Customer Reviews

Baking with Splenda (Healthy Exchanges Cookbook)

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book not only is filled with delicious recipes but it gives hints on use of Splenda and how to adapt it to your own recipes. I was delighted to find many of my old favorite tried and true recipes already adapted. Becky's Prize Winning Banana Bread recipe is a favorite that has replaced my own as it rates as good or better.
Being a borderline diabetic, I am happy to announce that I have yet to have one of the recipes in this book raise my sugar count over the accepted range.

I ordered this book and the Cooking Healthy with Splenda. I've used other Splenda books and while they have been OK the recipes in these books are easier to follow, use ingrediants you have on hand, and are make much less mess. I am hypoclacemic, low blood sugar, and don't use a lot of "processed foods". Also, I bring desserts for diabetics to the nursing home that my Mom is in. Before Splenda the diabetics had Jello or pudding while the others had cakes and pies. I've tried about ten recipes and they have all been good. So thanks to Ms Lund for creating the Splenda books.

I am diabetic and my husband is borderline diabetic, so I had high hopes for this cookbook. I don't know what the people who gave these recipes good reviews are used to eating, but I have baked for a great many years and am used to the taste of traditional baked goods. I agree with the reviewer who wrote that the texture of some recipes is inedible, the gingerbread for instance and the brownie walnut pie is borderline. Most of the recipes need "fixing" to bring up the flavor. Lemon Crumb Bars--what a disaster! Two of the ingredients are 21 small fat-free saltine crackers made into crumbs, and reduced-fat biscuit baking mix. Can you imagine how salty this combination is? It was to be the cookie base for the bars and it just tasted like saltine crackers. You could barely taste the lemon flavor. What was the author thinking?! What was I thinking to even try such a recipe, for that matter?

I did have some successes. I really liked the Buttermilk Coffee Cake although it needed it's crumb topping spiced up. I also liked the coconut-rum-pineapple pie, but the texture was much better after it sat overnight. I will keep trying recipes off and on in hopes a few more of them will turn out well.

The hints about baking with Splenda are helpful, as is the nutrition breakdown at the end of each recipe.

Due to a sugar metabolizing problem, I have been trying to find new ways to create some of the desserts that I love without all of the sugar. Lowering fat in dishes is also a concern for my mother, who suffers from a pancreas disorder. So, with those things in mind, I picked up this book to see if you could really substitute Splenda in most baking recipes. I was not disappointed.

Using ingredients that are easy-to-find or often on hand, I was able to whip up a simple dessert or yummy baked good that had low fat and low sugar without subtracting the taste. Unlike a previous reviewer, I had no problems with lack of taste in any of my dishes (and I rarely, if ever, use salt when baking...why add the sodium unless you absolutely have to?). I take great pride in my baking, and love to create yummy desserts for my family, and I was able to serve several of these dishes without any negative comments. I was happy they turned out so well, and it feels good to be serving a dish that is lower in fat and calories.

Some of our favorites include: Blueberry Orange Muffins, Heavenly Raspberry Chocolate Chip Muffins, Strawberry Dream Cake, Country Carrot Cake, Cheesecake Topped Fudge Brownies, Five Layer Bars, Country Baked Pudding, and Pineapple Rum Cheesecake. Enjoy!

With three children in Iraq during the first Gulf War and weighing 300 pounds, Joanna Lund found herself thinking about death. After losing 130 pounds, Healthy Exchanges was born, and this cookbook is the latest in her series.

Although a discussion about Splenda's safety would have been helpful, recipes like Decadent Fudgy Brownie Pie, Classic Cherry Cobbler, Cappuccino Cheesecake and even Choca-Cola Cake are sure to delight dieters. Not every recipe works, but many do. So can we finally take the "sin" out of cinnamon rolls? This book says yes - and I tend to agree.

I bought this book over the weekend and as soon as I got home I made the Oatmeal Delite cookies. Now, I love oatmeal cookies but I can't eat them because I had weight loss surgery and eating more than a few grams of sugar causes "dumping syndrome" and yes, it's as unpleasant as it sounds. So, I've been looking for a cookbook for low sugar desserts. The ingredients for these cookies sounded good - applesauce, apple pie spice, raisins, walnuts, oats, Splenda, etc. I took them out of the oven and though they didn't look like normal oatmeal cookies, they smelled pretty good. As soon as they were cool enought to eat, I tried one. Man, it was like eating cardboard with raisins and nuts. Yuk.

I really wanted this plan of baking goodies with Splenda instead of sugar to work so I didn't give up. I evaluated the taste and decided it needed more salt, spice and maybe a splash of vanilla. But rather than making the oatmeal cookies again, I tried the plan on another of the recipes in her book - Raisin Carrot Muffins. I doubled the salt and the apple pie spice. I used regular butter and milk and added vanilla extract. I tasted the batter before baking and it was pretty good, so I went ahead and baked them. They were slightly more successful than the cookies. But if I hadn't "fixed" them they would have been pretty bad. I will try a few more things from the book before I give up on it, but it seems like the Splenda loses all its sweetness during the baking process. The batter tasted much sweeter than the finished product. I think maybe these foods might appeal to diabetics or others who are used to eating bland "dietetic" food but I'm not sure I can ever fix these recipes to the point where they are really yummy to someone who is used to goodies from the Southern Living or Betty Crocker cookbooks.

I'm glad I bought this book with a gift card I got for Christmas.

So far I made the banana bread for a couple of diabetics, and a couple of us that aren't. It turned out awesome.

I am a lifetime Weight Watcher and involved with diabetics. This book has been a tremendous addition to my kitchen and I certainly recommend it.

I received this shortly after I ordered it. It came so fast I was cooking out of it pretty much the next day :) I love this book. Its awesome and has great receipes that are much healthier for you than the other cook books that contains so much sugar and fat! These are great recipes for diatebics and even for those who arent and want to have those sweet treats, but with a heathier result for the body! I LOVE IT. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who loves to bake.

I gave this as a Christmas gift to my Mother. I did not get to see it before the holidays, so I was not sure what to expect, but was really excited to see the recipes in this book. They are simple, they are things I would really make (muffins, breads, pies, etc) and the author even talks about the use of bread machines, how to make bread better, what brands she used for the best results. This is one of the best cookbooks I've found for just about any kind of cooking!