"You, Grainlady, may actually create a new recipe out of your head, but, don't you think it may already exist somewhere?" Yes and no..... As the old saying goes, "there is no new thing under the sun" but...... If you study food science and food history, you'll find baker's ratios have been well established throughout the ages, and they have evolved as new foods, methods, and machinery were developed, and that's what I use to develop recipes. Bread made before hard winter wheat was developed, as well as methods for milling it (in the mid 1870's), was made with soft wheat and was entirely different, and the method for making it was completely different. Naturally-leavened breads are made differently than breads made with baker's yeast, which was developed during WWII and revolutionized bread making, but it's all "bread" made with common ingredients and some common ratios. There have been well established "rules" for making bread, then in 1945 out came a booklet entitled "Bake the No-Knead Way" Ann Pillsbury's Amazing Discovery, and you could save up to 1/2 your baking time. Next came "Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day", with another revolutionizing method. But you still get "bread". Those were methods and recipes they developed. There is a proportion we maintain between ingredients for most baked goods and they are well established and easily found and followed. Biscuit recipes are fairly standard, but there are all kinds of recipes for biscuits because a few ingredients have been altered, and new add-ins make them "new and improved", but it's still a biscuit. We know that there are ingredients that are tenderizers (fat and sugar) and ingredients that are structure builders (flour and eggs). A standard plain cake has, by measure, 1/3 as much fat as sugar; 2/3 as much milk as sugar; and about three times as much flour as liquid. The ratio worked for my grandmother who used a coffee or tea cup to measure the ingredients without a real recipe, or my mother who used a pint canning jar with a sketchy recipe handed down from her mother, or me with my fancy stainless steel measuring cups and exact measurements, but still using a similar ratio of ingredients that make a cake. But take Red Velvet Cake as an example. It's essentially a chocolate cake with a bottle of red food coloring added to it, whether that was by accident or intentionally. It's a cake using a common ratio of ingredients - with a new twist. Up until then there were plenty of chocolate cake recipes, but only one Red Velvet Cake - and now you will find many adaptations of it - and "Red Velvet" is turning up in all kinds of baked goods, not just cake. When you alter ingredients significantly from "normal standards", such as in the 37 Calorie Brownies, you have to find ways to use alternatives to meet your recipe goals. Sarah Phillips of "Baking 9-1-1" fame (great book and web site) made 100 versions of a low-fat white cake before she was happy with it. That's a cake recipe she developed - she didn't invent "cake". More science... When fat and sugar are reduced for the sake of calories, you will compromise the tenderness. Buttermilk and fat-free yogurt make good low-fat substitutes in recipes that aid tenderness and richness without fat. If you use chemical no-calorie, sugar-free substitutes or stevia, you've sacrificed tenderness and browning. The recipe for 37 Calorie Brownies is what it is....according to the person who developed it. Although it had little in common with brownies, other than the name, anyone who makes the recipe will probably find ways to alter the original recipe unless they like it just like it is. I made a low-carb version of Coconut Pecan Filling/Frosting (a recipe I developed) to top the recipe to make it "better" than just the plain recipe. I wasn't concerned with the number of calories, but I liked that it was wheat-free. In order to alter the 37 Calorie Brownie recipe to be more like traditional brownies, study what makes a brownie a brownie. Do you want it fudgy or cakey? What kind of mouth-feel, because this recipe is smooth and creamy and nothing like cake. Differences in cocoa powder and chocolate in a brownie recipe might be interesting (something America's Test Kitchen has explored, I'm sure). What would happen if you refrigerated the batter before baking it? Added nut flour (such as almond flour) or coconut flour to make it more cake-like? This is how you develop a recipe, and when it's finished, it has little in common with the original, if you make enough changes. Several years ago I developed cookie recipes for a local sorghum mill. The cookies and recipes were featured at a "Taste of Kansas Tour" at the mill. They are recipes I created myself, but they were based on common baker's formulas and common baking science. For convenience, I first developed a base recipe that would make nearly any kind or flavor of a cookie, then I altered it with add-ins and substitutes. If you find a Nutella White Sorghum Flour Cookie Recipe, it's probably mine. I've shared it on this message board many times. I've developed a multi-grain baking mix called "Good-For-You Baking Mix" and recipes to use it in, but I'm not the first person to come up with the idea - even Betty Crocker didn't develop Bisquick originally - a cook on a train developed it so he had a short-cut mixture with which to make biscuits quickly - as needed. I developed a multi-grain pancake mix one Christmas to add to food baskets at church, and we call it "Christmas Pancake Mix"- not the first, but the one using ingredients common in my pantry, like Morning Moo's Whey-Based Milk Substitute and grains I mill myself. My original recipe for a low-carb granola dubbed "Nutola" because there are more nuts than grain, and low-glycemic sweeteners, isn't the first granola recipe, just my version of one I developed. I've developed recipes 18-years ago using agave nectar (when it was nearly impossible to find), and even won $500 in a low-glycemic recipe contest using 2 of those recipe. At the time, my agave nectar sweetened recipes were the only ones I'd ever seen, but I used honey as a guideline for the recipes I developed. -Grainlady

Post on the diet forum - someone will have links. Kathy

The claim is that it contains 100; by my calculations, one sixtieth (they say it makes 60-2x2" squares) prepared using the average amount of flour called for would have about *200* calories. If one cut out the honey and unrefined sugar, which don't offer much nutritionally (molasses has a *lot* of good stuff for you), it would be roughly 150 AND you wouldn't lose out on the vitamins/minerals it is claimed to contain.

No, I'm not a counter. I was put on a no sodium diet back in 1969. No, that 'no sodium' is not a typo. The doctor actually meant NO sodium! Including the natural sodium found in many foods, like broccoli, celery, etc. The list of things I could not eat was extremely daunting. And I suffered through it, as best as I could, for a number of years. When that doctor retired, I was blessed to find another who was empathetic and much more understanding of human nature and quality of life. He immediately changed 'no' to 'low'. What a difference! Anyhow, 1500 to 2000 mgs per day has been the recommended amount since. But I have never actually 'counted' mgs. I do read labels on any packaged foods I buy very carefully. I don't eat out very often, but when I do, I try to choose dishes I know to be low sodium. I also try to be extra careful the day before and the day after I eat out, to help balance out the splurge. I don't add any salt to anything I cook. And add only what is absolutely necessary to whatever I bake. This method has worked very well for me for a number of decades now. And I hope it always will! I'm afraid I'd be a miserable failure if I ever had to actually count mgs! Rusty