Wait, what's the substitution method for cocoa powder instead of chocolate? My google-fu must be weak, I can't find any info about that online.

Thanks! I did try the Bon Apetit recipe, and it came out okay.

Bread slices with soy sauce or tabasco over it.

70% Dark chocolate. Mmmm.

I recommend mashed kohlrabi. Do exactly as you would with mashed potatoes, except using kohlrabi. Add a little bit of olive oil (or mustard oil, if you prefer) to it, as well as oregano and other spices for extra flavour. Also, if you like, try adding cilantro leaves as garnish (or you could have blended clinantro as a sort of thick sauce) with the mash.

You could also try using it in your favourite curry recipe.
Try roasting them with olive oil and spices rubbed in, like you would a cauliflower.

I'm looking for a recipe for chocolate sponge cake. So far, I've found the one by Bon Apetit (http://www.bonappetit.com/recipes/201...) but I'm slightly hesitant about making it because it has no leavening agent at all. I'd like one that didn't use cream of tartar, and used cocoa instead of chocolate, if possible.

Has anyone made the sponge cake from bon apetit or have a sponge cake recipe that you'd recommend?

When scaling down (or scaling up) baking recipes, do you also halve/double/etc the baking powder/soda amount?

I want to bake this: http://smittenkitchen.com/2008/09/maj... but it calls for 3 and half cups of flour. I don't want to use anything more than 2 cups of flour, because I'll probably end up eating most of it if it doesn't turn out very good. (My cake baking skills are suspect, so far, I've only made chocolate cakes and banana cakes, and just twice at that; so I'm not exactly confident about baking cakes)

In general, when scaling recipes, what do you change and what do you not change from the original?

My roommate makes brownies from this recipe during Passover : http://www.landolakes.com/recipe/1310/passover-brownies

A quick search also turned up this, which has four recipes for Passover brownies: http://dyingforchocolate.blogspot.in/...

Oh thanks, I'll double the bananas like you said. If I leave the sugar out, I think that'll be fine then.

There's this recipe called dolma, which is Greek I think (my Bulgarian roommate loves it)
I've never made it, but here are some recipes my roommate suggested:
http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,1950,154186-236196,00.html
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Dolma/

When you bake without sugar, do you just use the original recipe without any changes to it? (except for cutting out the sugar, obviously)

Oooh, good idea. I'll look at cornbread recipes as they go from sweet to no-sugar and see how they change ingredients. Maybe that'll give me some ideas.

That's really useful to know, actually.

Oh man I didn't notice it was you. I'm going to give the food.com recipe a go tonight. Sorry, didn't need to me rude. Thanks ever so much, though.

I've seen several recipes without sugar, but all of them seem to be with sugar substitutes. I'm not looking to cut calories, I just want a savoury recipe.

I began as an absolute beginner a little more than 2 years ago (in September 2009, I once googled "how to boil water" That is not a joke. ). I didn't use any cookbooks, just started slowly. First made instant ramen/ frozen pizza, then went on to boiling pasta and vegetables and tossing them with canned sauce, and then moved to stir frying and baking vegetables and chicken. If he's past the frozen food area, he should start with brocolli, corn and pasta. Boil all three of them, pour some sauce on it, mix and eat. it's not gourment, but it's a start. Same for boiling eggs and slicing it, and making a sandwich with it and sliced tomatoes and spinach and cheese. Then he should try easy soups: buy broth, vegetables, eggs, and microwave them together. Then move on to buying marinades and adding them to chicken breasts and putting those together in a pan until the chicken is white and done and eating that with pasta. Once he's comfortable in the kitchen, THEN buy him a cookbook. The problem is, he needs to want to learn. With the internet, there is never any actual need to buy a cookbook actually. Youtube videos and ehow are his friends here, they have descriptions of the most mundane of dishes.

I like eating baked goods, but I'm not a big fan of sweet stuff. I've made loads of savoury cakes and muffins and so forth, but I wonder what would happen if I just took a recipe for, say, banana bread and cut out the sugar completely. Would the bread fall flat/ not rise or something? How important is sugar to the rising process?

Specifically, I want to make a yoghurt banana bread (http://www.dailygarnish.com/2011/06/b... is the recipe I used) but it's very very sweet. I'd like to cut out the sugar completely, but I'm not sure what I should replace it with. I can only find recipes with sugar-replacements, but no savoury ones. So it would be great if someone could help me with either replacing the sugar with something else (like another egg or more flour or butter?) or if anyone has another banana bread recipe that is good and uses no sugar. I don't need the recipe to use yoghurt, I'm fine with eating butter.