Sunday, March 25, 2012

Trick Your Taste Buds Into Enjoying More Healthy Foods

Sour Cream Chocolate Hokey Pokey Brownie

Food Diary (March 25, 2012)
Breakfast: Missed
Lunch: Rolled oats with banana, sunflower seeds and flax seeds
Dinner: Sandwich

Recently I received Arla Köket Smetana to test. I decided to use it to make brownies. The Smetana has a 42% fat content which is half of what butter has. Smetana worked well in a brownie. It added slight bitterness, a bit similar to dark chocolate.

The brownie was rich, not overly sweet and slightly bitter. During baking the hokey pokey melted and mingled with the brownie, creating a sticky gooey texture. Hokey pokey has a lot of air and this created gaps as they melted, giving it the 'rustic' look. But there were no gaps in the taste. The recipe is available here.

Today's Favourite Photo
Source: Bite my Cake
Mint verrines




Today’s Favourite Blog
Source: the Atlantic
Here are a few tips on “How to Trick Your Taste Buds Into Enjoying More Healthy Foods”.

Crunch
"We are drawn to texture and contrast, which is why we love crunchiness," said Barb Stuckey, who works for the food-development company Mattson. Stuckey cites a study in which subjects wore headphones while sampling Pringles potato chips. If the volume of the crunch was artificially cranked up, the tasters rated the chips as crisper and fresher.

Adding crunch to vegetables such as using toasted seeds can possible make the vegetable more appealing to eat, even potentially addictive.

Sweetness
Stuckey cites an Arizona State University study involving cauliflower and broccoli dipped briefly in sugar water. "Adding approximately 20 percent sugar not only resulted in higher pleasantness scores, but also changed the subjects' attitudes toward the vegetables in the future -- they liked unsweetened cauliflower and broccoli better from that point forward.

Trick Your Tongue
This is a small, red West African berry called Synsepalum dulcificum. For an hour after you eat one, sour foods will taste sweet. Scientists have discovered that a protein in the fruit binds to the sweet receptors in the tongue; the protein changes shape when exposed to acids, turning on those sweet receptors.

21 comments:

  1. That "trick your tongue" tip sounds like it would have medicinal uses - like helping children take bitter medicines.

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    1. This brings back memories of having to consume some of those horrible medicine. Wish I had those berries then!

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  2. hi three cookies, how are you, i am back to blogging.the brownie looks so rich in color and sure looks pleasing to the palate.
    i like the story about the african berry fruit, which has a unique reaction in it's food protein molecules, when exposed to human sweet receptors.
    have a nice day

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  3. Brownie looks yummy! Is smetana artificially processed food?

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  4. I'm addicted to crunchiness. I wonder if I would get less hungry if I listened to the sound of something crunching late at night (when I tend to get hungry or needing something to crunch on)?

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    1. Or maybe more hungry when you listed to the sound of something crunching

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  5. Wow that Mint verrines looks so good!

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  6. I ate a lot more than you on March 25. No breakfast? A sandwich for dinner? Are you dieting??? I would love one of those sour cream hokey pokey brownies right now! xx

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  7. The brownie looks amazing! I was sure you have put some jam inside ;-) It must have been delicious.
    I'm seriously interested in the African berry. When I see it I will certainly taste it. I already imagine making sour desserts with low-fat yogurt and feeling as if they were made of sweetened fat cream... or other unsweetened, sour desserts tasting sweet...

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    1. Thank you, no jam, only hokey pokey (which is sugar and syrup!). You could call it sugar jam!
      That berry can certainly have a lot of uses.

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  8. Holey Hokey Pokey! That looks mighty sinful ... I'm all for it :)
    Think I gotta trick my brain more than my tongue.

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    1. Sinful alright. I've just has the last remaining piece, not sure when we will meet again:)
      Tricking the brain is more effective and sustainable I guess.

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  9. I don't think I need to trick myself into liking healthier foods...but my father is another story. I'm going to try these out on him.

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  10. Those mint verrines look delicious!

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    1. Definitely, and I am sure it tastes as good as it looks

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