[MomsterBarb]

Can any of you think of some kind of pie crust of maybe even a topping for a dessert, my whole family could enjoy(phase 2/3 of course). Even before Sonoma, we have enjoyed cooking strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, etc and adding a little splenda for dessert. We used to have it on shortcake, gram cracker crumbles, or pie crust. Can any of you think of a Sonoma friendly "crust" ?

[LindaT]

Dessert on the Sonoma plan is fruit and an occasional piece of dark chocolate. Any pie or crust like topping would not be considered Sonoma. BUT....

Being on Sonoma does not mean you can never have a piece of pie/cake or another cookie again. It just mean desserts of that sort should be a rare occurance.. not daily or even weekly. Using whole wheat flour and splenda in a crust would not make it more OP and something to eat more often. Sorry.

A topping, not a crust like topping that would be okay for fruit would perhaps be a mixture of yogurt, splenda and some vanilla or another flavored extract. But even this should be moderaed as dairy doesn't play a huge role on the plan.

[CindyBGood]

An old favorite from way before Sonoma or any diet was microwave custard sauce. Here's how I make it.

Put 1 1/4 cups of milk (and skim works fine) with 4 T sugar and 1 T cornstarch whisked in the microwave and heat until bubbling. Add 1 egg yolk - I put some of the hot milk in the yolk first then add it back into the whole mix. Whisk together, microwave until bubbling one more time. Add 1/2 tsp vanilla.

Sometimes I micro a vanilla bean in just the milk at the beginning and let it set for 5-10 minutes and remove the bean if you are feeling gourmet.

My guys just LOVE that sauce. I used it over almost anything and it's wonderful on berries with a few toasted almonds on top. It's also really good with angel food cake, berries, and the sauce.

I have no idea how it would be with Splenda which would make it pretty Sonoma friendly, you might also try cutting back on the sugar a bit. If I added right I came up with 390 calories in the recipe, so if you make 4 servings (and that would be generous) they are 100 calories each.

But this isn't a crust. I used to make a lot of pie crusts, etc, too. I think I cared about them more then the rest of my family, though, they love puddings and custards.