[peachcake]

My Mom is making pumpkin pie for a dinner we're having tonight and I asked her to make one with no crust and possibly use the splenda baking substitute type sugar. Has anyone made pumpkin pie with the fake sugar? And has it turned out alright? I have the one that measures like sugar, no calories sweetener. It says "great for baking" but I just thought maybe I could get some actual insight as to the results.

Thanks!

[Meg]

Peach, I make a pumpkin custard with Splenda (substituting it 1:1 for sugar) that's like the inside of a pumpkin pie, so it sounds a lot like what your mom is making (how sweet of her!) I think it tastes great. Splenda seems to work well in recipes like this -- I've made a baked brown rice pudding with it that also turned out well.

[peachcake]

Thanks Meg! I just have never used it for baking (other than my baked oatmeal) and I didn't want her to end up with a big mess. So I'll let her know.

[peachcake]

My pumpkin pie turned out VERY bitter. Not edible. Maybe it was the brand we used... the other pie (used the same everything expect split it before adding sugar) tastes perfect so it had to have been the sugar. It was an off brand I think. Could this have been the problem?

[Meg]

Bummer! But I'm confused -- I'm not sure what you mean by an off brand? I thought she was using the Splenda for baking (in the yellow bag)? Did she use a different sweetener? Or if she used the Splenda for baking, did she measure out the same amount that she would have used for sugar? I've never had a problem using Splenda for baking and it's a shame it didn't work out for you, especially because I'm sure you were looking forward to pumpkin pie!

[peachcake]

It was one that measures like sugar (no calorie). It works great for my baked oatmeal, which is what I bought it for in the first place. But no, it's wasn't the splenda for baking one, in the future I am going to use that one though. I made a raspberry fat free yogurt/sugar free peach jello/cool whip free pie with peaches on top instead though. The pumpkin pie was a nice idea but it's no huge loss. I was in the mood for a more spring like dessert anyway.

[meowee]

Splenda -- the actual name-brand -- really is the only one that can "take the heat", literally. If you ended up with something bitter, it sounds like it was NOT really Splenda but something based on aspartame or saccharine.

I've had great luck using Splenda for almost anything including pumpkin pudding/pie filling.

There is also a Splenda/sugar blend with half the calories of sugar (a lot more than in straight Splenda -- which isn't totally calorie free; it has about 2 grams of carb / 8 calories per tablespoon) but if you used that 1:1 it would have been very sweet, because it is meant to be substituted for the amount of the sugar in the recipe at 1/2:1.

What I really dropped in to say, BTW , was that using Splenda in a cake or quick bread requires that you add the Splenda with the dry ingredients rather than creaming it with the butter like you would when using sugar. You also might find that the recipe doesn't rise quite as high as a sugar cake, but other than that, I've always had perfect results.

PS -- the reason your Splenda bag says "no calories" is because it has less than 1/2 of gram of sugar per teaspoon, which is the recommended serving size. In the US, they can call that calorie-free -- up here in Canada, they have to reveal on the packaging that it does have some calories in it.

[peachcake]

Hey meowee-- thanks for the input! I do realize that it has some calories, actually probably quite a few. I was just saying what it was "labeled" so give some idea of what I was using. SugarTwin is the brand I used. In any case, I won't use it again except for my baked oatmeal. I will try using the namebrand splenda. THANK YOU!

[Meg]

Oh no! Sugar Twin is a totally different sweetener than Splenda and Meowee's right -- you can't bake with it because it breaks down under high heat. Try your recipe again with Splenda and I bet you'll love it.

[jtammy]

Yikes - SugarTwin + baking = yuck! But there are some "store brand" Splendas (sucralose) that work just as well as Splenda. Wal-Mart's brand is called Altern, Kroger's brand is called Altiva, and those work as good for baking as Splenda. Just be sure it's actually sucralose if you try the store brand. Like Meg and Linda, I've made a no crust pumpkin pie with Splenda and it tasted great.

[peachcake]

Thanks ladies. It says "Great for baking". So much for trusting that. Oh well. I will definetely try it with the real splenda.

[peachcake]

FYI, I tried the real splenda and used the fat free evaporated milk, the pie (without crust) turned out really well. I think it was a little less rich than regular pumpkin pie but I think that was because of the milk. Yay! I'm glad it worked.