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 With
some exceptions (white
chocolate in fresh ginger ice cream, caramel corn, marshmallows,
and candied
peanuts, for example), I tend to like things that aren’t too
sweet. That occasionally confounds people because I’m a baker and I am
no stranger to sugar, honey, and maple syrup. But I tend to gravitate
toward things that get their flavors courtesy of chunks of
bittersweet chocolate, a swirl of dark caramel, a squeeze of tangy
citrus, or a jolt from coffee. And I also like anything that highlights
seasonal fruits and berries, which tend to straddle the sweet-tangy
side, as apricots, plums and berries sometimes do.
A
frequently asked question I get is about dialing down the sweetness in
desserts, and as a recipe developer and tester (and taster!), my
response is that I test recipes with various quantities of ingredients
(from butter and flour, to sugar and leavener) until I get it to where
I like it. I was recently reading about the test kitchen
of Ottolenghi, and one of the collaborators on their cookbooks
said, “If something says 1/3 of a teaspoon, you’ll bet it’s been tested
with 1/2 of a teaspoon and a 1/4 of a teaspoon.” Like other recipe
testers, I go through the same thing, testing and tweaking as I go. So
if you ask me if you can
change it, I don’t advise it because I’ve already tasted it
a number of ways and like it best the way I present it.
 (That
said, tastes changes over time, including mine. And I’ve been known to
go back and update and change recipes that I’ve made for years if I’ve
discovered something else works better, find a new ingredient, or if I
can make streamline the recipe to make it easier. Recipes aren’t cast
in stone and there’s no rule that says you can’t change it to your
liking. But I always advise giving a recipe a go as written first,
then tweaking it the next time you make it.)
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