January 24, 2010 - 5:00am
What is the reaction of yeast when using Splenda?
I make LOTS of cinnamon rolls for others and a customer of mine is diabetic and wanted to know if it was possible to make them with Splenda. I did go ahead and purchase the brown sugar kind for the filling, but the one that worries me is the regular in the dough. I use 1/2 cup of sugar in the dough that would have to be substituted to Splenda. I'm sure as large of a base as we have here someone has experience with the matter.What do you all think?
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My husband is diabetic and I use Slenda or a sugar substitute that I buy in Switzerland that is similar all the time. In baking there is little difference except that you might have to add just a little more to obtain the same sweetness. For things like simple syrup I can't use it. I do use it with yeast doughs, pies, cakes, biscoti etc and never had any problems.
Good Luck!
Patricia
I find that it does not brown like sugar does. So, depending on the reipie, you may want to use an eggwash.
Frosty
I will proceed!
Unlike "turosdolci", I find Splenda® , Altern® and similar products to be sweeter than sugar. Their packaging suggests that they can be used 1:1 in place of sugar but I use 3/4:1. I find that it works well in any formula where it's job is simply to sweeten but, as "Frosty" indicated, it doesn't brown like granulated sugar, nor does it work for making gooey syrup toppings or as a thickening syrup. For toppings I melt butter and add Splenda/Altern and drizzle the mix over the baked goods.
As I am an advocate for all natural products, I do my best to avoid artificial sweeteners, and splenda is a chemical product(not proven unhealthy like aspertame, but research shows some concern).
There are a couple other sweetener than may be suitable to diabetes patients, but blood sugar should be monitored at all times(even when using splenda as some diabetics do react to it), these all natural sweeteners are Stevia and Xylitol.
As stated above, blood sugar should be watched, even when a sweetener claims to be diabteic safe!
I have concluded that for me it is unwise to use splenda under any circumstance.
Jeff
"The dangers of aspartame are now widely known, but the risks of using Splenda are not documented - until now. Splenda may not penetrate the blood brain barrier as aspartame does, hence entering the brain and creating neurotoxin havoc at the brain center, but Splenda CAN adversely affect the body in several ways because it IS a chemical substance and not natural sugar."
http://www.splendaexposed.com/
There are MANY 'natural' sugars...like it or not, they are ALL 'chemicals'
Even the purest water, "di-hydrogen oxide" is a 'chemical'...don't worry too much about it... ;-)
Just in case anyone who intends to use xylitol - want to pass on the warning that it is extremely toxic for dogs - depending on the dog's size, it can be very quickly fatal!
Do a search - I don't allow any in my house (since one of my dogs is very clever at stealing food). Besides, it would be so easy to just drop a piece of gum or candy on the floor - they'd get it before I even saw it.
Keep fido away from the stuff:
http://www.snopes.com/critters/crusader/xylitol.asp
When I bought a "generic" sucralose (I believe it was Altern or something like that-at Walmart) the product had a very bitter taste. When I made the same recipe with Splenda brand, it tasted fine. It depends on what fillers they use when they make the product.Not all fillers stand up to baking temps without altering their taste.
The Brown Sugar" variety of spleanda and the "baking" variety have real sugar (I think its about half) in it so your customer needs to know that so they can calculate their carb intake.
I tried using Truvia in several sweet desserts at Christmas and I was impressed with both the flavor and texture they provided. It does not come in bulk,yet but if you visit the Truvia website, they will tell you how many packets to use as equivalents. That product, also, varies from brand to brand. I used a combination of Purvia and Truvia. I found the Purvia had a little more of the stevia taste ( kind of like licoricey) and the Truvia had more of a granulated texture and more neutral/sweet taste in the final product. Not cheap,either.
I made cheesecake and brownies,both of which are forgiving recipes, texture-wise. I never made bread.
Splenda was that the customer asked for it specifically. Hmmm. Lots to think about here.
Keep in mind that the majority of Internet "authorities" who raise red flags about commercial food products often do so in the context of marketing their own product as an alternative. The credibility of that type of information is, at the very least, suspect. It is also interesting that you can purchase a doctorate certification on the Internet so the title "Dr." should not, by itself, impress anyone.
The Internet has become the most misused source of information in history.
Rumor sepius attero bonus voluntas.
I couldn't agree more with your post flournwater. The credentials you list for this so called expert don't really add up. She sounds pretty well qualified to study the composition of the earth's core, but not the composition of a packet of splenda. She is a great example of another person who has exploited the market of people who will believe anything (even pertaining to their own health) provided the author has 'Dr' in front of their name. If you google the university from which she received her PhD, it is an online university, so her doctorate is as about as worthless as the toilet paper its written on. Being a research scientist, I can assure you that she would have little to no chance of getting a job at a real research institution involved in human health. But then again she has no intention of doing so, why would she... she can make more money from selling a book full of half baked ideas to idiots.
Dr. Hull earned her Master's Degree in Environmental Science from Texas A & M at Commerce and her Certified Nutrition License from the American Health Science University. Later, she received a Ph.D. in Holistic Nutrition from Clayton College of Natural Health.
that my original point was it is not a natural product, and diabetics could still react to it. In light of that, It is just an opinion. I choose not to use artifitail ingreeds in any of the foods i cook/bake, cause we all know things made by man are not always good replicants of what narue intends us to have.
I understand that the OP states that the customer requested it (so they probably use it at home already). The problem as I see it, for my own consumption, is that Splenda is not all natural - it's partially artificial. Now while my diet is far from perfect, one of the reasons I bake from scratch is to avoid artificial ingredients.
This product sounds interesting (I'm not associated with the company in any way):
http://www.wheylow.com
I've never tried it (according to their site, it's not available here MA yet), so I don't know if the flavor lives up to what they state in their ad. I did read some stuff online that extolled the virtues of the stuff, and I'm anxious to try it (can't currently afford it w/the shipping, though). I'm not diabetic, but I have a friend who is (and is very stubborn about eating whatever he wants, sigh...). I do, however, have extra pounds I need to lose - and even if I trusted Splenda, I hate it... ugh.
Will report back here when I can finally try it, though!
From time to time I need to fix up a low cal dessert I will use Splenda. Do I really like the taste? Not really. Not that I found it too sweet, just the sweetness is a bit odd. But I will not completely avoid it because my in-laws are both diabetic and they can't take sugar. I don't cook for them every day, just the occasions when they come to visit. In that case I go for the lesser evil. MIL won't take anything but Splenda, so Splenda that is. Al
http://www.splenda.com/page.jhtml?id=splenda/cookingbaking/nocal_tips.inc
This may be helfpul to the original poster.
"Yeast Activation
SPLENDA® Granulated Sweetener will not activate yeast. Maintain at least two teaspoons of sugar in recipes calling for yeast and replace the remaining sugar with SPLENDA® Granulated Sweetener."
The brown sugar blend of splenda and the baking blend of splenda contains a significant amount of regular sugar.No matter what recipe you use, I would suggest you run your recipe through an online nutrional analyzer and share that with your customer so they can calculate their carb intake. The trick is to substitute enough splenda into the recipe to reduce the carbs without sacrificing the taste or texture.
As far as agave nectar-it is derived from a natural source but is not low cal. THere are 60 cal/1 tbsp with 15 g sugar/1 tbsp serving.It may not spike a blood sugar but is still a concentrated source of calories.As a comparison, white sugar has 45 cal/1 tbsp with 12 g sugar/1 tbsp.
Thanks for that research clazar123. I cook for people with special dietary needs and once I've verified that information I'll be adding it to my list of cooking rules.
I would love to get some tried and true modified recipes in different categories. I have family members with several different issues and when we have a family gathering, I am always trying to develop recipes for different categories (desserts,salads,veggie dishes,etc).The problems range from diabetes to cholesterol to allergies(milk),to veganism.
I did a google search for a calorie counting,nutritional analysis sites and checked several for consistency of information on several known foods.I usually check mayo clinic site but couldn't find agave on it.