As far as I know, erythritol and allulose are naturally occuring sugars found in certain fruits (in small quantities). Sucralose is artificial. I find blending two or three of them gives a more sugar-like taste than any one alone. All are widely used in low-carb cooking/baking.
Ha 
those visual cues!
It seems a little disingenuous of the recipe author. I’d like to think it was a typo but who knows. An 8x8 pan will give 64 slightly less than 1sq inch brownies. About the size of a peanut m&m. That would be willpower to have only one!
I have not tried any of her recipes but I remembered this piece from a few years back. Came out when I was labeled pre diabetic
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When I baked the brownies for my wife, I cut 16 pcs. 8x8 square pan.
Did you put the recipe into a calorie counter? Might just be a typo and not disingenuous
Same here.
I cut back quite drastically on sugar in any sweet baked recipe anyway. Another trend to natural is to use jaggery sugar, but that doesn’t help calorie counts.
In most quick breads and cakes you can substitute half of the oil with applesauce or pumpkin (if flavor-profile fitting) with no (major) ill effects.
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The recent research on this one scares me.
I think monkfruit tastes OK. Hate stevia.
Might be. But it says 64 bites in a couple or three places, and clearly has you cut the brownies into 20. No I didn’t do a calorie counter. It’s kind of a lot of work so unless I’m making them rn…
They appear in some fruits but are “chemically made” for consumption. Also erythritol is know to potentially cause some gastrointestinal issues and is linked to potential blood clot formation (and associated higher heart attack rate).
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I often think, if it’s not one thing that’s gonna kill you it’s another… but thank you for the tip.
I get that.
But one thing to keep in mind when you swap out certain “traditional” (or native) ingredients in a dish with lower calories substitutes they become less satiating, and you (not you specifically but “you” generically) tend to eat more of the low-cal version, which may end up having you consume more calories than if you were just to eat the regular version.
I mean, if you really wanted a full sized muffin (at, say, 300 cal per whole muffin), why not just reduce your calories from some other foods.
Just a thought. At least for me personally, sugar substitutes are great, but they are not the best for calorie restriction (or reduction). They’re best used, in my opinion, for health reasons (blood sugar, diabetics, etc.) or oral hygiene.
And this is coming from someone who exclusively drinks Coke Zero (or Sprite Zero) and goes through sugar free gum like a thirsty fish.
Anyway, just my irrelevant 0.02. Good luck.
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I love Coke Zero. Better than coke normal I think. But yes agree on all counts. I’d rather have less of the real thing, and decline x so I can have y. It gets to a point though that halving something tiny to start with just isn’t worth it. So I was really hoping that with some magic, I could do decent baking with applesauce, yogurt, fruit as a sweetener, egg whites perhaps… I knew it would be a long shot.
As someone who tracks this stuff, I think muffins are about as good as it gets when it comes to a healthy choice of sweetened baked goods. Applesauce in lieu of some of the oil, unsweetened dried fruit, subbing a little whole wheat for some of the white flour, and easy on the nuts and the sugar/sweetener, can result in a fairly nutritious and satisfying option. While I don’t think you can get one much below 150 calories, it certainly is a healthier choice than cake, pie, scones, or cookies. If you’re looking for sustainable choices, muffins are probably a good one.
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I agree with all of this.
I don’t think it’s a long shot really – I bake with yogurt, fruit and veg purees, etc, and it’s not a sacrifice but often an enhancement.
The challenge for most American baked good recipes is the level of sweetness called for – if you cut that back by 50-75%, I don’t think you give up actual flavor, but it’s a decent drop in calories.
If yogurt or fruit / veg replaces part or all of the fat, that’s another calorie cut.
Then the biggest calorie count is the flour.
You just have to play with a bit to get it to what you are looking for.
Take this banana bread recipe which has become our house favorite – if the bananas are ripe / overripe, I have cut the actual number of bananas used by half, cut sugar from 1 cup to 1/4 cup, and swapped the egg and butter for yogurt (whole or 2%). You can forego the chocolate chips for cocoa or other flavorings.
Beyond that, what @ipsedixit said – I’d rather eat less of a real thing than more of something that’s clearly less-than. Cut a regular brownie recipe into smaller pieces and freeze. Make mini muffins instead of regular muffins. And so on. Satiety is a funny thing – your brain retrains itself.
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I appreciate all the supportive thoughts above. It feels like sugar and fat will be easier to combat with substitutes than flour will be. But 2/3 ain’t bad.
My diabetic friend makes cheesecake with the monkfruit sweetener. It’s okay.
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Not baking but my go to is get a larger 5 serving of non fat Greek yogurt. Divide in 5 jars then add a few pieces of frozen fruit. Zero Hershey’s syrup and pop in freezer. You can soften it to scoopable if you microwave 30 seconds leave on counter 2 hours or move to fridge for 6 hours. I often eat in waffle cone. About 90 cal no cone. My icecream.
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