Monday, July 04, 2005


update: splenda brownies, take iii

so returning from the roof of my building where we all gloried in the holiday fireworks, i cut some more brownies.

generally, the brownie recipe i make does improve the longer you allow the brownies to sit, up to overnight. with time, the moisture and flavors in the recipe tend to even out somehow.

i'm calculating that using the splenda baking mix reduced the calories from regular granulated sugar (i left the confectioner's sugar untouched) in the recipe from about 1050 to about 575. since i cut the pan into 12 brownies, the full sugar version has about 90 calories from sugar per brownie; the splenda mix version, about 48.

the brownies had sat for about 6 hours by the time the fireworks were over. and they were less dry by that time, true.

however, i think you'd still need to serve 'em with ice cream or something. . .maybe sprinkle 'em with sugar-free da vinci white chocolate syrup. . .

what surprised me most is how muted the chocolate flavor was. i'm not sure why regular sugar seems to bring out the full chocolate flavor more.

mr. right, tasting the reduced flavor, as well as observing the reduced volume, thought saving
50 calories per brownie wasn't worth it. but if he eats half the pan, that's 300 calories over the week!

that's a difficult cost-benefit decision. i will ponder more how to improve this recipe before completely surrendering.

but let me note the splenda baking mix is plenty pricey.

it contains the "sweetening power" of 4 pounds of sugar. 5 pounds of regular store-brand granulated white sugar would cost me about US$4.75 here at my local key food grocery.

the equivalent amount of this splenda baking mix was US$8.50. if i can't get a product mr. right will happily eat with some enjoyment, then it's certainly a big waste of money too!

posted by fortune | 7:37 PM | top | link to this | email this: | | | 0 comments