Cooking with Sweeteners?

[msgq]

I have seen a ton of recipes for desserts and they all call for splenda or sweet n low, or something artifical. I just cringe at the thought. Everytime I've tried the artifical route, I end up gagging. I can't stand the taste. (Splenda is the worse for me.)

How bad is it to reduce the amount of sweetener and just use sugar? (I know, I just said the "S" word....)

I ask because I do a ton of entertaining and I am now at a loss for desserts.

HELP!

[Mitra]

Ms GQ, I can't stand the taste of splenda either. Some people have suggested it's the carrier, not the splenda that has the nasty taste, and that the liquid versions don't have that problem. I haven't tried the liquid, but I have used the very tiny tablets, where a thing a couple of mm across is equivalent to a couple of tsp of sugar. It still tastes horrid to me, so I didn't feel like going to the trouble and expense of getting a third version to try out. There are other sweeteners, whose names I mix up because I don't use them either, but xylitol (I think) seems to get good reports. Relief and Kevin are the ones who have looked into this in depth.

I use sugar or honey in small quantities when I cook something that needs extra sweetness. I reduce the quantity of sweetener, and keep the portion small. The trouble is that apart from things that are mainly plain fruit, like fruit salad, there are masses of calories as well as carbs, so even if you replace the sugar, you've still got a problem if you're eating large portions on a regular basis and you want to lose weight.

You need to add up the carb counts for whatever recipe you're making. One cup of sugar is about 200g carb, so you can't use much and stay within your limits.

One of the reasons I don't mind sticking with full carb sweeteners is that it stops me from thinking that a mound of heavy cream or large slab of cheesecake is a "free" food. But, on the other side, some people find that even very small quantities of sugar set off their cravings. As long as the quantities are small that doesn't happen for me. You need to find out what will work for you.

Maybe offering a choice of cheeseboard or dessert, and sticking to a small serving of cheese for yourself (with a couple of grapes/walnuts/celery if you like) would work, at least for some of the meals, then just let those who aren't low carbing eat sweet stuff if they want to.

[Gaelen]

Hi, msgq.
I have to agree with Mitra...when I sweeten anything, I most typically use a small quantity of dark (and thus more heavily flavored) natural sweetener like grade B maple syrup, dark honey, blackstrap molasses, date or brown sugar. I have also used minute quantities of SteviaPlus, which is made from the sweet herb stevia, grown and used actual stevia leaf (like using a mint leaf in an iced tea). I've also experimented with things like Brownulated (granulated 'brown' sugar) and confectioner's sugar...the granulation of Brownulated and the sifting of confectioner's sugar reduces the carbs per teaspoon from 5 to 3, and the carbs per tablespoon from 15 to 9...a big difference when you're using baking quantities of the sweetener, and both of Brownulated and confectioner's sugar behave much more like conventional white or brown sugar in baking.

That said, I was always a 1-tsp-sugar in my coffee girl. I tried every artificial sweetener on the planet when I started low carbing, and discovered that I hated all of them...but that I could manage the 5g carb hit of one tsp. of real sugar in one cup of coffee a day. After my AS experiments, I just took that 5g carb hit every day until things atarted tasting too sweet to me (happened within about a month) and was able to gradually completely eliminate any added sweeteners in my coffee. As Mitra mentions, small quantities of sweetness from full-bodied or full-flavored natural sweeteners do it for me, and I also don't fall into the trap of thinking that cookies are a birthright. It's an occasional treat, and I am able to keep portions small.

There *are* other things that you can use as 'desserts' once you give your tastebuds the opportunity to recover from years of being oversweetened and allow them to appreciate naturally occurring sweetness in foods. In-season fruit and a sharp cheese is the old standby, but I also like things like baked ricotta with a walnut cinnamon topping and just a drizzle of dark maple syrup baked in...each slice is under 8g ECC, packs extra protein into the meal, and hits the sweet spot without taking me over the top (recipe is in the PP Kitchen forums...search on 'ricotta' or on my member name.) Or I'll make it plain and top it with fruit that I've allowed to soak in a tablespoon or two of fresh orange juice or sweet wine. Gjetost cheese is carbier than say, sharp cheddar...but it, and mascarpone, are slightly sweet and make wonderful desserts combined with more savory things like nuts. Lindt 70% Cocoa bars (start with 70%, and work up to 85% or even 99% cocoa) are intense bittersweet chocolate that are only 1g ECC per square. 70% is very slightly sweet, but it adds the chocolate hit which can sometimes divert the need for sweet tastes. Also, certain sweet spices like cinnamon and ginger can add sweetness without significant carbs, as can ground nuts.

Hope this helps.

[msgq]

Yes, this helps, definately.

I like the idea of cutting the sugar and keeping the portions small. That is what I've been doing. So, for the LC recipes that call for x amount of artifical sweetner, would I put in the equivilent of real sugar?

My new question, for Galean, how did replacing granulated sugar with powdered sugar work? I can see using it in some cheesecakes - but does it bake as well?

My husband is not a big sugar fan, so I always cut the sugar in half or more on every recipe. The confectioner's sugar is interesting. I didn't know they did that with brown sugar. I'll have to look for that.

I do the 1 tsp of sugar in coffee. It doesn't seem to trigger carb cravings. It's my guilty pleasure!

Really, I'm only looking to jazz up cheese cake type things in a LC kind of way. That is the vice of my family.

Thanks for your input. (My hubby was interested in your replies too. He chided me that I got in trouble for using the word "sugar" because I had a "moderator" and an "administrator" respond!):D

[Mitra]

(My hubby was interested in your replies too. He chided me that I got in trouble for using the word "sugar" because I had a "moderator" and an "administrator" respond!):D

Since both of us also use sugar at times, we probably can't tell you off too much ;).

[maxlharris]

I like the idea of cutting the sugar and keeping the portions small. That is what I've been doing. So, for the LC recipes that call for x amount of artifical sweetner, would I put in the equivilent of real sugar?
....
Really, I'm only looking to jazz up cheese cake type things in a LC kind of way. That is the vice of my family.


So, couple of thoughts here.

1- On portioning sugar, unless you are replacing splenda or Equal Spoonable (or whatever they call it, my wife uses it), the measurements don't match up. They don't measure the same as sugar. I'd be willing to bet that Kevinpa has some kind of equivalence chart or resource.

2- When I lived in St. Louis, the best cheesecakes, store bought, came from Hank's. Not as good as Junior's in New York, but I digress. Hank's made, in addition to many sugary wonderful concoctions, some savory cheesecakes that were probably pretty light on carbs minus the crust. Something like a lox cheesecake.

http://www.hankscheesecakes.com/savory_cakes.htm

They are billed as appetizers, but I'm thinking a walnut pesto might make an interesting dessert along the lines of a cheese plate.

Just my thoughts.

[msgq]

Thanks.

You had me until "walnut pesto". Love pesto. Walnuts will send me to the hospital -- literally.

I'll check out Hank's.

[Gaelen]

Splenda is billed as approximately twice as sweet as sugar, so where you'd use a cup of sugar, you'd only use 1/2 cup of Spenda (TM). That's off the Splenda website...and somewhere here although I don't have the time to search for it right now, there's an artificial sweeteners : sugar equivalents chart. That said, I've never done it in reverse, and amounts get a little less cut and dried when you're combining the 'tols that are used as artificial sweeteners.

I think, rather than try to figure out how much sugar to add to a recipe instead of Splenda, I'd start out with the plan you've already described with your own recipes. Cut the sugar in half, for starters. Make a half-batch for testing purposes on some willing tasters (I use the people I work with for this...) If the texture holds up at half the normal amount of sugar, try to cut the amount to 1/3 of the original quantity. Again, test batch. Then sub in Brownulated where you'd use granulated sugar, and/or half and half brownulated and confectioner's sugar, at 1/3 the original quantity of granulated sugar. By then, you've reduced the carbs per serving pretty significantly, so that it's a small treat for you, and a reduced sugar serving for your family/guests.

Using confectioners' sugar in baking works out well to slightly sweeten things like ground nut crusts, and to make small cookies heavy on the butter, like Russian tea balls, those little gems of ground nuts, butter and confectioner's sugar that are rolled into small bite-sized balls, baked slightly and then rolled while hot in more sugar. I just roll in more finely ground nuts! In fact, things like meringues and russian tea balls and sour cream pastry crust, regular recipes which used confectioner's sugar, are what gave me the idea in the first place.

I have used confectioner's sugar to sweeten cheesecakes, dessert sauces and candies, and always have. I just reduce the quantity dramatically now that I low carb...and I fruit-sweeten cheesecakes, or use the sweet spices I mentioned. I even make fudge, using a combo of mascarpone cheese, Lindt 70% and baking chocolate with no added sugar or sweeteners at all, just the mascarpone. It's only *slightly* sweet, but has full fudge texture, and it's a hit. Everyone assumes it's candy. That it's low carb doesn't even come up. That it has no AS in it is just a bonus for me.

As for using the word sugar, tell your significant other that there are no bad words...only bad meanings that some people attach to the words other people use. ;) Heck, we've never even turned on this board's ability to censor. If we're not gonna automatically stop George Carlin's 7 dirty words, we're not gonna ban the name of a food, either. It would make intelligent discussion pretty cramped.

sugar...sugar...sugar...sugar...sugar... :)