I cannot voice to you how amazingly good the Pillsbury sugar free mixes are. And, it wasn't merely my carb-starved self that thought so! I had a widely varied test group on the chocolate cake and everyone from the 9 year old to the 96 year old said it was fantastic. It was super-fluffy (if that's a word. Very light) and the icing is fabulous. I could have eaten the whole can without even the cake.
I made the brownies tonight. The mix is so thick when you make it, it's like fudge modeling clay or something. I was pretty worried about it. But, my fears were for naught! It was delicious. Chad is a picky man when it comes to brownies. He wolfed one down and took 2 to work tonight. So, they are Chad tested and approved!!
I have not yet made the yellow cake mix, so I'll have to report back on it. I may try making the cake mix cookies with it. I also have yet to try the white icing. So, I'll update when we go through all this batch and are all sweet-starved again!
I looked up the ingredient list and I hate to burst your bubble, but the brownies are not sugar free.
ReplyDeleteThey contain maltitol. Maltitol is sugar. It's classified as a sugar alcohol, though, so manufacturers can list it on a separate line and claim the product is sugar-free. For your purposes you should consider sugar alcohol to be sugar. While it is absorbed more slowly than sucrose, it is still absorbed, it will affect your glycemic load, it is a carbohydrate, and it contains calories. Claiming these are sugar-free is a bold-faced lie. Oh, and be careful about eating too much maltitol (or sorbitol). They have gastrointestinal side effects.
The other huge red flag is the partially hydrogenated oil, combined with the claim of 0 trans fats. This is simply not possible because hydrogenated oils contain trans fats by definition. They can claim 0 because the nutrition labeling rules say if it's less than 0.5g in a single serving they can just round down to 0. Trans fats not only have been proven to cause cancer and increase your risk of coronary disease, they can't be metabolized by the body without first getting converted to fat. So every gram of trans fats goes directly to fat, where it is stored for 3 - 5 days before it becomes available to the body to get burned for energy. While they're sitting there, they're causing damage to cellular structure.
The only positive thing about this is that it uses acesulfame potassium and sucralose (Splenda). Acesulfame potassium is an artificial sweetener that has no glycemic impact and long-term studies have shown no serious side effects. The only downside is it has a bitter aftertaste, which can be masked with sucralose (Splenda). Sucralose has also been shown to be safe for most people, and when acesulfame potassiume is combined with sucralose it has a very positive glycemic effect for diabetics.
I'll do some research and see if I can find a line of baked goods that's both diabetic friendly and won't give you cancer, heart disease and diarrhea. :-)
You are one heckuva researcher!!!!
ReplyDeleteI am super lucky that sugar alcohols do not cause my blood sugar to go up (thankfully), but they definitely do a lot of folks.
HOWEVER... I had no idea about the whole transfat thing!!!! With all the heart disease and other fun things that happen to my family, I do believe I will stay away from this stuff. Sigh... it was really good, too. But, not good enough to die for!! Literally!!!!
Keep hunting for me. I am a baked goods junkie and that has been the hardest thing for me to give up. I absolutely dream about attacking the pastry counter at Atlanta Bread Company and not leaving until every crumb is gone!!!
So, thanks for the help. You may be all that stands between me and a baked goods theft conviction (and subsequent sugar coma).