Anyone Ever Made Pumpkin Pie or Pumpkin Pudding With Splenda?

[haha]

I want to make some pumpkin custard/pudding using Splenda. I haven't made many desserts, but last spring I had really good luck with stewed rhubarb and Splenda.

Any pointers or suggestions?

Thanks~

Ha

 

[Leonidas]

I've made pie using Splenda, but not recently. My recipe calls for brown sugar as well as regular white sugar, and I did find brown-Splenda and it worked well. In fact, I think the brown Splenda works more like real brown Sugar than regular bulk Splenda works as a sugar substitute. Splenda in packages works well in coffee or tea, and I like to add a packet into smoothies sometimes. But I always had problems coming up with the right measurement when using larger amounts in cooking. Depending on the recipe, cooking method, etc., I never could find a satisfactory substitution factor like 1 cup sugar = X of Splenda. It led me to play it by ear all the time, adding a portion and tasting, and continuing to do so until it tasted right. That should work easily enough for you with something like pumpkin pie.

The caveat here is I'm not that skilled/experience a cook, so it could just be me.

Anyway, I'm rusty on it now as I took to baking this past year and I've been sticking with traditional ingredients like real sugar while I'm trying to get the hang of it. It has morphed into an effort to improve my cooking skills overall, and I'm sticking with traditional ingredients across the board. (Except that I have been using Stevia for sweetening drinks and such more than Splenda.)

 

[RonBoyd]

Any pointers or suggestions?

I Googled it for you:

"pumpkin pie" +splenda - Google Search

Apparently, there are a kagillion recipes available. I will be curious to find out what you end up with.

 

[W2R]

I don't cook much, but I haven't had much luck baking with Splenda at all. I use it for other things. I don't keep sugar in my house.

Edited to add: My former Weight Watchers leader told the group that she advised other artificial sweeteners for baking, for similar reasons. I'm sure that the manufacturers of Splenda would argue that point as would others, but I just wanted to provide it for input. As for me, if I wanted a fresh baked sugarfree pumpkin pie I would go to my supermarket's bakery department. They have a lot of sugarfree baked goods. So do bakeries.

 

[kyounge1956]

I want to make some pumpkin custard/pudding using Splenda. I haven't made many desserts, but last spring I had really good luck with stewed rhubarb and Splenda.

Any pointers or suggestions?

Thanks~

Ha

I've never tried making pumpkin pie with Splenda, and I definitely would not try substituting Splenda in a recipe that says to use sugar, because sometimes sugar serves more purposes in a recipe than just providing a sweet flavor.

If I wanted to find a recipe for it, I would google "pumpkin pie" + recipe + Splenda. Also I would guess Splenda has its own website, probably with recipes. Given the season, I would expect there to be a pumpkin pie recipe there now. A third place I would look for a recipe for sugar-free pumpkin pie is diabetic cookbooks or cooking sites.

Good luck!

 

[TromboneAl]

I've made other pies with splenda, and here's what I've learned:

1. If you use Splenda for all the sweetening, it can be too much, and you get a splenda aftertaste. I've thrown away a cheesecake made with all splenda. Instead I always use half splenda and half erythritol.

2. If you're using splenda to avoid carbs as well as sugar, note that the powdered form uses maltrodextrin to bulk it up. It has .5 g per tsp or 24 g/cup. Instead, use this liquid form of splenda which is great.

Here are some recipes I have not tried:

Low Carb Sugar Free Pumpkin Pie - LowCarbFriends Recipes

Low Carb Pumpkin Pie Pancake/Omelette - LowCarbFriends Recipes

 

[Sam]

FWIW, I thought I remember seeing a picture of pumpkin pies being made not too long ago on this board. I don't recall seeing Splenda in it.

 

[Ed_The_Gypsy]

Ha, Al seems to know this territory well.

Please keep us posted on the results.

 

[haha]

I've made other pies with splenda, and here's what I've learned:

1. If you use Splenda for all the sweetening, it can be too much, and you get a splenda aftertaste. I've thrown away a cheesecake made with all splenda. Instead I always use half splenda and half erythritol.

2. If you're using splenda to avoid carbs as well as sugar, note that the powdered form uses maltrodextrin to bulk it up. It has .5 g per tsp or 24 g/cup. Instead, use this liquid form of splenda which is great.

Here are some recipes I have not tried:

Low Carb Sugar Free Pumpkin Pie - LowCarbFriends Recipes

Low Carb Pumpkin Pie Pancake/Omelette - LowCarbFriends Recipes

Al, I realize that I narrowed my question too much. I looked up those other substances like erythritol, but I don't know anything about any of them, except that I have made rhubarb with Splenda which is the only thing I saw at my Safeway. I thought this was the same as stevia, but I see that it is not.

If you were going to make no sucrose low carb pumpkin pie filling, what would you sweeten it with?

I agree Ed, AL is the man when it comes to knowledge of low carb cooking.

BTW, I found that Uwajimaya sells very good hogs' liver for $1.49/#. I made some tonight, just a quick stir fry with one slice chopped bacon, slivered yellow onion, minced green onion, garlic and dried parsley. Extremely satisfying and delicious.

Ha

 

[RonBoyd]

BTW, I found that Uwajimaya sells very good hogs' liver for $1.49/#. I made some tonight, just a quick stir fry with one slice chopped bacon, slivered yellow onion, minced green onion, garlic and dried parsley. Extremely satisfying and delicious.

Interesting. (Taking a SWAG at quantities.)

 

[haha]

Interesting. (Taking a SWAG at quantities.)

View attachment 10674

Ron, thanks for showing this. What kind of cool software do you have to do this analysis?


My quantities are a litle larger across the board- maybe 6 or 7 oz of liver, several green onions, closer to a tbsp of dried parsley, 2 garlic cloves, but I get the picture.

Liver itself is not really low carb, I suppose due to glycogen, and neither are onions extremely low carb.

But close enough. I have found that if I avoid what are usually called staples (bread, rice, beer, potatoes) and desserts and more than a little fruit it works fine for me.

I have never been able to eat really small amounts. It just doesn't do it for me. If I am hungry, I want to eat till I feel normal again.

Ha

 

[TromboneAl]

If you were going to make no sucrose low carb pumpkin pie filling, what would you sweeten it with?

Definitely half liquid sucralose (Splenda) and half erythritol.

I might even use all erythritol, but using more than one sweetener often means that any non-sugar tastes are below a threshold. That's the theory anyway.

Erythritol is almost too good to be true, though I guess it's a little expensive ($7.50/lb). I get it here. Netrition.com is a good source, since they have a flat low shipping charge, so if you get a bunch of things, the prices are good.

Replace table sugar with the granulated erythritol, and you might not even notice the difference (though there's a kind of cooling sensation on the tongue).

Here's some good information:

What Are Sugar Alcohols - Blood Sugar and Sugar Alcohols

Erythritol - What it is and Where to Get It

 

[haha]

Definitely half liquid sucralose (Splenda) and half erythritol.

I might even use all erythritol, but using more than one sweetener often means that any non-sugar tastes are below a threshold. That's the theory anyway.

Erythritol is almost too good to be true, though I guess it's a little expensive ($7.50/lb). I get it here. Netrition.com is a good source, since they have a flat low shipping charge, so if you get a bunch of things, the prices are good.

Replace table sugar with the granulated erythritol, and you might not even notice the difference (though there's a kind of cooling sensation on the tongue).

Here's some good information:

What Are Sugar Alcohols - Blood Sugar and Sugar Alcohols

Erythritol - What it is and Where to Get It

Thanks Al, this is what I needed. While you are around, I have one other question about artificial sweeteners. Today my dance partner was making what I think she called "sil"-pickled herring to me. I got her recipe. Do you think that 50/50 granulated erythritol and liquid splenda are a good combo to use for this? I don't think the sugar is acting as a curing agent, just as a sweetener to take the edge off the vinegar.

Ha

 

[TromboneAl]

Yes, I think that would work fine. We got some nice sil from a friend, and might drain it, rinse it, and "repickle" it with artificial sweetener.

Related to that, I make sweet relish by buying dill relish and adding liquid Splenda:

Recipe:

10 fl oz Dill relish
5 drops Splenda

 

[RonBoyd]

Ron, thanks for showing this. What kind of cool software do you have to do this analysis?

First, let me explain. I followed TAl's thread on his Low-Carb six-month report until my curiosity was tweaked enough to investigate it further. So I purchased the book, The New Atkins, and was told of cutting Carbs to less than 20 per day. Okay, that should be easy. Well, I found it to be a lot more complicated than that. While counting Calories is extremely easy -- you simply control the amount of food that you eat -- counting Carbs involved a whole more. (This is like Budgeting your money by cutting back on spending that I spoke of in this thread.) Problem number one is not depriving yourself of basic nutrition -- or, more specifically, creating a major imbalance. Number two was how do you control Carb intake in such small amounts?

Anyway, the nitty gritty was way beyond my abilities so I did what I always do under those circumstance -- I run out and buy a bunch of tools. The first was to purchase NutriBase, a diet software program. (This is the program I used to analyze your Liver & Onions meal.) The second thing I purchased was a Perfect Portion Food Scale. This scale measures weight in Grams and allows you to set the start point to zero -- so that you can accurately measure what goes on your plate by weighing, setting to zero, adding food, weighing, setting to zero, etc. (I should also add that this purchase allowed me to remove the USPS Postal Scale from the kitchen.)

I have been "on this kick" for about six weeks now (lost 15 lbs) and am just beginning to understand it all. In any event, NutriBase gives me some pretty nifty reports. For example, here are a couple of yesterday's:







FWIW, there have been a few "surprises" -- one, I don't miss my previous can't-do-without staples; potates and bread... at all. Second is how good low-carb foods taste -- I quickly found that calorie count was important despite what the Atkins folks say. And thirdly, not all vegetables are low-carb; who'd a thought that Squash and Beets would be off-limits.

OOPS: I seem to have left out the two eggs I had for Breakfast.

 

[TromboneAl]

That software looks good. Lena's been religiously tracking her "input" with fatsecret.com for five months. It works pretty well, but sometimes she gets annoyed with it.

But I guess that buying your wife diet-related software would be worse than getting her a new vacuum cleaner.

 

[Westernskies]

DW makes a really good Low-Carb piecrust using crushed Murrays's Sugar-Free Shortbread cookies... not sure of the exact recipe, can follow up if anyone is interested.

 

[haha]

But I guess that buying your wife diet-related software would be worse than getting her a new vacuum cleaner.

Oh yeah. The guy who gives his woman that had better get a real comfy couch 'cause he ain't gonna see the bedroom for a very long time.

Anyway, the nitty gritty was way beyond my abilities so I did what I always do under those circumstance -- I run out and buy a bunch of tools. The first was to purchase NutriBase, a diet software program. (This is the program I used to analyze your Liver & Onions meal.) The second thing I purchased was a Perfect Portion Food Scale. This scale measures weight in Grams and allows you to set the start point to zero -- so that you can accurately measure what goes on your plate by weighing, setting to zero, adding food, weighing, setting to zero, etc. (I should also add that this purchase allowed me to remove the USPS Postal Scale from the kitchen.)

I have been "on this kick" for about six weeks now (lost 15 lbs) and am just beginning to understand it all. In any event, NutriBase gives me some pretty nifty reports. For example, here are a couple of yesterday's:

Ron, that is so cool! And congrats on your weight loss!

Ha

 

[deserat]

I have a sort of related question - I really don't like the after taste of artificial sweeteners - what I've done in my baking is reduce the amount of sugar in the recipe.

Do any of these 'substitutes' have a sugar taste? Splenda is too sweet to me and has a bad after taste; I've never heard of the erythritol - I've also read about other types of sweeteners: agave nectar, Sucanat, Rapadura, stevia....anyone have experience with these?

 

[73ss454]

After reading an article about Splenda a few years ago I decided to use it in my car battery when it gets weak. That's as far as I'll go with Splenda.

 

[Westernskies]

After reading an article about Splenda a few years ago I decided to use it in my car battery when it gets weak. That's as far as I'll go with Splenda.

Some folks have no respect for machinery.

 

[RonBoyd]

That software looks good. Lena's been religiously tracking her "input" with fatsecret.com for five months. It works pretty well, but sometimes she gets annoyed with it.

Went to fatsecret. Pretty neat. The advantage I see with NutriBase, with very little investigation, is you can:

1. Create your own Personal Food list for those items that are not common or off-brand.

2. Get an itemized list of nutritional data for your own recipes. (What I did with Ha's Liver & Onion.) For example, every week (or so) I make what I call Refrigerator Harvest Soup. This is all the left-overs thrown in a pot as a base and go crazy adding other stuff. I never know what it will turn out like or what it consists of. NutriBase keeps track of all the ingredients and will scale the data to your individual serving size (meaning by each individual bowlful). In other words, you are not limited to the "serving size" on the package to calculate your usage.

3. Measure everything by your choice of any of several different types -- grams, fl. oz, tbsp, cups, etc.

I will, however, caution that the learning curve is similar to that of Moneydance... but then it is the same process. But if Lena is already doing the tracking it will be second-nature.

 

[TromboneAl]

Someone on another forum said she replaced the sugar in the sugar bowl with erythritol and her husband never noticed. I believe it.

Splenda can have a bad aftertaste if you use too much, but below a threshold it is OK.

Apparently the human body does not have any enzymes that can break down erythritol, so it is not metabolized and is excreted unchanged in the urine.

There's a lot of stuff on the Internet about how bad some artificial sweeteners are. Stuff about government conspiracies, etc. Some of this is definitely based on bad information, and there are even some hoaxes thrown in.

One thing to note is that Splenda, for example, is 600 times sweeter than sugar. So we're talking about very small quantities (7 milligrams of Splenda for a teaspoon's worth of sweetness). It would have to be pretty bad for those quantities to hurt you.