No Sugar, no Splenda, no Equal?

Question

I am a diabetic and my sugar levels are so so good but not so bad. My A1c is also normal. Yesterday I made some fresh apple juice from organically grown gala apples and the juice was so sweet that I had to add half water to half a cup of juice and that was fine. Now I want to use that apple leftover fiber to make some 100% home made whole wheat cookies using crushed almonds, crushed Brazil nuts etc. I don't want to use any Splenda or sugar or Equal. Will be making cookies first time so a good helping hand will be welcome. Thanks.

Answer 1

How about sweet and low?

Answer 2

Have you tried Stevia? It's a plant that is much sweeter than sugar that you can get at most health food stores in a dried and powdered form. I actually bought a plant at Home Depot last summer. It is diabetic safe, but read up on it first.
Other sweeteners will set up differently than sugar, which you probably already know, so play around with texture as you develope your recipes. Barley flour, grahm flour and wheat germ subbed in for part of the flour can give interesting flavor and textural effects.
Forgive me for the unsolicted advice here: I love to cook and to make up and modify recipes. When I'm working on a recipe I have all my source materials spread out as well as a notepad where I write down every ingredient and step in detail. This way I know exactly what I've done so I can accurately adjust recipes the next time I work. I keep all the material for the recipes stapled together with my most recent notes on top so the next time everything is organized and ready to go.
Baking is more of a science that some other types of cooking, so changing from sugar and butter will have a big effect on your cookies texture. Keep trying and if you come up with something really fabulous I'd love to hear about it!
Some other really great cookie ingredients (don't know about diabetic safety so you'll have to check it out): Dried tart cherries from Trader Joes - sometimes I see one called Just Cherries that doesn't have any sugar, unsweetened shaved coconut also from Trader Joes, Boyajin citrus oils (be careful on qts, they're pretty concentrated) that you can get through the mail, look for their website - worth the trouble to get!
Good luck!

Answer 3

After decades, I discovered that I needed to give up artificial sweeteners. It seems that, they are able to motive bladder inflammation. I'll use commonplace sugar carefully, however my new favourite sweetener is the stevia/erythritol combination like Truvia or PureVia. Each stevia (from a plant) and erythritol (a ordinary sugar alcohol) are natural and don't appear to have the same in poor health results as the Splenda or Equal and but don't have any energy.

Answer 4

Honey is significantly sweeter than table sugar and has attractive chemical properties for baking. Honey has a distinctive flavor which leads some people to prefer it over sugar and other sweeteners.
but it also has high concentration of sugar (ofcourse that kills bacteria by crenation)
since it tastes sweeter and ur sugar levels r not bad u could try it.
and a piece of suggestion the sweetness from fruits does not harm u much ...... like the sugar from stores does .
u even have to control ur fat intake to control the sugar levels.natural fruits are always good.
and if ur doctor says no for the fruits plzzz do follow his advice cos he knows more about ur sugar levels

Answer 5

There are not alot of choices, I'd Pick Splenda for baking out of it all, my aunt is diabetic and uses it in all her baking.
Honey and Molasses were used alot but I don't know how that would effect a diabetic. Most of the alternatives have some sort of sweetner in it, even the applesauce has some natural sugars.
You will have to use something in order to get the quality you need for it to taste good.

Answer 6

I mean do not use artificial sweetners such as splenda, or equal they are not going to taste good, but you cannot also use sugar, therefore use a sweet juice you may drink to sweeten the cookies. I do not know, because I am not diabetic, and I am not sure aabout what you are asking.

Answer 7

Mix it up without any sweeteners and have a small taste of the dough. If you don't mind the taste, then bake them. If they are not sweet enough then you can add a little sweetener/stevia. If the juice was that sweet, the apple may be sweet enough without any further sweeteners.

Answer 8

Make a small batch without any type of sweetener and see how they taste. If they are not good, then add just a little honey.

Answer 9

you have to be careful when baking, it's an exact scientific formula. substituting sugar with something else can be disastrous. have you tried Stevia? it can be up to 300 times sweeter than sugar & has vertually no effect on blood glucose levels. it's a natural herb & is found in most health food stores.

Answer 10

I agree 100 percent: Stevia is the answer:

http://www.stevia.net/

Answer 11

I've heard that you can use honey as a sweetener but not sure of the ratio.