Bakers! Help with swaps in a recipe!

skierxjes
skierxjes Posts: 926 Member
in Recipes
Okay. I found this on Pinterest and want to make a loaf of it.

These are the ingreds from the Pinterest website:
2 cups flour
3/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter, melted
3/4 cup milk
1 egg
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
1 lemon- zested and 1 tablespoon of juice
1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen raspberries (If frozen, do not thaw

Can I make the following changes and it still be okay?
Sugar to Splenda
Butter to Parkay squeezable (veggie oil?)
Milk to Almond milk
1 egg to egg whites

This is from the website, but I want a loaf, not muffins :)
9e7edd748ccd34ccbb7a6c30cfe8c092.jpg

Replies

  • srenea9
    srenea9 Posts: 142
    Well you can swap Sugar with Stevia. Butter with applesauce (no sugar added) you can grind up oats & used them instead of flour. & use almond milk instead of milk.
  • Annieway987
    Annieway987 Posts: 24 Member
    That looks yummy. You can make all the substitutions you propose for these muffins (I'm assuming muffins from the recipe and photo). The only problem you may run into is that the splenda for sugar substitution may result in a different texture once it's baked. If I remember correctly, sugar helps keep the product tender and splenda probably won't have the same effect. I would be very careful not to over mix after adding the flour which would also contribute to making the muffins tougher (chewier). It's like the difference between bread which is mixed and kneeded and has little or no sugar and cake or muffins which are not mixed as much and contain significant sugar. So your muffins may end up with a more bread-like texture than what you would normally get. Let us know how they turn out!
  • pocketmole
    pocketmole Posts: 614 Member
    I personally have never baked with splenda, but I can tell you that sugar is one of those ingredients that keeps baked goods moist. If the recipe calls for creaming butter and sugar together, the sugar helps promote a lightness to the recipe by incorporating air into the batter. Since I can't say with certainly that subbing in splenda would work, maybe start with using the splenda baking blend which contains half sugar (for the reasons I mentioned above).

    I swap almond milk for regular milk in baking all of the time and have never noticed any difference. I've used shortening in place of butter (many people would even say it's better for certain recipes) so I suspect that margarine would work fine. Butter and oil have different jobs in baking recipes, so you can't always interchange them without affecting the outcome of the finished product. If your recipe says to "cream" the butter and sugar together, you probably want to stick with a solid fat because the whole purpose of that is the create that lightness I was talking about with the sugar. If you're mixing all of your wet ingredients together, you could probably sub in oil without much of an issue. In the end it may be a little more dense, but it could also be more moist which is nice.

    As for the eggs, you wouldn't be able to just sub in one egg white for one egg since that is less mass. You want to do two egg whites per egg. I sub eggs out of all of my baking recipes because my boyfriend doesn't eat eggs, and the only time it gets a little sketchy is if a recipe is calling for something crazy like 4-6 eggs. Your recipe should handle the egg whites just fine I think.
  • mistersassysquatch
    mistersassysquatch Posts: 2
    I would use those subs. But if you're going to use splenda, add a quarter cup of applesauce, mashed banana, or pumpkin to it as well because sugar acts as a liquid, so if you use splenda instead, it will definitely be dry. I would sub half oil and half oil for the butter (I do that with banana bread all the time). Strained applesauce works best for subbing oil. I just line a sieve with a coffee liner and dump the apple sauce in, then leave it over the sink or bowl for 10 minutes or more. I always sub almond milk for everything, so there is no reason it wouldn't work, imo. Good luck!
  • skierxjes
    skierxjes Posts: 926 Member
    I've been so busy and away from the actual website I forgot I posted this!

    Next time I go shopping I will pick up the ingreds and try it, but definitely with adding applesauce or banana so the splenda doesn't dry it out. Thanks so much!!
  • kwedman488
    kwedman488 Posts: 132 Member
    Sub half the flour for ground old fashioned oats. Less calories, more protein, still cooks the same. Sub half the sugar, all of the oil, and all the egg with unsweetened applesauce. Trust me I do it a lot. The only oil you should need is to spray the pan. Cinnamon and vanilla work well to increase sweetness so you don't have to use as much sugar either. Unsweetened almond milk works well instead of regular milk-does the same thing for fewer calories.
  • Lleldiranne
    Lleldiranne Posts: 5,516 Member
    If you are going to substitute the sugar for splenda, make sure you get the Splenda for baking. Regular Splenda will not work well in baked products. (This information from my brother, who uses Splenda for baking regularly in cooking for his diabetic wife).

    ETA: I would personally avoid the Parkay squeezable, as well. It's been a while since I checked, but I think Parkay has hydrogenated vegetable oil, which is no better for you that butter, and potentially worse. Do the applesauce, like someone else suggested, or use Canola Oil (which is unsaturated, un-hydrogenated) from the baking aisle. (I thin Parkay also has other stuff added to stabilize it and make it taste like butter … and I don't know how suitable for baking all that is :tongue:)
  • I_Will_Be_The_Swan
    I_Will_Be_The_Swan Posts: 132
    I replace milk with water. It doesn't affect anything - bake time, taste, texture - and it's cheaper, as well as lower calorie and fat.
  • Alluminati
    Alluminati Posts: 6,208 Member
    That looks yummy. You can make all the substitutions you propose for these muffins (I'm assuming muffins from the recipe and photo). The only problem you may run into is that the splenda for sugar substitution may result in a different texture once it's baked. If I remember correctly, sugar helps keep the product tender and splenda probably won't have the same effect. I would be very careful not to over mix after adding the flour which would also contribute to making the muffins tougher (chewier). It's like the difference between bread which is mixed and kneeded and has little or no sugar and cake or muffins which are not mixed as much and contain significant sugar. So your muffins may end up with a more bread-like texture than what you would normally get. Let us know how they turn out!

    This. Although I remember reading somewhere that margarine also has more water than regular butter so it might even out using the splenda/sugar substitute. The only thing you can do is experiment and adjust as needed.
  • ckish
    ckish Posts: 341 Member
    I make muffins similar to this a lot. Your substitutions will work but the texture will be different. I don't put any oil/butter or sugar in my muffins. I puree fresh apples for sweetness and moisture. I add a bit of Torani sugar free vanilla syrup too. I also swap egg beaters for whole egg all the time when I bake.

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