Knowledge Base > Fran Costigan - Bite-Sized Desserts with Big Appeal

Bite-Sized Desserts with Big Appeal

Fran Costigan - Bite-Sized Desserts with Big Appeal

This event was on Tuesday, February 13, 2024 at 1:00 pm Pacific, 4:00 pm Eastern

Indulge your senses in a delightful experience as the renowned pastry chef Fran Costigan takes center stage at her 8th Annual Essential Vegan Desserts Valentine’s Day Live Event.

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Recorded

Question:

How do I make a crunchy and sweet cookie, without added sugar?

— Myra Dekker

Answer:

Um, it's hard to do. Now I did say that the cookie that I showed was made with a combination of maple syrup and rice syrup. Rice syrup tends to make things hard when it's used in a particular way when you, I don't recommend using it for cakes. It makes them, they tend to bake gummy and it's not, the flavor is off. Um, but in combination in this cookie, it's a very thin cookie. I got a crispy cookie, but that's really a problem because it is granulated sugar, typically white sugar, which we don't use at all in essential vegan desserts that creates CRISPR cookies. And some of you may know that if you use brown sugar, for example, which is cane sugar with the molasses intact, or when it isn't organic brown sugar, it's cane sugar, white sugar with the molasses sprayed back on, then you're gonna get a chewy or cookie because there's more moisture in that sugar. I use coconut sugar in place of brown sugar most of the time and that also has more moisture. So you have to be careful. Recipes without eggs, which is a no problem for me since I've been baking this way for a very long time, they yield a flatter crispier cookie with more spread that has something to do with the fat used as well. And sometimes baking at a lower temperature will allow the cookie to spread before rising so they're more crispy. Um, so I've done that. Um, so those are the things I can suggest, but it's difficult to get a crispy cookie without using sugar.
Fran Costigan

Fran Costigan

Director of Vegan Pastry

FranCostigan.com