[drgenie]

Sigh.<br><br>
I may be a good cook but I am not a terribly good baker when it comes to healthy-ing up recipes. Here are my struggles today:<br><br>
1) Do you bake with Splenda? Which do you use, the half sugar/half Splenda blend or the regular? I find the regular does not cream well with butter and absorbs more of the liquid when you add the eggs. Makes the dough stiff and I usually have to add milk so it isn't too dry. What's your experience?<br><br>
2) Do you use whole wheat flour or whole wheat pastry flour for some or all of the white flour in a recipe? Do you need to make any other adjustments? I find the WW flour is drier and again makes the dough thicker and drier, not light and fluffy in some cases. Sometimes you can't tell the difference, like in my banana bread.<br><br>
Diablita and other hypoglycemics, are there any other tricks I should know about with reference to baking and blood sugar issues?<br><br>
Oh, and does anyone know about how much fresh fruit cooked down would equal a can of pie filling? I used the filling for today's concoction because blackberries are done for the season but I am going to look for frozen ones next time.

 

[wyrillco]

baking with splenda can change the texture of stuff.<br><br>
I tend to substitute the fat in the recipe. Like yogurt for oil/butter. And I just generally reduce the amount of sugar. Most recipes are fine that way (quick breads, etc). I also substitute half of the flour with WW. WW flour has made many of the things I make more dense, so if I do half, you can't really tell. I also add flax seed to my banana bread to health it up a little. But then I add chocolate chips, so it's probably counter productive! <img alt="" class="inlineimg" src="http://www.kickrunners.com/forum/images/smilies/biggrin.gif" style="border:0px solid;" title="Very Happy"><br><br>
When I bake things like cookies, I say to hell with it and do it right. <img alt="" class="inlineimg" src="http://www.kickrunners.com/forum/images/smilies/biggrin.gif" style="border:0px solid;" title="Very Happy"> Cookies are not to be messed with!

 

[diablita]

Hi Genie!<br><br>
I'm afraid I can't answer most of your questions. I love to bake, but I only bake the real deal. My doctor suggested that I should try to avoid refined sugar, but could allow myself the occasional splurge, and should "make it good". So when I bake, I don't substitute anything. Sorry I can't help more.<br><br>
Oh, I do use whole wheat pastry flour in a crust for a delicious mushroom tart recipe. In that case, I substitute the white flour in equal amounts.

 

[Tamster]

When I bake, I like to use all the real stuff too. I never use splenda though - not baking, not for sweetening tea's, nada. It's still a chemically processed sugar and I predict you'll see the similar warnings out about splenda at some point that you do on nutrasweet, sweet and low, etc. Occassionally, I'll reduce sugar in recipes. I'll use light sour cream or applesauce when something, like muffins or bread, call for an oil to make something moist.

 

[drgenie]

You should post that when our iron chef ingredient is mushrooms!! <img alt="" class="inlineimg" src="http://www.kickrunners.com/forum/images/smilies/hello2.gif" style="border:0px solid;" title="hello1">