Lars, I often substitute water for milk in bread, mostly because I'm out of milk, I don't buy it as often because I only drink one glass for breakfast daily and it's always skim, Ashley likes chocolate milk, whcih might actually be OK in some breads but not most. I've also successfully substituted my homemade yogurt for sour cream and milk in bread and muffins without noticeable problems. If it were me, I'd just substitute water in most bread recipes. Croissants are more tender, so that might not be as good an option for them, I'd probably try to sub something else for the milk in those. Annie

Some want to scream and shout for the sake of hearing themselves scream and shout I believe. A friend's daughter went to a doctor who told her to go with the "if your grandparents didn't eat it, don't eat it" type diet. However the doctor also cautioned a few things. First, white flour and sugar are the whipped puppies in todays diet planning, however granny and gramps sure ate a lot of it and 200 years ago they ate it too. The interesting thing he said was apples and many fruits for the most part are *out*! Why? Granny and gramps ate apples, but not the bastardized hybrids we have available today. Same thing was specified with grapes. Think about chicken and turkey. Nowhere near what they were even 50 years ago to say nothing of 200 years ago. Another interesting one was go ahead and drink coffee if you want, just don't drink decaf. Reason is what they do to it to decaffeinate it. Rice an potatoes are basically out in most weight-loss diets anyway but there too, not what they were before. And so on. So if you *truly* wanted to abide by such a diet, I'm not sure what you actually could eat. Even much of the home grown items would be out since they're genetically modified. I tend to think that moderation is still a good guideline. I doubt any doctor or nutritionist will say a pat of butter will kill you and sometimes the treats are important. Even many diabetics can have a sugar treat on occasion. People die. Period. Someone can get hit by a butter truck and one could blame butter I guess! Like I said before, much depends on the purpose of a changeover. Could be other alternatives than cutting it out completely.

If you have sweetened coconut milk, it can be an acceptable substitute. If the coconut milk is not thick enough, you might have to reduce it down a bit or perhaps add a bit of tapioca or cornstarch to it. Adding coconut flakes would also help it to stay together. I've substituted coconut milk for SCM in macaroons, and I like them better. If you 12 oz can of coconut milk is not sweetened, you can add 1/3 cup sugar to it - that's what I do in my macaroon recipe. Lars Here is a link that might be useful: Lars' Macaroons

plllog- I'm strict with the amount of the fructose portion of "sugars" due to Fructose Malabsorption (aka fructan intolerance) and the list of foods I need to limit or avoid. As much as 30% of the population are deficient (to some degree) in fructose receptors and don't even realize they may have a problem. This has nothing to do with the "anti-fructose or high-fructose corn syrup" issues popular in the last few years. Fructose Malabsorption can be the cause of mild to severe GI issues. It can be hereditary, but more often it develops as we age. Your physician can perform a hydrogen and methane breath test in his office to determine whether you have this condition. With all sugars, the glucose portion is used for energy in your body - it's used by your muscles. I don't have a problem with that kind of "sugar". I can consume dextrose, corn syrup, and other sweeteners/sugars/syrups as long as they are low in fructose . I just don't use a lot of ANY of them as a general practice because high-sugar diets are basically --- deadly. But, this may be what you are missing, and I didn't make it clear, the fructose portion of a sugar goes to the liver to be processed, and that's where the problem with fructose/fructans begins. I need to avoid the fructose/fructans for this reason since having my gallbladder removed, which means your only "filter" remaining is your liver - so be kind to it and avoid fructose/fructans - PLUS the GI issues from the malabsorption issue (double trouble). But long before that, we have avoided high-glycemic foods AND sugars due to diabetes in hubby's family as a way to hopefully avoid diabetes. Two of his siblings died due to diabetes-related issues (age 55 and 66), and another is seriously ill and disabled due to diabetes (age 59) and another sibling is also a longtime diabetic (age 74), and another one has blood glucose issues, but not diabetes (65). That leaves one sister, one brother, and my husband, out of 8, who don't have diabetes. So we are dealing with several different issues, not one, and that may be where the confusion comes from. Sorry about that.... -Grainlady