I found a recipe on the web that I think I could make lower carb. It is for a ricotta custard. The recipe, as written, uses 1/2 a cup of granular Splenda and 1/2 a cup of half and half.

I'm thinking I could use 1/4 of a cup of heavy cream and make up the liquid amount by using 1/4 cup of DeVinci syrup (to replace some of the the granular Splenda). Do you have any idea how much Splenda a sf syrup would replace? I planned on using the vanilla syrup, and eliminating the vanilla in the recipe.

Any other ideas for modifying this recipe? As written it is just too high carb for me, though an 8 ounce serving also seems like a whole lot and I sure don't see how this recipe would make 8 of them or how each would contain 19 carbs.

Here is the recipe:
http://www.cooksrecipes.com/diabeti...ard_recipe.html

Baked Ricotta Custard

1 1/2 (8-ounce) packages cream cheese
3/4 cup ricotta cheese
1/2 cup SPLENDA® No Calorie Sweetener, Granular
2 large eggs
1 egg white
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup half-and-half
Optional Garnish: mint leaves, fresh raspberries

1. PREHEAT oven to 250° F.
2. BEAT cream cheese at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy. Add ricotta cheese; beat until blended. Gradually add SPLENDA® No Calorie Sweetener, Granular beating until blended.
3. ADD eggs gradually, beating until blended. Add egg white and beat until blended. Add vanilla and cream, beating until blended.
4. POUR mixture into 8 (8-ounce) ramekins; place ramekins in a roasting pan. Add hot water to pan to a depth of 1 inch.
5. BAKE at 250° F for 45 minutes or until custards are set. Custards will puff slightly and remain white. Remove from water bath and cool on a wire rack. Serve chilled or at room temperature. Garnish, if desired.

Makes 8 (8-ounce) servings.

Nutrients Per Serving:
Serving Size 1 custard
Total Calories 350
Calories from fat 250
Total fat 28 g
Saturated fat 16 g
Cholesterol 140 mg
Sodium 190 mg
Total Carbohydrate 19 g
Sugars 3 g
Dietary Fiber 3 g
Protein 9 g

I've done that before with other recipes and when it called for 1/2 cup I subbed 1/4 c syrup & 1/4 c splenda ......it was plenty sweet enough

I just ran the recipe through FitDay. I got a total of 28 carbs for the whole thing, which would mean the recipe on a per serving basis (and I don't see it making 8, 8 ounce servings) would be OK.

This recipe was supposedly developed by Splenda. It's hard to believe they would make this sort of error.

Thanks, Kevin.

I bought a cookbook a few months back called Cooking Healthy with Splenda by JoAnna M. Lund and I remmember thinking geeeez there was hardly any of the 200 recipes in the book under 10 carbs per serving and many were in the 30's.....what a waste of money.

I've noticed the same thing on the Splenda site, Kevin. It as if they really are NOT going after the group of people who are really interested in lowering carbs as much as many of us are.

Many users of splenda and such are diabetics, not just low carbers. Unfortunetly in the last couple of decades instead of low sugar diets, doctors have been telling thier patients to do moderate sugar and low fat diets.

I pick up many of the little cookbooklets in the checkout when they say low sugar or diabetic cooking on them. Some are decent, but most are a joke. One recipie was made of skim milk, sweetner, a banana and so on. Another for a quick snack was cool whip put into those little icecream cones you buy at the store. Most that do have sugar free, still have alot of carbs coming from things like flour, crackers and so on. But they all have skim milk, fat free cream cheese or cool whip and so on.

I just popped it through my customized MasterCook, and I've got a total of 34g carbs and 0g fiber (and I've been doing this a long long time, so I believe the MasterCook at this point)...

I agree with you, the total volume of the ingredients MAYBE comes to about 4 Cups, or 4 x 8 fl oz, unless they're adding a LOT of air in the beating. So I checked the volume of my standard custard ramekins and they literally hold 4 fl oz each. So I'm guessing the typo is in the serving size. One SHOULD be able to get eight 4 fl oz servings (or 8 half-Cup servings) out of this recipe...

As written, this makes it:
Per Serving (8 x 4 fl oz servings): 236 Calories; 21g Fat (78.9% calories from fat); 8g Protein; 4g Carbohydrate; 0g Dietary Fiber; 118mg Cholesterol; 180mg Sodium. Exchanges: 1 Lean Meat; 0 Non-Fat Milk; 3 1/2 Fat; 1/2 Other Carbohydrates.

Now that's not too bad at all. Oh, by the way, this is calculated with large eggs (including the white) and full-fat ricotta -- yet I've had a tough time finding rull-fat ricotta in this country, one mostly finds part-skim ricotta (still plenty creamy ) at 10% butterfat. To put it to scale, that's only 7g less fat and 0.5g more carb per 8 fl oz Cup of ricotta.

The only possible explanation for their really weird carb, sugars and fiber counts is that they actually used Fat Free dairy products (and didn't mention it) because as we all know, they are pumped up with thickeners (usually carbs) and sweeteners (usually carbs) to make up for the lack of fats...though that doesn't explain their other numbers for protein and fats per serving...completely whacked, those recipe counts, I would just ignore them.

ps: I ran their numbers through my Hidden Carb Calculator that assumes the calories are correct, subtracts the proteins and fats calorie values from the total cals, leaving only carb cals in theory, and that one says that IF THEIR CALS ARE CORRECT for the products they're using, the carb count is somewhere around 17g per serving. Go figure. So either the Cals are totally wrong, or the products are as I suggested and not as listed.



If you still want to reduce the carbs (by my calculation, sitting at 4g per serving of 4 oz ramekin), here's the deal with the liquid DaVinci Syrup (I have this from the DaVinci people, as posted elsewhere here in this KitchenTalk forum):
1 Tbsp DaVinci SF Syrup = 1 Tbsp + 1 Tsp sugar sweetness ( 1 & 1/3 as sweet).

So if Splenda is spoon-for-spoon, then for every 4 Tsp of Splenda granular, you can use 3 Tsp of DaVinci liquid.

Of course, if you use Karen Barnaby's synergy method, use half Splenda granular and half Canadian Sugar Twin (or other sweetener of your choice), and then cut the total amount of combined sweeteners in half! It actually works! So to replace 1/2 Splenda granular in this recipe, you could use roughly 1/8th Cup (2 Tbsp) of Canadian Sugar Twin and 1/8th Cup of DaVinci (2 Tbsp) -- close enough at this level -- to get this:

Whole Recipe: 1844 Calories; 166g Fat (80.7% calories from fat); 66g Protein; 24g Carbohydrate; 0g Dietary Fiber; 942mg Cholesterol; 1602mg Sodium. Exchanges: 9 Lean Meat; 1/2 Non-Fat Milk; 28 1/2 Fat.

Per Serving (8 x 4 fl oz): 230 Calories; 21g Fat (80.7% calories from fat); 8g Protein; 3g Carbohydrate; 0g Dietary Fiber; 118mg Cholesterol; 200mg Sodium. Exchanges: 1 Lean Meat; 0 Non-Fat Milk; 3 1/2 Fat.

It's a LOT of errors in one recipe, but it has been known to happen...that's why we all look out for each other here, eh?

Here's the original link for the recipe on the Splenda website, by the way:
http://www.splenda.com/recipe_detai...ottacustard.inc

All exactly as posted (and still wrong). Go figure. Sigh.

Here's the MasterCook version with the small change in the sweeteners but all else the same:


* Exported from MasterCook *

Baked Ricotta Custard

Recipe By :
Serving Size : 8 Preparation Time :0:00
Categories :

Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method
-------- ------------ --------------------------------
12 ounces cream cheese -- 1.5 packages
3/4 cup ricotta cheese -- full fat
1/8 cup sweetener, Sugar Twin White granular -- replaces 1/2 C Splenda
1/8 cup syrup, sf DaVinci Vanilla
2 whole large eggs
1 whole large egg white
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup half and half

1. PREHEAT oven to 250° F.
2. BEAT cream cheese at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy. Add ricotta cheese; beat until blended. Gradually add SPLENDA® No Calorie Sweetener, Granular beating until blended.
3. ADD eggs gradually, beating until blended. Add egg white and beat until blended. Add vanilla and cream, beating until blended.
4. POUR mixture into 8 (8-ounce) ramekins; place ramekins in a roasting pan. Add hot water to pan to a depth of 1 inch.
5. BAKE at 250° F for 45 minutes or until custards are set. Custards will puff slightly and remain white. Remove from water bath and cool on a wire rack. Serve chilled or at room temperature. Garnish, if desired.

Description: "Optional Garnish: mint leaves, fresh raspberries"
Source: "http://www.cooksrecipes.com/diabetic/baked_ricotta_custard_recipe.html"
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

NOTES : original nutrition info
" Makes 8 (8-ounce) servings.
Nutrients Per Serving:Serving Size 1 custard
Total Calories 350, Calories from fat 250, Total fat 28 g, Saturated fat 16 g, Cholesterol 140 mg, Sodium 190 mg, Total Carbohydrate 19 g, Sugars 3 g, Dietary Fiber 3 g, Protein 9 g "

Whole Recipe: 1844 Calories; 166g Fat (80.7% calories from fat); 66g Protein; 24g Carbohydrate; 0g Dietary Fiber; 942mg Cholesterol; 1602mg Sodium. Exchanges: 9 Lean Meat; 1/2 Non-Fat Milk; 28 1/2 Fat.
Per Serving (8 x 4 fl oz): 230 Calories; 21g Fat (80.7% calories from fat); 8g Protein; 3g Carbohydrate; 0g Dietary Fiber; 118mg Cholesterol; 200mg Sodium. Exchanges: 1 Lean Meat; 0 Non-Fat Milk; 3 1/2 Fat.

Nutr. Assoc. : 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0