Pumpkin Bars

[Sharon]

I got the following recipe off the Low-Carb-Recipe-Exchange E-Group last night and made it... It was really, really good. I roughly figured out the carbs...and quickly I think they add up to quite a few...over 60..please help me here if I'm wrong. I usually try to cut back on my artifical sugars as much as possible, so next time I'm mixing splenda and brown sugar twin...perhaps 2/3 cup in total...also think I'll skip the walnuts (to save carbs). I added a little soya four as I wanted to make muffins and thought it needed such a little more substance. I also think I'll cut back a bit on the nutmeg and cinnamon as there seemed like plenty...just trying to cut carbs!

Would appreciate any other thoughts any of you have.

PUMPKIN BARS..... YIELDS 12 BARS

3/4 CUP ALMOND FLOUR
3/4 TEASPOON SALT
1/2 TEASPOON BAKING SODA
1/2 TEASPOON NUTMEG
1/2 TEASPOON CINNAMON
2 EGGS
1 CUP BROWN SUGAR TWIN OR SPLENDA
2/3 CUP CANNED PUMPKIN
1/4 CUP COOKING OIL
Optional: 1/2 CUP NUTS


IN A BOWL BEAT EGGS AND SPLENDA/ BROWN SUGAR TWIN. ADD OIL AND MIXED UNTIL COMBINED. THEN ADD THE DRY SIFTED INGREDIENTS TOGETHER WITH PUMPKIN AND NUTS. POUR IN 1/4 ( 8X12} GREASED BAKING PAN. BAKE AT 350 FOR 30 MINUTES. COOL 5 MINUTES. REMOVE FROM PAN AND FROST IF DESIRED. CUT INTO 2X4 SQUARES One user added: I made the pumpkin bars but added stevia "to taste" along with the sweet and low. I also put in a whole can of pumpkin and added a quarter cup of soy four. They came out great, especially with cream cheese. Another user commented: About Sugar Twin Brown Sugar Sub. I have substituted it with Splenda and a very SMALL amount of REAL MOLASSES added to it. Tastes much better.

[Bonnie]

Your recipe looks yummy! Are you aware that you can buy light mollasses with half the carbs? Just thought I would pass that on as you are really trying to find ways to cut carbs :)

Bonnie

[doreen T]

Originally posted by Bonnie
Are you aware that you can buy light mollasses with half the carbs?

Hi Bonnie,

I know I have seen a type of light molasses before, but it's *light* in colour & flavour, according to the label. I would LOVE to find a lower carb molasses - a little bit would go a long way, and no bitter aftertaste.

Recently, I saw a reduced calorie&carb HONEY product at WalMart. It's a fine powder, comes in a small jar, made by Labonte in Quebec. According to the label, it's derived from all natural ingredients and has 2/3 the calories and carbs of sugar - 10 cal/2.5 carbs per tsp, as opposed to 16 cal/4 carbs. The thing is, honey is more intensely sweet than sucrose-sugar, and the flavour. . . .yum! A half-tsp would be less than 1.5 carbs, and could maybe be used to dust over the top of a dessert, or to top a blob of whipped cream.

I saw it in the diet foods/artifiial sweetener section of the store - and I don't recall that it was any more expensive than Splenda.

Doreen

[Bonnie]

The molasses I am referring to is a brand made in the Maritimes, "Crosby's". I have the original and the lite. They are both dark molasses and the lite specifically states that it has 40% less sugar than the regular Crosby's Fancy Molasses. The lite has 9 carbs per tablespoon. The regular Crosby's Fancy Molasses has 16 grams of carbs per tablespoon so that cuts the carb content down to almost half. Was speaking with someone from Crosby's a moment ago. She was going over the spec sheet and according to it the carb content for 1 tablespoon of the lite is 8 carbs. She was appreciative I brought that to her attention and was going to address that error to someone. (She felt the packaging should be changed to 8 carbs). I use the lite in bread and other LC Goodies. Just a small amount gives just that little bit of molasses flavor that I crave now and then.

Bonnie

[llhughes]

The lite molasses sounds great. But I need to know how many carbs should a person eat in a day to lose weight

I weight 182. This is new to me. I have never been on a low carb diet before.

[tamarian]

Hi llhughes, welcome to our forum!

Good question about how many carbs. But this will depends on your metabolism, and which plan are you following as each techniqye is different and our bodies are different. Have you read any of the low-carb books?

Keep us posted and we have lots of folks here who can help :)

Wa'il

[Tess M]

I made these tonight (really in the mood for pumpkin!), and I must say that they are the very BEST low carb goody that I've tried in the past 2 years. Wish I'd searched out the recipe a long time ago. Absolutely wonderful!!! Now, if only I had some cream cheese to make frosting (although they are fabulous without frosting)...