Friday, November 25, 2011

Baking with Barb

I love to cook. I enjoy baking and creating new meals for my family. I love to follow food blogs and to scan through recipes.

Since diabetes moved into our house and I have gotten a bit older, I find myself altering recipes on a regular basis.  It is now important that foods be lower in carbohydrates if possible.  With a history of heart disease in my family and my own heart issues, it is also important for foods to contain more fiber and less fat.  This has meant that many family favorite recipes have been changed over the years. I am certain that my grandmother would roll over in her grave if she knew what I had done to some of her amazing recipes but we are able to enjoy the wonderful tastes while being a bit more healthy.

I have found that some recipes allow me to completely substitute Splenda for sugar while others require the "real thing" but in a lower amount. I have recently tried the Splenda brown sugar blend which seemed to work well in some cookies. I have added flax and whole wheat flour to pizza dough. I have learned to substitute some or all of the margarine or oil in a recipe with apple sauce. Sometimes the recipes work and sometimes...well Grandma did know what she was talking about.
The other day, I took my creativity to a new level and came up with a new cookie that will be a Christmas staple.  We were eating chocolate chip cookies with colored chips and I had a stroke of genius...Candy Cane cookies! If you have done this already or have a similar recipe, please don't tell me. Allow me the illusion of thinking that I came up with this first...again, at least in my mind.

I took out a cookie recipe that my boys and their friends have loved for years and began my tweaking. I put the creation in the oven and loved the taste that came out. The resulting cookies were approximately 10g of carbohydrates per cookie and really yummy if you like a peppermint holiday treat. (Sorry I haven't figured out the carb factor yet because I ate too many of the cookies before I remembered to weigh them).  If you are interested, here is what happens when you go "baking with Barb"!

Barb's Candy Cane Christmas Cookies

Cream together 3/4c margarine, 1/2c Spenda blended brown sugar, and 1/2c Splenda
Beat in 1 egg and 1 egg white/egg beater, and 2 tsp of vanilla
Combine 2 cups of flour, 1 tsp of baking soda, and 1 tsp of salt
Gradually blend.
Mix in 1/2c of crushed candy canes (approximately 20 miniature candy canes)
Drop by a teaspoon onto lightly greased cookie sheet.
Bake in oven preheated to 350F for 15-17 minutes.

Yield approximately 28 cookies
Recipe is approximately 284.75 g of carbohydrates.

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