Click here for the recipe to Matt’s delicious spiced pineapple cheesecake.

I woke up this morning and like millions of Australians I realised that I’d forgotten to go paleo, never got around to signing up to Michelle’s 12-week challenge and, in what I am putting down to a gross clerical oversight, I totally forgot to quit sugar.

I was, like, so intending to – I bought the books and everything – but I just didn’t seem to get around to it and the books stood unopened on the shelf like the tombstones of hope. There was the kids’ footy training, work kept blowing out, someone rang at the wrong time, and then there was that “thing” with Deano. Also, sugar is just so essential to so many things I cook. Stop wagging your finger at me Sarah Wilson.

While the claim that sugar is addictive to humans has been dismissed, I once tasted chocolates made without sugar by Paco Roncero (Ferran Adria’s old offsider at El Bulli) and can remember the desperate hunger with which my tongue searched for that missing sweetness. I was seeking the opioid and dopamine releases that sugar triggers.

This all got me thinking, what is the best thing made with sugar? The list to choose from is exceptionally lengthy. There are biscuits, cakes, ice cream, Christmas pudding, chocolate, fudge, tomato sauce, golden syrup dumplings, molasses-hit baked beans, treacle pudding, soft drinks, most liqueurs, jams. Sugar is hidden in a scarily vast array of delicious stuff, from breakfast cereal and bread to tins of beans and sauces.

So here’s my verdict on the best things you can do with sugar (before you quit it after Christmas, although whether that is Christmas 2018 or 2019, I can’t be sure).

Pavlova

Meringue is basically dissolved sugar suspended in an eggwhite foam. It goes best with billowing cream and bright, fruity, acidic toppings like passionfruit and strawberries.

Salted caramel

The peak MasterChef trend of 2011 (inspired by Thomas Keller and Philippa Sibley’s re-creation of the Snickers as a fine dining dessert) is now almost a culinary cliche but there is no doubt that a little acid, or a little salt, can moderate the sweetness of a basic caramel in the most sophisticated way.

The best salted caramel is Darren Purchese’s creation. To make it at home, boil 1 cup (250ml) thick (not thickened) cream with 200g caster sugar, 1 tsp vanilla extract, 2 tsp salt and 100ml liquid glucose over a medium heat until it goes golden brown. Remove from the heat. Whisk in another 200ml (careful, it will spit) and watch as the pan’s residual heat pushes the caramel darker. When it is combined, beat in 45g butter until smooth and combined. Strain, reserve and cool until needed.

Chilli peanut praline

As a kid, peanut brittle was another treat. But imagine my joy when I discovered how good this was hit with chilli to make a chilli peanut praline to crack over a Thai prawn and pineapple salad, or left warm and runny (perhaps with a little added fish sauce funkiness added to it) to drizzle over barbecued meats or roast chicken paired with herbs like Thai basil, coriander and mint.

Honeycomb

The best honeycomb that I have ever eaten was made by Stokehouse pastry chef Lauren Eldridge on MasterChef earlier this year.

There are a number of secrets to the perfect honeycomb. Use a deep, heavy saucepan as it will froth up when you add the bicarb. (That’s the whole point, obviously.) Line a 20cm cake tin, measure out 18g bicarbonate of soda, place both – along with your oven mitts – next to the stove. Melt 415g caster sugar with 70ml water, 65g honey, 150g liquid glucose and a pinch of salt over a medium flame. Use a wet pastry brush to brush in any stray sugar crystals around the side of the pan. When dissolved, increase the heat, swirling occasionally until 160°C. If you want a blonder honeycomb, take it to 146°C, but remember caramel continues to cook even when out of the pot.

Remove from the heat and sprinkle in the bicarb, whisking quickly. Be aware, the bicarb will make the caramel foam up like an angry, golden sea. Pour the foam into the cake tin immediately and let it cool for a couple of hours. Then break it up and enjoy.

Brulee breakfast

It isn’t just creme that benefits from a crunchy, toffee topping. In my house, bruleeing is for breakfast. Halve a grapefruit and heat your grill. Pat the cut face of the grapefruit with paper towel, sprinkle on caster sugar, add a pinch of salt and bang under the very hot grill to bubble and brown. Cool before eating. The same trick works with pancakes.

Of course, if sugar wasn’t linked to obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, dementia and tooth decay then it wouldn’t be so bad, would it? But it is, so we really need to think on a national basis how we can take a responsible approach to reducing our sugar consumption even if it means that these dishes and foods become – like turkey, a flu shot and a fight with your brother at Christmas – something you only have once a year.

For more recipes to tempt your sweet tooth, click here.