WASHINGTON — Sugar appeals to not only the palate, but also the cook.
“It’s the easiest thing there is to add,” said Bill Yosses, former White House pastry chef. “It’s inexpensive, so we can add it to everything. It’s a substance that we’re naturally inclined to like.”
But sugar carries hidden health costs that show up in medical bills, he said. And in the kitchen, a reliance on sugar means drowning out a dessert’s other flavors, such as fruits, grains, nuts and dairy.
“People have become used to that sugar bomb,” Yosses said.
Now the chef and owner of PerfectPie.com, Yosses is sharing some of the recipes that delighted White House guests for seven years in a new book: “The Sweet Spot: Dialing Back Sugar and Amping Up Flavor.”
Former first lady Michelle Obama and her “Let’s Move” campaign inspired him to rethink how sugar can be used, he said.
“As a chef there, we really became aware of this kind of tendency in America to eat processed food and to shy away from grains and fruits and vegetables,” Yosses said.
Hidden sugars fill the plate even before dessert is served, he points out: They’re in salad dressings and even soup. “When you have so much sugar in the rest of the meal, as a pastry chef I find people don’t want to have dessert because they’re already satiated,” Yosses said.
Thinking of sugar less like a main ingredient and more like a seasoning doesn’t mean sacrificing flavor, he said. It’s all about making the most of the other flavors available.
Flour power
White refined flour, for instance, does a great job of holding a dessert together, but it has little nutritional value and flavor. Combining it with an alternative flour like quinoa, he said, has its advantages.
“It’s something that has a great amount of protein and lots of minerals, and it has a really nutty flavor,” he said.
Other delicious flours that add both nuance and nutrition come from nuts themselves: almonds, chestnuts, pistachios and hazelnuts, among others.
While they might not be easy to find at a supermarket, you can make such flours at home with a grain mill, Yosses writes. This do-it-yourself ethic pays off: You won’t be left with any unused flour lying around after you make your dish.
Yosses also recognizes the value of using what’s in season. For holiday cooks, that means apples and pears. It also means concord grapes and another lesser-known option, the quince.
“You can poach them, and then they have this wonderful fragrant aroma fill the house up with great smells,” he said.
Pie crust advice from ‘The Crustmaster in Chief’
To those who might think that this approach makes for a lame, boring dessert, be reminded that President Obama refers to Yosses as “The Crustmaster in Chief.” And WTOP would forever regret it if it didn’t ask Yosses for some tips on a presidential-quality pie crust. The takeaways:
- Don’t overwork it. “Don’t leave it in the machine too long,” he said. “That’s what develops the gluten and makes for a leathery crust.“
- Keep it cold. Use cold water when you add it to the dough. Keep it in the refrigerator until you’re ready to roll it out. And refrigerate the flour that you use to sprinkle on your counter, he said, “because if it’s a warm flour then it’s going to get that pie dough too warm too quickly.”
- Go halfway with the flour. Put half the flour in the mixer or in the bowl, and then all the butter, and mix that together pretty well before you add the second half of the flour. “You get a nice crumbly texture to the butter and flour, and then it easily absorbs the rest of the flour and the water at the same time,” he said.
