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Recipes and contents Recipes and contents Introduction ................................................ 10
Fowl Play ...................................................... 19
Unwrap Cocoa ............................................. 73
Pink jam slice .................................................. 34
Chocolate and beetroot cake .......................... 84
Muffins ............................................................ 37
Raw chocolate cake ........................................ 87
Fudgy coconut brownies ................................. 38
Chocolate whoopie pies .................................. 88
Key lime pie .................................................... 41
Chocolate Guinness cake ................................ 91
Simply waffles ................................................. 42
Chocolate rye cookies ..................................... 92
Spilt Milk ...................................................... 47
Bitter sweet .................................................. 97
Millionaire shortbread ................................... 60
Lemon cake .................................................. 108
Classic crumpets ............................................. 63
Croustade ...................................................... 110
Coconut cheesecake ....................................... 64
Toffee apple upside down cake ..................... 112
Cherry parfait ................................................. 67
Anzac biscuits ................................................ 115
Pear and ginger pudding ................................ 68
Viennese whirls ............................................. 116 Baker’s notes ............................................. 120
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Better baking Slice of humane pie
Baking is a method of preparing food that uses dry heat, normally in an oven, but can also be done in hot ashes, or on hot stones. One of the most common baked items is bread but many other types of foods are baked. Heat is gradually transferred from the surface of cakes, cookies, and breads to their center. As heat travels through, it transforms batters and doughs into baked goods and more with a firm dry crust and a softer centre. Historically social and familial roles, baking has traditionally been performed at home by women for day-to-day meals and by men in bakeries and restaurants for local consumption.
When production was industrialized, baking was automated by machines in large factories. The art of baking remains a fundamental skill and is important for nutrition, as baked goods, especially breads, are a common and important food, both from an economic and cultural point of view. Baking, process of cooking by dry heat, especially in some kind of oven. It is probably the oldest cooking method. Bakery products, which include bread, rolls, cookies, pies, pastries, and muffins, are usually prepared from flour or meal derived from some form of grain. Bread, already a common staple in prehistoric times, provides many nutrients in the human diet.
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Has food gone sour? Food. It’s central to our lives and traditions. Every special occasion we celebrate seems to involve food and feasts. Organic food has grown in popularity over recent years. Organic farming is categorised and understood as an integrated system that strives for sustainability. This can lead to changes in the effects that farming practices can have on the soil, the crops or livestock, with consideration to the quality of food they produce and the local community and wider environment. Sustainable consumption is based on a decision making process that takes the consumer’s social responsibility, such as animal welfare, environment, fair trade, into account in addition to individual needs such as taste, price, and convenience. Since the dawn of human existence, food has been a large part of the life we know. Food has been linked to status and wealth, which have been fueled by greed. Recipes reflect the society that produces them. This cookbook will explore the recipes that have made the life we know and love, but with one important twist. All the recipes will be using ethical and socially responsible ingredients. You, as the baker, will have the power to make the choices of what ingredients to use, by giving you all the best options for every baked good.
When it comes to the world of baking at the surface it is joyful and delicious. However, beneath the sweeten layer of lies we are told is an abundance of crime, corruption and cruelty. The overwhelming majority of animalderived food products sold today come from large-scale, industrialised farms. This is generally unsustainable and extremely cruel for the animals, whether they are big or small. Although public interest in sustainability increases and consumer attitudes are mainly positive, behavioural patterns are not unequivocally consistent with attitudes. The presumed gap between favourable attitude towards sustainable behaviour and behavioural intention to purchase sustainable food products is what keeps the toxicity in these industries alive. The impact of involvement into conscience consumption is the new wave of sustainability we need to put an end to the suffering of animals and people in the food industry.
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Taste of corruption Consumers’ intentions towards sustainable food products are on the rise, but not everyone knows the full extent of the lies we are fed just to keep us buying. Involvement with sustainability has a significant positive impact on the attitude towards buying sustainable products, which in turn correlates strongly with intention to buy. Low perceived availability of sustainable products explains why intentions to buy remain low, although attitudes might be positive. On the reverse, experiencing social pressure from peers explains intentions to buy, despite rather negative personal attitudes. It isn’t about dictating, it’s about informing, to help everyone make the correct choices and be more savvy with the products they buy. From a vegan perspective, the answer is more holistic and philosophical: we should stop regarding animals as commodities. We should cease our global war on animals and learn to live in harmony. Even if everyone didn’t become vegan, that is completely up to the individual, yet it is important to know the true origin of your food before you eat it.
This book will cut into the sweet lies we have been fed by the corporations that lead in the food industry. Aiming to advise and inform the reader of the injustices in this toxic industry. While exposing the corruption this book will give you the advice and guidance to help you become a better, more rounded consumer. By highlighting the flaws in the industry, you can make informed decisions on what you purchase and how you consume. By exploring the four big corrupters in the baking sector of food this book will expose the sugar coated stories we have been told as consumers, to persuade us to buy more. The origin of food is important, especially when it is imported from different countries, as everywhere has different laws to abide by. With large corporations owning a monopoly in the food process, they can control what goes more than the government themselves, leading to poverty and crime.
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The egg industry There are no wild chickens. Before the twentieth century this bird did not exist. Chickens were only ever domesticated for one reason: to exploit them. All chickens used for meat and eggs are the result of centuries of violent domination and decades of invasive genetic manipulation that dooms even those lucky enough to be rescued to a lifetime of unnatural frailty and disease.
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Crackdown Eggs traditionally play an important role in baking, from cakes and cookies to meringues and pastry cream. They create structure and stability within a batter, they help thicken, add moisture to baked goods, and can even act as glue or glaze. Crack an egg open and you’ll see the large, transparent egg white with the round, yellow yolk in the middle. The white is made almost entirely of proteins and water; the yolk, on the other hand, is packed full of nutrients, vitamins, and fats. Look closely and you’ll also see a thin white strand floating somewhere in the mix. This is called the chalazae and it anchors the yolk to the white and to the inside of the shell, keeping the yolk suspended. Between the yolks, the white, and the whole egg, the functions of an egg can overlap and vary widely from recipe to recipe. Recipes that use just the yolk of an egg typically do so for the yolk’s fat content and emulsifying abilities. The fat gives baked goods extra-rich flavour and a velvety texture. The yolk also has the unique ability to bind liquids and fats together, creating an emulsion that prevents them from separating. This emulsion process helps create a more homogeneous mix of ingredients, aiding in an even distribution of liquid and fats throughout a recipe for smooth batters, satiny custards, and creamy curds.
When egg whites are used alone, they perform an entirely different role from the yolks, especially when whipped. Whipping and using egg whites in a recipe does not have to be as intimidating as you may think, and we’ll be talking much more about this in a few days. For now, just know that whipping egg whites means incorporating millions of little air bubbles within the white. This creates a fairly stable foam that we can use to make everything from a soufflé to meringue. To help stabilize egg whites even further, we can add acidic elements, like cream of tartar and lemon juice. Trace amounts of salmonella can sometimes be found in raw eggs, this is the bacteria responsible for many incidents of food poisoning. Although it’s rare for someone to actually get sick from consuming raw or undercooked eggs, it’s best to be careful, especially when serving egg dishes and desserts to people with compromised immune systems, the elderly, the young, and pregnant women.
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The egg comes first Exploration of chickens
In the UK today, we consume 13.1 billion eggs a year, that’s 36 million a day. This astonishing number is only going to increase as the years go on. This means farmers all around the world must double their yields by the year 2050 to meet the growing needs of the world. Chickens astonishing growth has been propelled and satisfied by a business that creates lives and harvests them at such an unimaginable speed and high volume. If you have ever consumed an egg, it likely came from a chicken that was raised in a confined shed with artificial lighting and hardly any room to move, this is not usually a problem as the chickens themselves grow at such a rate their legs can’t support their body. Strictly speaking many people who raise chickens for slaughter, aren’t farmers, they are growers. This is due to the fact that the animals themselves belong to the farming company and are raised for one purpose, human consumption.
Eggs are a hen by-product, which means the hen isn’t initially used for its meat production. Hens ovulate for the same reason female humans do: to reproduce. In chickens, the ovary is a cluster of developing ova, or yolks. Female human ovaries also contain developing eggs. In women, a mature egg is released from the ovary once a month. If the egg becomes fertilized, it attaches to the wall of the uterus and begins to form an embryo. If the egg is not fertilized, it is eliminated. This happens roughly two weeks before menstruation (the shedding of the uterine lining), a process which exacts a heavy toll on the female body. Although chickens do not menstruate, the cycle of creating and passing much larger eggs relative to their body size and weight is arguably even more physically taxing, especially in modern hens who have been bred to produce such unnaturally high rates of eggs.
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Fast and furious Most hens spend their lives in battery cages, stacked tier upon tier in huge warehouses. Millions of day-old male chicks are killed every year because they are worthless to the egg industry. The wire mesh of the cages rubs off their feathers, chafes their skin, and causes their feet to become crippled. In comparison to hens, male chicks are financially worthless to the egg industry, so every year, millions of them are exterminated in horrific ways. On a daily basis unimaginable numbers get unceremoniously tossed into high-speed grinders, while they are still alive, or they are gassed by carbon dioxide, or suffocated. A mother hen bonds with her chicks while they’re still inside their shells. Chickens have well-developed language skills that include dozens of types of vocalizations, and mothers start teaching them to their young even before they hatch. Hens cluck softly while sitting on the eggs, and the babies soon start responding. The hens raised for eggs spend their lives in battery cages, stacked tier upon tier in huge warehouses. The wire mesh of the cages rubs off their feathers, chafes their skin, and causes their feet to become crippled. Broken bones are also common among these production birds, who end up suffering significant osteoporosis.
Although chickens can live for more than a decade, hens raised for their eggs are exhausted, and their egg production begins to wane when they are about 2 years old. When this happens, they are slaughtered. More than 100 million spent hens are killed in slaughterhouses every year. The chickens raised for meat and eggs end up on the same gruelling trip to the slaughterhouse. Before the terrifying journey, chickens are caught by workers grabbing them by their feet and placed into crates. Once at the slaughterhouse, the birds are dumped from their crates and hung upside down in shackles, further injuring their legs, which are already tender and often broken. Their throats are cut open by machines, and they are immersed in scalding-hot water for feather removal. They are often conscious throughout the entire process. Hens’ bones are so brittle from egg production that the electric current would cause them to shatter, hens often are not even stunned before their throats are cut. Factory farms simply cannot raise billions of animals per year without using drugs that allow the animals to survive cramped, filthy, and stressful conditions that would otherwise kill them.
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Chickens can be crammed into tiny cages
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Tricking the consumer into buying free range eggs is incredibly deceitful
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The myth of free range Of all the animal industry cons, the “free range” egg is perhaps the most audacious. It is inconceivable to believe the UK can produce more than 10 billion eggs each year without inconveniencing any chickens. But by slapping on the free range label, and perhaps a nice pastoral scene with a few chickens roaming free, most consumers never realise how the eggs came to be in the box. Few shoppers realise what the term free range means and what routine horrors are allowed under its reassuring banner. The more than 300 million chickens used each year for their eggs endure a nightmare that lasts for two years. Beak trimming is commonplace in the UK. Hens in egg factories have a large portion of their beaks cut off with a burning-hot blade within hours or days of birth, this is done without anaesthetic. This practice is done to stop them pecking at the other hens in their cramped, traumatised flocks. There is a common misconception that free range eggs involve hens roaming outside, happy and free. Yet the reality is that free range hens are actually kept in vast sheds with potentially thousands of other birds, few of which ever see daylight. Free range sheds can contain up to nine birds per square metre – that’s like 14 adults living in a one-room flat. The birds are crammed so closely together that although normally clean animals, they are forced to urinate and defecate on one another.
The stench of ammonia and faeces hangs heavy in the air, and disease runs rampant in the filthy, cramped sheds. Some multi-tier sheds, which are still registered as free range, contain 16,000 hens. So while these poor birds can theoretically go outdoors, they can also be too crammed in and too traumatised to find the few exit holes.. Many birds die, and survivors are often forced to live with their dead and dying cagemates, who are sometimes left to rot. The light in the sheds is constantly manipulated to maximize egg production. For two weeks at a time, the hens are fed only reduced-calorie feed. This process induces an extra laying cycle. After about two years in these conditions, the hens’ bodies are exhausted, and their egg production drops. These spent hens are shipped to slaughterhouses, where their fragile legs are forced into shackles and their throats are cut. By the time they are sent to slaughter, roughly 30 percent of them are suffering from broken bones resulting from neglect, osteoporosis, and rough treatment. Their emaciated bodies are so damaged that their flesh can only be used for companion-animal food.
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Testing for an unhappy yolk Learning the truth of a yolk
Even if you buy free range eggs, that doesn’t necessarily mean the hen is healthy. By checking the colour of the yolk you can tell if the product you have bought is being truthful with its labelling.
To truly be able to know whether the egg is of the right origin, it to look at the yolk. If an egg yolk is pale or more yellow it will be from an unhappy hen. The healthy yolk is much darker and orange in colour.
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How to replace egg Recipes and ideas of alternatives to egg There are many reasons why one would replace eggs in their diet, from allergies, preference or ethical reasons. Luckily, plenty of foods that can replace eggs in baking, though not all of them act the same way.
Some egg alternatives are better for heavy, dense products, while others are great for light and fluffy baked goods. You may wish to try experimenting with the various egg alternatives to get the texture and flavour you desire in your recipes.
Banana and avocado purĂŠe You can replace each egg with 65 grams of purĂŠe. This substitution works best in cakes, muffins, brownies and quick breads.
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Soy Lecithin Soy lecithin is a byproduct of soybean oil and has binding properties similar to that of eggs. Adding 14 grams of soy lecithin powder to your recipe can replace one egg.
Nut butter To replace one egg, use 60 grams of smooth nut butter. This may give a nutty flavour, and it’s best used in brownies, pancakes and cookies.
Ground flaxseeds or chia seeds To replace one egg, whisk together 7 grams of ground chia or flaxseeds with 45 grams of water until fully absorbed and thickened. Doing so may cause baked goods to become heavy and dense so best in pancakes, waffles, muffins, breads and cookies.
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Pink jam slice 300g butter at room temperature
Heat oven to 180C/ 160C fan/ gas 4 and line a 20 x 30cm baking tin with baking parchment.
120g golden caster sugar
Beat the butter, caster sugar, vanilla and egg yolk together in a large bowl with an electric whisk until pale. Stir in the flour with a good pinch of salt using a wooden spoon – then your hands to bring everything together into a crumbly dough. Press half into the base of the tin as evenly as you can – using a potato masher works quite well – and smooth the top.
2 tsp vanilla extract 1 large pasteurised egg yolk or 1 tsp of soy lecithin 500g plain flour 400g raspberry jam 500g icing sugar Pink food colouring
Spread the jam over the top, leaving a 1cm empty border all around the edge. Crumble over the remaining shortbread mixture, then pat down, trying not to dislodge the jam too much. It will look patchy, but don’t worry, the icing will smooth it all out. Bake for 35 mins until pale golden. Leave to cool in the tin. Sift the icing sugar into a bowl, and stir in about 100ml water with some food colouring to a thick-ish but runny icing. Pour over the slice, then tilt the tin to evenly spread. Quickly dot over some more food colouring, then use a skewer or toothpick to swirl and marble the top. Leave to set overnight until the icing is hard, then cut into slices. Will keep in a tin for up to five days.
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Muffins 130g avocado purĂŠe 125ml vegetable oil 250ml semi-skimmed milk
Heat oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6. Line 2 muffin trays with paper muffin cases. In a large bowl mash the avacardo into a purĂŠe. Add the vegetable oil and milk and beat until just combined then add the golden caster sugar and whisk until you have a smooth batter.
250g golden caster sugar 400g self-raising flour
Sift in the self-raising flour and salt then mix until just smooth. Be careful not to over-mix the batter as this will make the muffins tough.
1 tsp salt 100g dried cherries
Stir in any added extras you wish. Fill muffin cases two-thirds full and bake for 20 mins, until risen, firm to the touch and a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean. If the trays will not fit on 1 shelf, swap the shelves around after 15 mins of cooking. Leave the muffins in the tin to cool for a few mins and transfer to a wire rack to cool off completely before you enjoy.
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Fudgy coconut brownies 100g cocoa 250g butter 500g golden caster sugar 250g of banana purée
Heat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Line the base of a 21cm square tin with baking parchment. Put the cocoa, butter and sugar in your largest saucepan and gently melt, stirring so the mixture doesn’t catch. When the cocoa mixture is melted and combined, cool slightly, then stir in the eggs, little by little, followed by the flour and coconut.
100g self-raising flour 100g desiccated coconut
Tip into the tin and bake for 45 mins on a middle shelf – check after 30 mins and cover with another piece of baking parchment if the crust is browning too much. Cool in the tin, then carefully lift out and cut into squares.
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Key lime pie 56g of soy lecithin powder 400 ml condensed milk 5 limes 200 ml double cream CRUST 135 g unsalted butter 12 digestive biscuits 45 g caster sugar
Preheat the oven to 175ยบC/gas 3. Lightly grease a 22cm metal or glass pie dish with a little of the butter. For the pie crust, blend the biscuits, sugar and remaining butter in a food processor until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Transfer to the pie dish and spread over the bottom and up the sides, firmly pressing down. Bake for 10 minutes, or until lightly browned. Remove from oven and place the dish on a wire rack to cool. For the filling, whisk the egg yolks in a bowl. Gradually whisk in the condensed milk until smooth. Mix in 6 tablespoons of lime juice, then pour the filling into the pie crust and level over with the back of a spoon. Return to the oven for 15 minutes, then place on a wire rack to cool. Once cooled, refrigerate for 6 hours Serve with dollops of cream and grate over some lime zest, for extra zing if you like.
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Simply waffles 208g ground flaxseed egg replacement 300g plain flour ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda 2 tbsp golden caster sugar 50g melted butter 600ml semi-skimmed milk
Heat the waffle maker according to manufacturer’s instructions. Whisk the ground flaxseed egg replacement to stiff peaks. In a separate large bowl, mix together the flour, bicarbonate, caster sugar and a pinch of salt. Create a well in the centre and add the melted butter. Start mixing with a balloon whisk; keep whisking as you slowly add the milk until you get a smooth, thick batter. Carefully fold in the egg whites with a metal spoon. Pour the batter using a ladle into your waffle maker and cook for 5 mins or according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Repeat until all the batter has been used up, placing your finished waffles onto a baking tray as you go. Warm the waffles once finished in the oven and then serve with your choice of delicious toppings.
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Try adding toppings such as berries, golden syrup or bananas to make the dish your own
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The dairy industry There are no wild chickens. Before the twentieth century this bird did not exist. Chickens were only ever domesticated for one reason: to exploit them. All chickens used for meat and eggs are the result of centuries of violent domination and decades of invasive genetic manipulation that dooms even those lucky enough to be rescued to a lifetime of unnatural frailty and disease.
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White lies In order to keep producing milk for humans, dairy cows have to become pregnant and have calves. This is done forcibly, typically through artificial insemination shortly after their first birthdays. After giving birth, they lactate for 10 months and are then inseminated again, continuing the cycle. Some spend their entire lives standing on concrete floors; others are confined to massive, crowded lots, where they are forced to live amid their own feces. Calves are generally taken away from their mothers within 24 hours of birth, causing immense distress for both mother and calf. Both usually cry out for each other as they are separated. The mother has to endure this happening 4 or 5 times before she is considered ‘spent’. Males, who are of little use to the dairy industry, are either killed shortly after birth or sent away to be reared for veal, while females follow the fate of their mothers – milked continually throughout their lives. As a result of unnaturally high milk yields, over a third of British dairy cows suffer from mastitis, a painful udder infection. In severe cases of the infection, the cows are killed. This happens in great numbers, as mastitis is one of the most common causes for premature culling. Meanwhile, many suffer lameness due to their unnatural surroundings. They are generally kept indoors for at least half of the year.
Life expectancy of a dairy cow is less than a quarter of its natural lifespan; dairy cows are considered spent between 7 to 8 years at which age they are slaughtered. If allowed to exist free of exploitation and slaughter, however, dairy cows can live 25 years or more. Farms exist for profit, not to make sure the wants and needs of cattle are met. Even when welfare standards are higher than normal, cows and calves still have to endure eventual separation, are used and not respected, and they all die long before their time. On any given day, there are more than 9 million cows on U.S. dairy farms—about 12 million fewer than there were in 1950.8,9 Yet milk production has continued to increase, from 116 billion pounds of milk per year in 1950 to 215 billion pounds in 2017.10,11 Normally, these animals would produce only enough milk to meet the needs of their calves, but genetic manipulation—and, in some cases, antibiotics and hormones—is used to cause each cow to produce more than 22,000 pounds of milk each year.12 Cows are also fed unnatural, high-protein diets—which can include chicken feathers and fish—because their natural diet of grass would not provide the nutrients that they need to produce such massive amounts of milk.
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The milk comes first Recipes and contents
Unlike cooking, baking is more of a science that relies on the mix of certain ingredients in the right proportions to get the best results. The purpose of milk in baking is varied and may depend on what you’re baking. As a solid fat, butter is better suited for baking than any other fat product. Butter in particular adds flavour, with a melting point just below body temperature, which is why some cookies and baked goods tend to “melt in your mouth.” It also helps in leavening and adds moisture. The protein in milk softens, contributes moisture, and adds colour and flavour to baked goods. It’s a double-whammy in terms of function, as it gives the dough or batter strength and structure, as well as adds tenderness, flavour and moisture The purpose of milk in baking may depend on your recipe. In general, milk serves as a liquid to moisten your dry ingredients, dissolve sugar and activate gluten.
This not only improves the texture of your baked goods, but also hydrates your proteins and starches as well as your leavening agents, which initiates the chemical reactions that change the structure and texture of your batter or dough. The function of milk in muffins and other baked goods has much to do with its nutrient content. Additionally, the protein in the milk improves strength and structure of the muffin to improve tenderness of the crumb. Milk is also used as a liquid ingredient for yeast dough recipes. The milk solids weaken the connections between the gluten proteins to create a softer bread. Adding milk to dough will increase water absorption of dough. Dough will become softer compared to dough made with water. Baked goods will colour faster than water dough, and show greater volume, darker crust, and longer shelf life.
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White gold Given the chance, cows nurture their young and form lifelong friendships with one another. They play games and have a wide range of emotions and personality traits. But most cows raised for the dairy industry are intensively confined, leaving them unable to fulfill their most basic desires, such as nursing their calves, even for a single day. They are treated like milk-producing machines and are genetically manipulated and may be pumped full of antibiotics and hormones in order to produce more milk. While cows suffer on these farms, humans who drink their milk increase their chances of developing heart disease, diabetes, cancer, and many other ailments. Consuming dairy products, indirectly supports the veal industry. As cows must give birth to keep producing milk, it means the veal industry stays strong as there is still the product being produced. While female calves are slaughtered or kept alive to produce milk, male calves are often taken away from their mothers when they are as young as 1 day old to be chained in tiny stalls for three to 18 weeks and raised for veal. Calves raised for veal are fed a milk substitute that is designed to make them gain at 2 to 3 pounds per day, and their diet is purposely low in iron so that their flesh stays pale as a result of anemia. In addition to suffering from diarrhea, pneumonia, and lameness, calves raised for veal are terrified and desperate for their mothers.
Large dairy farms have an enormously detrimental effect on the environment. In California, America’s top milk-producing state, manure from dairy farms has poisoned hundreds of square miles of groundwater, rivers, and streams. Each of the more than 1 million cows on the state’s dairy farms excretes 18 gallons of manure daily. Overall, factoryfarmed animals, including those on dairy farms, produce 1.65 billion tons of manure each year, much of which ends up in waterways and drinking water. The Environmental Protection Agency reports that agricultural runoff is a major cause of polluted lakes, streams, and rivers. The dairy industry is the primary source of smog-forming pollutants in California; a single cow emits more of these harmful gasses than a car does. Two-thirds of all agricultural land in the U.S. is used to raise animals for food or to grow grain to feed them. Each cow raised by the dairy industry consumes as much as 50 gallons of water per day.
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These babies can when separated, will remain away from other until they are killed for veil
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Despite current cultural beliefs, cow’s milk is designed for calves only.
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The myth of calcium Besides humans, no species drinks milk beyond infancy or drinks the milk of another species. Cow’s milk is suited to the nutritional needs of calves, who have four stomachs and gain hundreds of pounds in a matter of months, sometimes weighing more than 1,000 pounds before they are 2 years old. Cow’s milk is one of the primary causes of food allergies among children. Most people begin to produce less lactase, the enzyme that helps with the digestion of milk, when they are as young as 2 years old. This reduction can lead to lactose intolerance. Millions of Americans are lactose intolerant, and an estimated 95 percent of Asian- Americans and 80 percent of Native- and African- Americans suffer from the condition, which can cause bloating, gas, cramps, vomiting, headaches, rashes, and asthma. A U.K. study showed that people who suffered from irregular heartbeats, asthma, headaches, fatigue, and digestive problems “showed marked and often complete improvements in their health after cutting milk from their diets.” Although American women consume tremendous amounts of calcium, their rates of osteoporosis are among the highest in the world. Medical studies indicate that rather than preventing the disease, milk may actually increase women’s risk of getting osteoporosis.
A Harvard Nurses’ Study of more than 77,000 women ages 34 to 59 found that those who consumed two or more glasses of milk per day had higher risks of broken hips and arms than those who drank one glass or less per day. T. Colin Campbell, professor of nutritional biochemistry at Cornell University, said, “The association between the intake of animal protein and fracture rates appears to be as strong as that between cigarette smoking and lung cancer.” Humans can get all the protein that they need from nuts, seeds, yeast, grains, beans, and other legumes. It’s very difficult not to get enough calories from protein when you eat a healthy diet; protein deficiency is very rare in the U.S. and is usually only a problem for people who live in famine-stricken countries. The subject of calcium is a hotly debated one. One of the biggest controversies is whether or not we can really get enough calcium following a whole-food, plant-based diet that excludes dairy. Like iron, magnesium, and copper, calcium is a mineral. It is found in the soil, where it is absorbed into the roots of plants. Animals get their calcium by consuming these calcium-rich plants. So even though we are all conditioned to believe that calcium comes from milk and dairy products, the real source of calcium richness is the earth. No wonder that a whole-food, plantbased diet has plenty of calcium.
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Got milk alternatives? The options out there for different milks
Soya milk Rich and creamy in taste, and a great all rounder for a milk alternative. Ideal for baking and general milk replacement. Always get organic soya milk.
Coconut milk Smooth and fresh with not a highly potent flavour. Great for all uses, especially hot drinks and on cereal.
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Oat milk Naturally sweet and creamy. Can be a little heavy in baking.
Cashew milk Smooth, creamy and slightly nutty in taste. Great in all kinda of desserts. Easy to make at home by soaking nuts overnight then blending with water and then straining.
Almond milk Slightly nutty and creamy flavour. Perfect for baking.
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Millionaire’s shortbread SHORTBREAD 250g plain flour 200g dairy or non dairy butter 100g golden caster sugar ¼ tsp vanilla extract CARAMEL LAYER 90g dairy or non dairy butter 379g can condensed milk or cream of coconut 2 tbsp golden syrup 2 tbsp dark brown sugar TOPPING 300g dark chocolate 50g dairy or non dairy butter
Heat oven to 160C/140C fan/gas 4. Line a 20cm x 30 cm tin with baking parchment. Rub the flour and butter together with your fingertips until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs then stir in the sugar, vanilla and pinch of salt. Tip the mixture into the prepared tin in an even layer, then press the mixture down firmly with the back of a spoon. Bake for 45-50 mins or until light golden brown. Leave to cool completely in the tin. Heat gently the butter, condensed milk, sugar and syrup in a pan with a pinch of salt. until simmering, then whisk for 6 mins until thick and fudgy. Be careful as the caramel will be very hot. Leave to cool for 5 mins, then pour the caramel over the cooled shortbread. Leave to cool completely. Stir the dark chocolate and the butter in a bowl set over a pan of simmering water until melted (alternatively heat in the microwave, stirring after every 30 sec blast to make sure it doesn’t burn). Once melted and glossy pour the chocolate mixture over the caramel. To decorate, go to the next step, or leave to cool completely then cut into squares or triangles. Apply the dark chocolate layer on top.
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Classic crumpets 400ml soya milk 1 tablespoon dried yeast 1 teaspoon caster sugar 300g strong white flour ½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda HOMEMADE BUTTER 350ml soya milk
Gently warm the milk. In a bowl, dissolve the yeast and sugar in the warm milk and 100ml of tepid water. Leave in a warm place for 15 minutes, or until frothy. Sift the flour, bicarbonate of soda and 1 teaspoon of fine sea salt into a large bowl. Make a well in the centre and pour in the yeast mixture. Whisk from the centre outwards until the consistency of double cream – this will take a few minutes. Add a splash more water, if needed. Cover with a damp tea towel and set aside for 45 minutes or until little bubbles form on the surface. Pour the cream into a freestanding mixer to make the butter. Whisk on high until the cream splits into solids and liquid. Drain through a sieve, discard the liquid, then rinse the solids thoroughly with cold water. Place in muslin and squeeze out any excess liquid. Mix ½ a teaspoon of sea salt through and wrap in greaseproof paper. Grease four 10cm egg rings with vegetable oil. Wipe a little oil around a large frying pan or iron skillet and place over a medium-high heat. Arrange the rings in the frying pan and, once hot, spoon 4 tablespoons of the batter into each ring. Cook for 5 minutes, or until little bubbles appear on the surface. Once the bubbles have burst, leaving little holes, use tongs to carefully lift off the rings and flip over the crumpets, then cook for 1 minute on the other side. Re-grease and reheat the rings and pan before cooking the next batch.
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Coconut cheesecake 300 g cashew nuts 2 tablespoons desiccated coconut 200 g medjool dates , pitted 150 g almonds 100 g blanched hazelnuts 4 lemons juice
Pour the cashew nuts in a bowl, cover with cold water, then set aside to soak for at least 4 hours, or preferably overnight. Grease a 20cm springform cake tin, sprinkle in the desiccated coconut, then give the tin a good shake so that it’s evenly distributed. Place the dates in a bowl, cover with warm water, then leave to soak until softened. Drain and add to a food processor, then blitz to a rough paste. Add the almonds and hazelnuts, then blitz to a chunky crumb consistency. Spoon the mixture into the prepared cake tin, patting and smoothing it out evenly with wet hands.
250 ml runny honey 165 ml coconut oil 2 vanilla pods DRIZZLE 400 g fresh strawberries 1½ tablespoons caster sugar ½ lemon juice
Give the food processor bowl a quick rinse, then drain and add the cashew nuts along with lemon juice, honey and coconut oil. Halve the vanilla pods lengthways, scrape out the seeds, then add to the processor, discarding the pods. Blitz until smooth and combined, then have a taste and add more honey if you think it needs it. Carefully pour the cashew mixture on top of the crumb base, smoothing it out evenly. Place the tin onto a tray, then gently tap it on a work surface to get rid of any bubbles. Pop in the freezer for around 2 hours, or until set. Meanwhile, make the strawberry drizzle. Hull and roughly chop the strawberries, then place into a bowl with the sugar and lemon juice. Leave for around 5 minutes to soak, then place in a liquidiser and blitz until smooth.
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Cherry parfait 200 g dark dairy-free chocolate 85 g blanched almonds 150 g dairy-free margarine 85 g glacĂŠ cherries 100 g dried cranberries HONEYCOMB 5 tbsp granulated sugar 2 tbsp golden syrup 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
Begin by making the honeycomb. Generously grease a baking tray with vegetable oil. Melt the granulated sugar and golden syrup in a high-sided saucepan over a low heat. Once melted, turn up the heat a little and bubble the syrup until it turns a rich, caramel-gold colour. Whisk in the bicarbonate of soda. The syrup will foam up – immediately pour it onto your greased baking tray. Set the tray aside and leave it to cool for 20 minutes. Slide the honeycomb off the tray and roughly chop it up. Line a 450g loaf tin with enough clingfilm to allow it to drape over the sides by about 7 to 8cm, smoothing the clingfilm into the tin to form a crease-free surface. Break up the dark chocolate and roughly chop the almonds. Place the chocolate and margarine in a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water, stir together until melted and combined to a smooth and glossy finish. Take the bowl off the heat and stir in the chopped honeycomb, almonds, cherries and cranberries. Spoon the mixture into the lined tin and level the top. Fold the overhanging clingfilm loosely over the parfait, then freeze for 1 hour. Remove from the freezer and transfer the parfait to the fridge until completely set.
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Pear & ginger pudding 55 g unsalted butter , softened, plus extra for greasing 55 g self-raising flour 55 g caster sugar 1 large free-range egg 1 piece of stem ginger in syrup 1 orange 1 ripe pear golden syrup or reserved ginger syrup
Start by making 2 greaseproof paper discs to top the puddings: place 2 teacups or ramekins upside down on greaseproof paper, draw round them, then cut out the circles, just inside the line. Lightly grease one side with butter, then grease the inside of the teacups or ramekins. Blitz the flour, sugar, butter and egg to make a batter, in a food processor, Chop and add the ginger, finely grate in the orange zest, then pulse once or twice. Peel, core and cut the pear into 1cm chunks. Pour a little golden syrup or reserved ginger syrup into the base of each cup or ramekin, then top with half the chopped pear each. Divide the batter between the two, then lightly press a circle of paper on top, butter-side down. Cook in the microwave on full power for 4 minutes, or until it feels springy to the touch. Leave to cool for a couple of minutes, then carefully turn out and enjoy with lashings of hot custard.
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The cocoa industry For many of us chocolate is pure pleasure, a little bit of heaven that you eat. However, the real story of chocolate is a supply chain where our affordable luxury is paid for in misery and exploitation. The earnings model of chocolate companies is farmer poverty, this is the way it has been for decades and will continue to be unless the correct laws are put in place. As long as the farmer is paying the price of cheap chocolate, there’s no way it can be sustainable. The poverty for these poor farmers is so dire it could be considered modern slavery.
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Chocolate’s dark side Chocolate is the most popular sweet treat in the world. People around the world, mostly in Europe and the United States, consume more than 3 million tons of cocoa beans a year, and, not only does eating chocolate make you feel good, it may also be good for your heart and your brain. Chocolate is a product of the cacao bean, which grows primarily in the tropical climates of Western Africa, Asia, and Latin America. The cacao bean is more commonly referred to as cocoa, so that is the term that will be used throughout this book. Western African countries, mostly Ghana and the Ivory Coast, supply more than 70% of the world’s cocoa. The cocoa they grow and harvest is sold to a majority of chocolate companies, including the largest in the world. The Industrial Revolution allowed chocolate to be mass-produced and brought the treat to the masses. The popularity led to the development of cacao tree plantations. Enslaved people farmed most of the plantations. Initially, Spanish colonizers forced Mesoamericans to farm the cacao plantations. When the indigenous peoples began to die in large numbers from diseases brought by Europeans, enslaved Africans were brought over to make up the labour shortage.
In addition to sugarcane, indigo and other crops, enslaved Africans planted, maintained and harvested cacao trees throughout the Caribbean, Central and South America to feed the new European taste for chocolate. In recent years, a handful of organisations and journalists have exposed the wide spread use of child labour, and in some cases slavery, on cocoa farms in Western Africa. Since then, the industry has become increasingly secretive, making it difficult for reporters to not only access farms where human rights violations still occur, but to then disseminate this information to the public. The farms of Western Africa supply cocoa to international giants such as Hershey’s, Mars, and Nestlé, revealing the industry’s direct connection to the worst forms of child labour, human trafficking, and slavery. In Western Africa, cocoa is a commodity crop grown primarily for export; 60% of the Ivory Coast’s export revenue comes from its cocoa. As the chocolate industry has grown over the years, so has the demand for cheap cocoa. As a result, they often resort to the use of child labour to keep their prices competitive.
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Growing chocolate The journey of an extraordinary bean
Consumers are so out of touch with how food is made in general, when it comes to chocolate most people don’t know what a cocoa pod looks like, or know that cocoa beans start their life as being a white, pulpy substance. The harvesting of cocoa could very well be considered medieval, this is because the process hasn’t changed and is still being cultivated using the same techniques. This is highly likely due to the fact if you pay the labourers virtually nothing then there is not a lot of incentive to invest money into expensive machinery. The trees are native to the Amazon and Orinoco river basins in South America. The trees are widely distributed from south eastern Mexico to the Amazon River. They thrive in hot, humid areas within about 20 degrees of the equator, according to Cornell. As the popularity of chocolate spread, growers established plantations in other regions, such as West Africa and South and Southeast Asia. Today, Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, Nigeria, Indonesia and Brazil account for 79 percent of the world’s cacao production. Cacao trees bear fruit that are about the same size and shape of a papaya. These bumpy, lumpy berries, or pods, are full of up to 50 sour seeds, or beans, covered in white pulp. The tree grows large fleshy fruits continuously throughout the year along its trunk. The location of the seed pods on the trees, each containing 30 to 50 seeds, make it an easy product to harvest by hand.
In fact, it is estimated that during harvest, a worker can pick around 650 pods per day, which is an amount sufficient to make roughly 65 pounds of chocolate. Cacao seeds are harvested by hand because machines could injure the trees, according to Cornell. Workers remove the pods, which are orange when they are ripe, and open them with a machete. The seeds are placed in large fermentation trays that are stacked and covered in banana leaves, where they are left for two to seven days. Fermentation produces the chocolate flavor and aroma. It also destroys the seed’s embryo, preventing unwanted germination, and causes the white pulp to fall away from the seeds. After fermenting, the beans dry out on sunny platforms. Workers turn them several times a day for three to five days to complete drying. The beans can dry faster in rotary dryers but sun-dried beans taste the best, according to Cornell. Next, the beans are taken to the chocolate factory, where they are cleaned and debris is removed. The beans are roasted in large, rotating ovens. The roasting draws out flavour and removes the beans from their hulls. Roasted beans go into a winnowing machine, which cracks the beans and removes hulls. The remaining part of the bean is called the nib. Nibs become chocolate. The nibs are ground down under a series of rollers. This process results in a thick paste called chocolate liquor, which is the main source of unsweetened baking chocolate.
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Growing
Drying
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Rocky road ahead There are nearly 2 million cocoa-growing households in Ivory Coast and Ghana, and the majority of cocoa produced worldwide is grown by small holders, with the average farm size in these countries sitting at less than 10 acres. Cocoa grown in the Ivory Coast makes up 43% of the total world crop and 60% of the country’s export revenue, while nearly 40% of the population is involved in cocoa farming. The farmers who grow our cocoa beans are underpaid and exploited, this means they aren’t earning enough for basic human rights such as food, education and housing. The remote towns where this is produced is rooted with poverty with poor infrastructure, there may not be running water or electricity, but the aroma of chocolate can be across the whole village. The chocolate industry is one of the wealthier industries in the world, they are estimated to make over $100 billion a year, however most farmers make less than $1 a day. An average farmer would only gain $200 a year which is hardly a living wage. This industry allows the exploitation of children, forcing them to work in plantations as slaves. This made headline news in 2000, with many in western countries threatening to boycott the chocolate companies due to horrific child labour reports. Although the companies said they would fix this by 2005, this goal was not met, and a decade later this outrage
has been submerged in cultural debate and the paramount requirement for the African governments: keep the cocoa moving. In west Africa alone, over 1.3 million, many of which are children, are doing illegal work. Approximately 2.1 million children in the Ivory Coast and Ghana may be exposed to the worst child labour conditions on cocoa farms. Many of these children are slaves as they are trafficked to farms, unable to leave, and forced to work without pay. As the chocolate industry has grown over the years, so has the demand for cheap cocoa. Many children in Western Africa live in poverty, so begin working at a young age to support their families. Some children end up on cocoa farms because traffickers tell them that the job pays well, whilst others are sold to traffickers or farm owners by their relatives who, unaware of the danger and exploitation, believe that they will find honest work and send some of their earnings home. Traffickers also abduct young children from small villages in neighbouring countries. At least 12,000 child cocoa workers have been trafficked from neighbouring nations. Many of these children will never see their families again.
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Making trade fair The farms of Western Africa supply cocoa to the international giants such as Hershey’s, Mars, and Nestlé, showing how these corporations are directly connected to the worst forms of child labour and slavery. It’s almost impossible to find a perfect product in any industry, so admittedly it is difficult to find things that are going to stand up when it comes to environmental, economic and social factors. So for a start, don’t beat yourself up, but try and learn more and opt to buy better. Chocolate is one of the world’s favourite foods but growing cocoa is a hard task. Fairtrade is helping to make it more sustainable. 90% of the world’s cocoa is grown on small family farms by about 6 million farmers who earn their living from growing and selling cocoa beans. Cocoa trees grow in tropical environments, within 10 degrees latitude from the equator. The ideal climate for growing cocoa is hot, rainy, and tropical, with lush vegetation to provide shade for the cocoa trees. The primary growing regions are Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana produce over 60% of global cocoa supply.
Cocoa is a delicate and sensitive crop, and farmers must protect trees from wind, sun, pests, and disease. With proper care, cocoa trees begin to yield pods at peak production levels by the fifth year, and they can continue at this level for 10 years. But for all this hard work, cocoa farmers gain very little from a very profitable global cocoa trade. Between 2016 and 2017 global cocoa prices dropped by more than a third, disease and age are damaging cocoa trees and the number of farmers is falling because the benefits are so poor that few young people want to stay in the profession - the average age of a cocoa farmer is over 50. Farmers aren’t benefiting sufficiently and remain in poverty as their income fails to keep up with rising production costs and household expenses. Fairtrade helps to make cocoa farming more sustainable through payment of the Fairtrade Premium. Fairtrade Premium is unique to Fairtrade and is an additional sum of money paid over and above the Fairtrade price. It goes into a communal fund for the workers and farmers to invest - for example in business or community projects - enabling them to better provide for themselves and their communities.
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Chocolate and beetroot cake olive oil plain flour , for dusting 300 g good-quality dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids) 250 g raw beetroot 4 large free-range eggs 150 g golden caster sugar 120 g ground almonds 1 teaspoon baking powder 1 tablespoon goodquality cocoa powder
Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/gas 4. Lightly grease a 20cm springform cake tin with olive oil. Use scissors to cut out a circle of greaseproof paper, roughly the same size as the bottom of the tin, and use it to line the base. Dust the sides of the tin lightly with flour, then tap the tin to get rid of any excess. Break 200g of the chocolate into small pieces and add to a heatproof bowl. Place the bowl on top of a small pan of simmering water over a medium heat, making sure the bottom of the bowl isn’t touching the water, and allow to melt, stirring occasionally. Remove from the heat and put to one side. Peel the beetroot, then quarter them on a chopping board. Push the beetroot through the food processor, then tip into a large mixing bowl. Separate the eggs, placing the whites into a large clean mixing bowl and adding the yolks to the beetroot, then wash your hands. Stir the sugar, almonds, baking powder, cocoa powder and melted chocolate into the beetroot and mix together well. Use an electric hand whisk to whisk the egg whites until you have stiff peaks. Use a spatula to fold a quarter of the egg whites into the beetroot mixture to loosen, then once combined, fold in the rest but try not to over-mix. Add the mixture to the prepared cake tin and spread out evenly using a spatula. Bake until risen and cooked through. Allow the cake to cool slightly, then carefully turn it out on to a wire rack to cool completely.
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Raw chocolate cake 300 g pecan nuts 150 g medjool dates 150 g dried figs 3 tablespoons raw honey 5 tablespoons raw cacao powder , (see note) 1½ teaspoons vanilla extract BASE 60 g cacao butter , (see note) 150 g hazelnuts 3 tablespoons raw cacao powder 1½ tablespoons raw honey ICING 200 g coconut oil 120 g cacao powder 2 teaspoons raw dark agave nectar
Line a 20cm springform cake tin with greaseproof paper. To make the base, shave the cacao butter very finely into a small bowl, then place in a large bowl of hot water and allow to melt (it melts at about 34ÂşC, so is still considered raw). Blitz the hazelnuts in a food processor until very fine, combine with the other base ingredients and press into the tin. Chill while you make the filling. Blitz the pecan nuts until very fine, then add the remaining ingredients (remember to destone the dates) and blitz until everything comes together. Press into the tin and chill for at least 3 hours. Combine the icing ingredients and chill for about 20 minutes to set a little, stirring once or twice. Run a round-bladed knife around the edge of the cake and remove from the tin. Spread the icing on the cake with a palette knife
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Chocolate whoopie pies 275 g plain flour 2 tablespoons cocoa powder 1½ tesapoons bicarbonate of soda 75 g dark chocolate
Preheat the oven to 170ÂşC/gas 3. Line two large baking trays with greaseproof paper. Sift together the flour, cocoa, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and a pinch of sea salt. Melt the chocolate with the butter in a heatproof bowl over a pan of barely simmering water. Stir until smooth and set aside to cool. In a large bowl, lightly beat the egg, then whisk in the sugars and soured cream. Stir in the melted chocolate and butter to combine.
75 g unsalted butter 1 large free-range egg 125 g light sugar 75 g caster sugar 125 g soured cream 75 g white chocolate chips BUTTERCREAM 100 g white chocolate 150 g icing sugar 100 g unsalted butter ½ teaspoon vanilla extract GLAZE 150 g dark chocolate 150 ml single cream
Add the sifted dry ingredients and 5 tablespoons of boiling water, and mix until smooth. Fold in the white chocolate chips. Spoon 12 even dollops onto each baking sheet, leaving plenty of space between them. Bake on the middle shelf of the oven for 10 to 12 minutes. Leave to cool on the trays for a few minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. For the buttercream frosting, melt the white chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water. Stir until smooth, then leave to cool. Sift the icing sugar into a large bowl, add the butter and vanilla, then beat until smooth and light. Add the cooled chocolate and stir to combine. Fill a large piping bag with frosting and pipe onto the flat side of 12 of the whoopies. Sandwich with the remaining cakes. Melt all the glaze ingredients in a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water, stirring until smooth. Leave to cool slightly. Spoon over the pies, decorate with sprinkles, if you like, and leave to set before serving.
1 tablespoon light sugar
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Chocolate Guinness Cake 100 g unsalted butter , plus extra for greasing 75 g dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids) 200 ml Guinness , plus extra for the icing 200 g plain flour 20 g cocoa powder 1 teaspoon baking powder 2 large free-range eggs 200 g golden caster sugar ICING 3 tablespoons sour cream 200 g icing sugar
Cube the butter and chop the chocolate. Put the butter and chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water and allow to melt. Remove from the heat and let it cool to room temperature. Stir in the Guinness – don’t worry if it seizes or splits, it’ll come back together when mixed with the other ingredients. Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/gas 4. Grease a 23cm cake tin with butter. In a medium bowl, mix the flour, cocoa and baking powder until combined. In another bowl, beat the eggs and sugar for about 3 minutes with an electric mixer until fluffy. Beat half the chocolate mixture into the eggs until combined. Add half the flour, then combine again. Repeat with the remaining flour and chocolate. Pour the mixture into the tin and bake for 40 to 45 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean. If the top is colouring too much after 30 minutes, cover it with tin foil. Take the cake out of the oven, cool in the tin for 10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack. For the icing, beat together the sour cream and icing sugar until smooth, then stir in 2 tablespoons of Guinness. If it becomes too loose, add more icing sugar. Spread over the cooled cake and serve.
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Chocolate rye cookies 100 g quality dark chocolate , (70%) 100 g unsalted butter 100 g rye bread 2 large free-range eggs 50 g golden caster sugar
Preheat the oven to 200ºC/400ºF/gas 6. Line two trays with greaseproof paper and rub with olive oil. Melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a pan of gently simmering water, then remove and stir in the butter so it melts. Tear the bread into a food processor and blitz into fine crumbs, then add the eggs and sugar, and blitz again well. With the processor still running, pour in the chocolate mixture and let it blitz until it’s all combined. Spoon the cookie mix into a large sandwich bag, snip off the corner and pipe 3-4cm blobs to make 24 cookies on the lined trays. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, or until spread and set. Sprinkle with sea salt, leave to cool a little, and tuck in.
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The sugar industry Refined sugar has been considered an unobtainable luxury for centuries. Nowadays, we consume around 170 million tonnes a year. For many the sweetest thing about sugar is selling it. This sweet sugar program would typically cost the US consumer an estimated 3 or 4 billion dollars a year. On average, sugar accounts for one calorie out of every seven we consume.
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Dusting truth Around 80% of the world’s sugar is derived from sugar cane, grown by millions of small-scale farmers and plantation workers in developing countries. Sugar cane is a tall, bamboo-like grass that grows to a height of 6m (20ft) and is largely grown in tropical countries. The remaining 20% of the world’s sugar supply comes from sugar beet – a root crop resembling a large parsnip, grown mainly in the temperate zones in the North. In general, the costs of producing sugar from sugar cane are lower than for sugar beet. The global sugar industry is vast and complex and smallholder farmers who need to sell their cane sugar often struggle to influence this trade.
Traditionally, the international trade laws that govern sugar imports have made it difficult for smallholder farmers to access the more lucrative markets of Europe and North America. These force them into competition with more powerful, wealthy countries that have greater financial resources to dedicate to sugar production and greater political power to subsidise and promote their sugar industries. Sucrose, found in both cane and beet, remains the single most used sweetener in the industrial world. The crystals trap air, making cakes and bread lighter and softer. The molecules bind well to water which helps keep food moist.
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The holy grass How sugar is used in baking
Sugar is a sweet substance that is made up of a molecule known as sucrose. Sucrose, found in both cane and beet, remains the single most used sweetener in the industrial world. The crystals trap air, making cakes and bread lighter and softer. The molecules bind well to water which helps keep food moist.While we all know that sugar sweetens baked goods, it actually plays many different roles in baking regarding the structure, texture, and colour of baked goods. The first and most obvious role of sugar in baking is that it adds sweetness and flavour. While granulated sugar is a fairly neutral sweetness, other varieties of sugar, such as brown sugar, add more depth of flavour in addition to the sweetness. Because of the way sugar caramelizes when heated, sugar also promotes browning of baked goods. Baked goods with higher ratios of sugar will brown more quickly and readily than baked goods with little to no sugar present.
Sugar has hygroscopic properties, meaning that it grabs and holds onto moisture. Because sugar holds onto moisture, baked goods made with sugar do not stale as quickly as baked goods made without sugar. This style of bread is made without any sugar at all. Sugar also serves to help reduce gluten development and tenderize baked goods. Because sugar grabs and holds onto moisture it leaves less moisture readily available, delaying gluten development. Additionally, because sugar holds onto moisture, it keeps baked goods tender for a longer period of time. Sugar can be used as a garnish in a variety of ways. Powdered sugar can be dusted over cakes, brownies, and tarts for a simple elegant topping. Cookies can be rolled in plain sugar or cinnamon sugar for a quick bit of texture. Coarse sugar can be sprinkled on pastries and muffins to add a pretty sparkling finish and some crunch. Additionally, sugar can be heated into a syrup or caramelised and used to make intricate sugar decorations.
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Sugar high To begin harvesting the plant the workers must set fire to the fields, this is done to help protect the cane cutters from cutting themselves as the leaves of the sugarcane are razor sharp. Sugarcane is a grass, which means after you cut it the plant will grow back. The average lifespan of a sugarcane field is around 7 years if it is well maintained. Harvesting sugarcane is a notoriously grueling and dangerous practice. When harvested manually, sugarcane takes a brutal toll on the caĂąeros. However, farmers often prefer manual cutting to the more efficient and less hazardous harvester. This is because the machines often end up taking up the roots out too, which leads to less growth in the following harvests. Less growth, less money. Exposure to heat stress is a critical issue within the sugarcane industry, and agricultural work in general, because it can have devastating health impacts on the body. A recent study found that workers experienced heat and dehydration symptoms at least once a week, ranging from headaches to elevated heart rates. Other research has found links between long-term exposure to heat stress and deadly chronic kidney disease among sugarcane workers.
Dominicn Republic is another large importer of sugarcane, and has been sending sugar for close to a century to the US. Dominican sugar makes up one sixth of low-tariff sugar imports into the US, an enormous proportion. Close to half of all Dominican sugar is produced by one company, Central Romana. Life for a sugar worker in the D.R. is lived in primitive villages known as bateyes, which are tiny settlements carved out of endless fields of cane. The bateyes are owned by the sugar company, which leads to workers rarely leaving the plantation. The settlements are so remote all they can see on the horizon is sugarcane fields. Unfortunately, blackmailing is at the heart of the corruption in this industry as many face losing their jobs which would lead to being deported. Despite the horrific conditions they are in, the workers have no choice but to continue working in gruelling conditions.
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Salty sugar Looking at why sugar isn’t always sweet
Sugar has always held immense power over human beings. For most of human history, very few people ate sugar. The engine what lead sugar to be an everyday commodity was slavery. English planters first began growing sugarcane in Barbados in the 1640s, using a mixture of convicts and prisoners from the British Isles and enslaved people from Africa. Sugar agriculture was very profitable and it quickly spread throughout the Caribbean and to Louisiana and Mississippi in North America. In parts of Brazil and the Caribbean, where African slave labour on sugar plantations dominated the economy, most enslaved people were put to work in the sugar industry. Sugarcane field slaves worked long hours planting, maintaining, and harvesting the sugarcane under hot and dangerous conditions.
Slavery and sugar remained tied for a very long time, most notably so in the New World. 11 million African slaves were exported from their homelands. Six million of them went to work making sugar- the most of any profession. When the Haitian Revolution occurred near 1800, ending slavery there, it cut off 43% of Europe’s sugar supply. In the bateyes, labourers and their families are housed in dozens in crumbling cabins without the most elementary services – running water, electricity, a toilet – and they spend up to 12 hours a day in the fields. Without protective equipment, and without health insurance and social security, cane clippers remain at the mercy of a reckless logic that decisively binds daily work with the ability to feed oneself, day after day.
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Lemon cake 100ml vegetable oil, plus extra for the tin 275g self-raising flour
Heat oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6. Oil a 1lb loaf tin and line it with baking parchment. Mix the flour, sugar, baking powder and lemon zest in a bowl. Add the oil, lemon juice and 170ml cold water, then mix until smooth.
200g golden caster sugar 1 tsp baking powder 1 lemon, zested, ½ juiced ICING 150g icing sugar
Pour the mixture into the tin. Bake for 30 mins or until a skewer comes out clean. Cool in the tin for 10 mins, then remove and transfer the cake to a wire rack to cool fully. Sieve the icing sugar into a bowl. Mix in just enough lemon juice to make an icing thick enough to pour over the loaf (if you make the icing too thin, it will just run off the cake).
½ lemon, juiced
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Croustade 1 kg apples , such as Golden Delicious 100 ml armagnac 55 g sunflower spread 12 sheets of filo pastry (270g) 115 g caster sugar , plus extra for sprinkling A few drops of vanilla extract 1 lemon 1 small sprig of fresh rosemary
Peel, core and quarter the apples, then thinly slice and place into a bowl. Pour over the armagnac, cover and refrigerate overnight. Preheat the oven to 190ºC/375ºF/gas 5. Melt the butter, then use a little to brush a loosebased 25cm round flan tin. Brush a sheet of pastry with the butter and lay it over the bottom of the tin, draping the excess over the sides. Sprinkle over ½ teaspoon of sugar. Brush a second pastry sheet with butter and lay it at right angles to the first, then sprinkle with sugar. Repeat the process with more pastry sheets, laying each sheet diagonally, until you have 4 pastry sheets left. Drain the apple slices, but not too thoroughly as the armagnac flavour is so good, then mix them in a bowl with the remaining sugar and the vanilla. Grate in the lemon zest, then pick and finely chop a few rosemary leaves and stir into the mixture. Pile the apple slices into the flan tin and spread them out evenly. Brush the remaining pastry sheets with butter and sprinkle with sugar, as before, then drape over the apples, butter-side down, with each sheet at right angles to the one before it. Draw the overhanging ends lightly over the top of the pie and arrange them so they stick up as much as possible, like crumpled tissue paper. They should completely cover the top of the pie, forming a light and airy crust. Brush lightly with butter. Bake for 20 minutes, or until golden, then very loosely cover with a sheet of tin foil. Cook for a further 20 to 25 minutes, or until golden and bubbling.
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Toffee apple upside-down cake 25 g vegan margarine , plus extra for greasing 3 dessert apples 195 g muscovado sugar 180 g plain flour 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda 1½ teaspoons mixed spice 80 ml sunflower oil 1 tesapoon vinegar
Preheat the oven to 180ÂşC/350ÂşF/gas 4, and grease and line the base of a 23cm square cake tin. Core and coarsely grate 2 of the apples and finely slice the remaining apple. Melt 85g of the sugar and the margarine in a pan, then pour into the prepared tin. Top with the sliced apple in a single layer. Combine the flour, 110g of sugar, the bicarbonate of soda and mixed spice in a bowl. In a separate bowl, combine the oil, 180ml water, the vinegar, grated apple and lemon zest. Mix the dry ingredients with the wet, quickly but thoroughly. Roughly chop and stir in the walnuts, then pour over the layer of apples in the cake tin.
1 lemon 85 g shelled walnuts
Bake for 30 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean. Leave the cake to cool for 5 minutes before turning out.
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Anzac biscuits 100 g unsalted butter 2 tablespoons golden syrup 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda 120 g plain flour 80 g porridge oats 100 g golden caster sugar
Preheat the oven to 180ยบC/350ยบF/gas 4. Line 2 large baking trays with greaseproof paper. Melt the butter in a small pan over a low heat, then stir in the golden syrup. In a small bowl, combine the bicarbonate of soda with 3 tablespoons of boiling water, then stir it into the butter mixture. Combine the flour, oats, sugar and coconut in a medium bowl. Make a well in the middle, then add the butter mixture, vanilla extract and orange zest. Give the wet ingredients a good mix, then gradually stir in the dry ingredients to combine.
80 g desiccated coconut 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1 orange zest
Place heaped tablespoons of the mixture onto the prepared baking trays, leaving a rough 3cm gap between each one. Place in the hot oven for around 10 minutes, or until golden, then transfer to a wire cooling rack to cool completely.
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Bitter Sweet
Viennese whirls 200g slightly salted butter, softened 50g icing sugar 2 tsp vanilla extract 200g plain flour 2 tsp cornflour ½ tsp baking powder FILLING 100g butter , softened 170g icing sugar 1 tsp vanilla extract 50g raspberry jam or strawberry jam
Heat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4 and line 2 baking sheets with baking parchment. Put the butter and icing sugar in a large bowl and beat with an electric hand whisk for about 5 mins until pale and fluffy. Add the vanilla extract and beat again until fully incorporated. Sift in the flour, cornflour and baking powder, and fold into the mixture using a spatula until combined (the dough should have a tacky consistency). Spoon the dough into a piping bag fitted with a large star-shaped nozzle. Pipe swirly circles 5cm diameter onto 2 baking sheets making sure there are 3cm spaces between each swirl. Bake for 10-12 mins, swapping the trays over halfway through the cooking time so the biscuits are evenly baked, until pale golden and cooked through. Leave to cool on the baking sheets, then transfer to racks. Put the softened butter in a large mixing bowl and add the icing sugar. Stir together initially with a wooden spoon then switch to electric beaters or a whisk to get the buttercream fluffy and smooth. Add the vanilla extract and beat once more to combine. Transfer the buttercream to a piping bag and snip off the end. Turn the biscuits over so their flat side is facing up then pipe buttercream over half of the biscuits and spread a little jam on the rest. Sandwich a jam covered biscuit together with a buttercream one and repeat until all the biscuits are used up.
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Fed Up
Serve for a nice afternoon tea or a evening treat
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Fowl Play
Baker’s notes
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Fowl Play
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Fowl Play
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Fowl Play
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Ethical Baking
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