I first heard of agave nectar five years ago, when a friend of mine went off of wheat and sugar simultaneously. She struggled with the lack of wheat in her diet but thanks to agave nectar, didn't have much trouble staying away from sugar and sweets. She became something of an agave booster and talked it up to anyone who would listen. I became a slow adopter, and began to use agave nectar to sweeten my tea and morning bowls of oatmeal. I've always wanted to to explore baking with agave nectar, but until now, I'd never had the correct resource (and I worried that trying to use it with one of my sugar-based recipes would be inviting disaster). Enter Ania Catalano's book, Baking with Agave Nectar. This squat paperback is beautifully photographed and contains 100 recipes that all use agave as their primary sweetener. Catalano became interested in agave nectar when she was diagnosed with hypoglycemia and needed to find a sugar substitute that tasted good and wouldn't spike her blood sugar levels the way that processed sugar, honey and maple syrup did.
One of the things I appreciate about this book is that Catalano doesn't just replace sugar with agave nectar. She is careful to incorporate whole wheat and sprouted flours into her recipes, so that when you bake her treats, you know that you are making something that will be far healthier than what you can pick up at your local bakery. In these times, when we're all looking for ways to improve the quality of the foods that we eat, this volume is a wonderful assistant in allowing you to have tasty, sweet baked goods that are good for you as well.
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