In any recipe, you can substitute Splenda brown sugar mix or Splenda Baking mix for the sugar. This is because these two mixes are half sugar, and that is enough that the structural role the sugar plays in the recipe is not affected. But that also means that the cookies are half sugar, and not as good for a diabetic. (like me). In a recipe where the sugar is more than just flavoring, it combines with the butter and eggs to form a stable structure. The sugar crystals make the framework that keeps the other ingredients lifted. So when a cake rises, it stays risen. When you use splenda in a recipe where sugar is needed for the structure, then the structure is not stable and the cake or cookie deflates to a dense pancake. So you have to look for a recipe where the sugar isn't really needed for structure. Most cakes won't work with splenda alone, but there are a few exceptions: look for other ingredients to give structure - like zucchini bread, or carrot cake. Veggies have fiber and give structure. In a cookie, you look for one that doesn't spread or rise very much. Like shortbread. Spritz cookies also work well. or Peanut butter, because the nuts have some structure (so chunky would be better). Cream cheese is also a good structure giving ingredient. this means that polish Kolacky is a good sugar free candidate. What doesn't work well are any kind of drop cookie like chocolate chip cookies. Also, commercially bought sugar-free chocolate bars can be used to make chocolate covered things. Like pretzels. Or to drizzel over your shortcake or other cookies. And sugar free jams are commercially available, so Thumb Print cookies are good too. And Oatmeal bars with raspberry jam. Etc. This way you can use your own favorite family recipes but make them sugar free. Hope this helps eveyone adapt their recipes to sugar free! Susan

They were hard to find here, until I started looking in the "discount" stores that often cater to ethnic populations. My favourites are the ones made from raw sugar, and I prefer the cubes to the "dominos" (same amount of sugar, just a different shape LOL). Right now I have a box of Clic brand white sugar cubes in my desk drawer (for my morning coffee at work). Listed as a product of Turkey. Decidedly not local, and certainly not organic. Maybe that is why I hide them in my desk drawer - ;). Dances - actually, they are in the drawer so nobody touches my cubes, man. I have little tongs in there, how hard would it be to use those?

I recently made icebox cookies (the kind where you form the dough into logs and refrigerate before slicing and cooking). The recipe called for powdered sugar but I'd run out so I made them with granulated sugar. A few days later, I made a batch with powdered sugar. I couldn't tell the difference in the final product though perhaps there was some subtle difference that would have been noticeable with the two batches side by side. I found this in a Fine Cooking article on the effect of granulated sugar on cookies: "It also encourages spreading as the sugar melts. The proportion of sugar in most cookie dough recipes is so high that only about half of the sugar dissolves during mixing. During baking more of the sugar dissolves, which causes the dough to soften and spread." https://www.finecooking.com/article/the-science-of-baking-cookies-2 So it sounds like powdered sugar would be preferable when you want to retain the impression. Plllog - I think I have that same lion rampant cookie cutter in our Hanukah cookie cutter set.

Leavening/soda makes dough rise. Proving/proofing shows that the yeast is alive (not an issue with dry granulated yeast, but absolutely necessary for cake yeast and starters). Rising is what the dough does. Commercial bakers nowadays proof yeast in the dough while it rises because the yeast is so reliably alive that they skip the step where you feed the yeast and make sure it bubbles up before wasting a batch of flour on it, which is the original meaning of proofing your yeast. They just look at the risen shaped loaves to see the proof. This has become so prevalent that bakers are using the word proof and rise interchangeably. You raise your hand and your crops, and rear your children. :)