Reduced Sugar Chocolate Chips Cookies Two Ways

As you know, I am a fan of junk food, especially sweets. I believe that everything can be consumed in moderation. For me, that doesn't mean only having dessert once a month. For me, that means having dessert daily but in a small portion and, preferably, making that dessert myself so I can control the ingredients. 

Today, I'll show you how to control the amount of sugar in your chocolate chip cookies using two different recipes and two different sugar substitutes.

Recipe 1

 

First up is a cookie made with sucralose (commonly known by the brand name Splenda). I like that sucralose was made from real sugar (sucrose), unlike aspartame, saccharin, acesulfame potassium, and xylitol.  Before stevia became mainstream, sucralose was my sugar substitute of choice for this reason.

I still find that sucralose products can be easier to work with because it is used in a one-to-one ratio, meaning 1 cup of sugar can be replaced with one cup of sucralose because they add a bulking agent (maltodextrin) to sucralose. This is not true usually with stevia products on the market....

Low Sugar Chocolate Chip Cookies

 made with sucralose

Makes two dozen cookies

Ingredients

½ cup (1 stick) butter

6 Tablespoons sucralose granulated sweetener*

3 Tablespoons sucralose brown sugar blend*

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup all-purpose flour

½ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

1 egg

1 cup chocolate morsels

Directions

1.      Preheat oven was to 375°F.

2.      Cut butter into three pieces. In a mixing bowl, combine butter, both forms sucralose, and vanilla extract.  Mix until creamy. Beat an egg into the mixture.  Gradually add flour, baking soda, and salt, beating after each addition. Stir in chocolate morsels.

3.       Drop batter onto a baking sheet covered with parchment paper. Place pans in the middle rack of the oven for 9 to 11 min. Remove from oven and let cool on baking sheet for two minutes before transferring to a wire rack. 

Adapted from Nestle Tollhouse Chocolate Chip Cookies

*You can usually find store brand sucralose as a white sugar substitute. It's harder to find a store brand of the brown sugar substitute version, but Splenda makes a version. 

Per cookie: 98 calories, 6 g fat, 10 g carbohydrates, 1 g protein

Compared to original recipe: 117 calories, 6 g fat, 15 g carbohydrates, 1 g protein

Contain 1/3 fewer grams carbohydrates as determined by supertracker.usda.gov

Recipe 2

  

Although I had success with sucralose, I really wanted to test out stevia. I generally avoid it due to cost. As I mentioned above, it's also harder to use because it's not always uses in a one-to-one ratio the way sucralose products are. Perhaps worse, the bottle of liquid stevia I have doesn't provide any guidelines for how much to use! I tried to contact the company and they said it varies and will take some practice to figure out. 

So, I decided to try to replace the vanilla extract with flavored liquid stevia and to cut some of the sugar out. The recipe originally called for 12 total tablespoons of sugar. It now uses 8. So, I cut out 1/4 of the sugar volume (1/3 of sugar by grams, though). That's good enough to be called "Reduced Sugar" under FDA guidelines, even though it's not low in sugar.

Additionally, I replaced the butter with vegan margarine to reduce the amount of saturated fat and cholesterol in this recipe. Make sure you find one without partially hydrogenated oils (trans fats).  

I found that I had to add flour to the original recipe to get the right consistency. 

Reduced Sugar Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies 

made with Liquid Stevia and sugar

Makes 1 dozen

Ingredients

5 Tbsp. spreadable tub vegan margarine w/o partially hydrogenated oils

5 Tbsp. brown sugar, packed

3 Tbsp. white sugar

1 egg

32 drops (approx. 2 tsp.) flavored liquid stevia*

1 cup flour

¾ cup oats

½ tsp baking soda

½ cup mini chocolate chips

Directions

Preheat oven to 375°F.

Grease cookie sheets or spray with nonstick cooking spray.

In a mixer, beat together margarine and sugars. Beat in egg and liquid stevia.  Gradually mix in flour, oats, and baking soda. Stir in chocolate chips. Drop by spoonfuls onto baking sheets. Bake 8-10 minutes.

 Adapted from one of my mother's cookie recipes

*I used English Toffee flavored liquid stevia, but I found the cookies didn’t taste like English Toffee. Vanilla or another neutral-flavored liquid stevia should work, as should non-flavored liquid stevia.

Per cookie: 152 calories, 5 g fat, 25 g carbohydrates, 13 g sugar, 3 g protein

Compared to original recipe: 201 calories, 8 g fat, 31 g carbohydrates, 20 g sugar, 3 g protein

Contain 1/3 fewer grams sugars as determined by supertracker.usda.gov

Disclaimer: This post is not affiliated with Splenda brand sucralose. No trademark infringement was intended.