet! Stupid Fucks…

    Reply
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