The other half and I decided to take a walk to around 4:00 pm today. The sky was grey with dark clouds looming near by. Regardless of the weather, we moved forth with our walk. Soon after we had some spring into our step, then it started to rain. DRATS! When it rains in
When we arrived at home, I knew what could knock the chill out of our socks…hot chocolate. I grabbed two cups of milk, ground nutmeg, pumpkin spice, ginger, a cinnamon stick, pure vanilla, unsweetened chocolate and the alternative sweetener Splenda. This would be my first time using Splenda in any of my hot chocolate recipes. I promised another blogger a sugar free recipe for hot chocolate. So, this would be a perfect opportunity to kill two birds with one stone.
Things were going swimmingly in the kitchen. A little bit of this, a pinch of that…until it came to working with Splenda. Although I am accustomed to working with various sugars, I couldn’t properly judge the amount of Splenda required to make a delicious hot chocolate.
Soon, a creation was born. The flavor was okay, but it had a little bitterness to it that I know wasn’t related to the chocolate. After all that hard work, the other half comes into the kitchen and takes a sip. A silent pause, then he says, “I wanted normal hot chocolate.” Well, at least it took a pretty picture?
2 comments:
My experience with splenda whilst caking is to use half or less what you would with sugar.
Additionally, I recently discovered Penzey's spices (my Mom took me, I didn't actually do any looking.) They have the most delightful and vast spice selection. They had a combo called "Cake Spice" which has the usual suspects (cinnamon, nutmeg, a little clove) but also includes anise. I understand most people avoid it for it's licorice like flavor, but I added that to my last cake, and wow. I put it in my spiced apple cider, too. It's amazing. I wonder now how it would taste in a mild chocolate. I might have to try it and let you know :o)
Robyn -
I will have to try your Splenda advice on my next attempt to make a sugar free hot chocolate. As for Penzey's, Thanks for the FYI! I haven't found the culinary stores I am used to in California where every spice, gadget, dishware utensil under the sun is in one location and reasonably priced.
Flying to California to get my fix is currently out of the budget right now.
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