Like millions of others, I love chocolate, love cookies and love sweets! Unfortunately these wonderful sweet treats come with a price tag - loads of sugar! Being a long-time baker and a Food Network junkie, I always like to try new things and experiment with new recipes, forever in search for something “better”. Well thank goodness for Splenda, a great sugar alternative that I can finally use for baking my favorite treats. I have tested several cookie recipes, especially the ones on the Splenda website, but found that I had to modify the ingredients quite a bit. After several tries, guinea pig taste testers and hours of slaving over a hot oven, I have come up with several cookie recipes that I am sharing with you!

As I try more recipes, I will be posting them on this site and hopefully you will enjoy these cookies as much as I do!

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These chocolate chip cookies made with Splenda taste so good no one would even suspect that they are not “fully leaded” with sugar. Who says you can’t have your cookie and eat it too? Chocolate lovers, this cookie is for you!

Ingredients

2 1/4 cups unbleached flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup Butter Flavor Crisco shortening
1/4 cup Splenda Sugar Blend for Baking
1/2 cup Splenda Brown Sugar Blend for Baking
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
1 cup Ghirardelli chocolate chips or 1 12 oz. package of semi-sweet or dark chocolate morsels (try Belgian
chocolate chips - they are awesome!
(chocolate lovers, you can always add more chocolate chips as desired!)

Recommended Baking Tools:

KitchenAid Nonstick Cookie Sheet
KitchenAid Silicone Baking Mat (use this over a regular metal cookie sheet) or
SiliconeZone Baking Mat
KitchenAid Silicone Spatula Scraper

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Combine flour, baking soda and salt in small bowl. Set aside.

Mix shortening, Splenda Sugar Blend for Baking, Splenda Brown Sugar Blend, and vanilla at medium speed with an electric mixer till blended. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Gradually add flour mixture, beating until blended. Stir in chocolate chips.

Spoon rounded teaspoonfuls of cookie dough onto ungreased baking sheets and press gently to lightly flatten dough.

Bake 10-11 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove from oven and cool on a wire rack.
Note: If you like chewy cookies, you may want to bake them for less time (just make sure you watch them!) Of course, this all depends on your oven temperature!

This recipe makes 3 dozen medium size cookies - that’s about 3 cookie sheets!

From the Mouths of Taste Testers! 

“As one chocoholic, the Better Than The Real Thing Chocolate Chip Cookies are a rockin’!!!!” 
-Diane E.

“The Belgian chocolate chips are the best!”
-Jannette K.

“Very good! Keep ‘em coming!”
-Mike P.

“The cookies were great! No exaggeration but they were the best cookies I ever made!”
-Karma Yeshe

“Many thanks for providing this excellent recipe for Chocolate Chip Cookies. My wife has Type 2 Diabetes and we have been collecting all the recipes I can find on the computer. This is one of the the best I have found on the various web sites. We did alter it a little. Not having butter flavored Crisco we combined 8 oz each of butter and Crisco. Same effect. Butter sometimes has a tendency to spread cookies but they turned out O.K. We also added two tablespoons of cocoa and a couple of teaspoons of cinnamon to the dry mix for added chocolate flavor. The Ghirardelli chocolate chips we had on hand were white and semi sweet dark chocolate which made the cookies very interesting to see. They taste great. We will definitely keep this recipe on top of our list. Thanks again.”
-Don M.

Do you have any questions, comments, suggestions, feedback? Please email me at baker@splendidbaker.com.

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This is another personal favorite and one recipe peanut butter junkies will love.  Make an extra batch because they are guaranteed to disappear as soon as they are out of the oven!

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups unbleached flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup Butter Crisco (or margarine if you prefer)
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
1/2 cup Splenda Sugar Blend for Baking
1/2 cup Splenda Brown Sugar Blend
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 12 ounce package of semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Combine flour and baking soda in medium bowl and set aside.

Mix shortening, peanut butter, Splenda Sugar Blend for Baking, Splenda Brown Sugar Blend, and vanilla at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy.  Gradually add in the flour mixture.  Stir in chocolate chips.

Spoon rounded teaspoonfuls of cookie dough onto ungreased baking sheets and press gently to lightly flatten dough.

Bake for 8-10 minutes until lightly browned. Remove from oven and cool on a wire rack.  Do not overbake, so please keep an eye on the cookies!

This recipe makes 3 dozen medium size cookies.  Enjoy! 

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Have you checked the baking section of your grocery store lately? Notice the variety of chocolate chip morsels available? What ever happened to plain old chocolate chips? Now you will find tons of Nestle Tollhouse morsels that come in all kinds of flavors such milk chocolate, mint chocolate, chocolate swirl (depending on the season, you could have a red, orange or green swirl), butterscotch, peanut butter, white chocolate chips (my least favorite), and even blueberry and strawberry flavors! You will also find a variety of brands available, depending on what part of the country you live in. My personal favorite is Ghirardelli as I am very partial to dark chocolate.

Chocolate chips are used primarily for baking, especially cookies and brownies, unless of course you like to snack on a bag chocolate chips every now and then. They are made to tolerate high heat without burning and maintain their flavor and texture after baking. This is why chocolate chips don’t melt and lose their shape after coming out of an extremely hot oven, unlike regular chocolate. This is why using chopped chocolate bars as a substitute is not really the best thing to do.

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This is my personal favorite chocolate chip cookie! If you love oatmeal raisin cookies, sorry folks, I omitted the raisins. I also added a touch of honey which gives the cookie a subtly sweet taste, which goes very well with a fresh brewed cup of java in the morning! You can use molasses if you like, or you can totally omit the honey. Either way, you will still end up with a wonderfully moist and delightful oatmeal cookie with loads of rich and creamy chocolate chips! I used extra dark chips in this recipe, but you can always use your favorite kind.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups unbleached flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 cup Butter flavor Crisco shortening (or margarine if you prefer)
3/4 cup Splenda Sugar Blend for Baking
1/4 cup Splenda Brown Sugar Blend
2 large eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1 teaspoon honey (if your honey is in a little plastic bear, just give him a little squirt:) optional
2 1/2 cups uncooked old-fashioned oatmeal
1 cup Ghirardelli semi-sweet chocolate chips (or your favorite brand)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Stir in flour, baking soda, and cinnamon in a medium bowl.

3. Beat shortening, Splenda Sugar Blend for Baking and Splenda Brown Sugar at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy. Add eggs, vanilla and honey, beating until completely blended. Slowly add the flour mixture, beating at low speed until blended.

4. Stir in oatmeal and chocolate chips.

5. Spoon rounded tablespoons of cookie dough onto baking sheets.

6. Bake 10-12 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove from oven and cool on wire rack.

This recipe makes about 3 dozen medium size cookies.

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Ok, so now you have the recipe for Better-Than-The-Real-Thing Chocolate Chip Cookies. What if you still want less sugar in your cookies? Here is a recipe using Granulated No Calorie Splenda, so you will be saving some carb grams and calories here. Just remember that this is not a completely sugar-free recipe. The chocolate chips and Splenda Brown Sugar Blend will have some sugar and carb grams, but relatively minimal compared to the real thing. So…everything in moderation please!

Ingredients

2/3 cup Butter Flavor Crisco (or margarine if you prefer)
1/3 cup Splenda Brown Sugar Blend
2/3 cup Granulated No Calorie Splenda
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups unbleached flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (you can try this with white chocolate chips too!)

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cream shortening, vanilla, Granulated Splenda and Splenda Brown Sugar Blend at medium speed with an electric mixer until blended. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Add flour, baking soda and salt and mix well until blended. Stir in chocolate chips.

Spoon rounded teaspoonfuls of cookie dough onto ungreased baking sheets and press gently to lightly flatten dough.

Bake 10-11 minutes until golden brown. Remove from oven and cool on a wire rack.

This recipe makes about 2 dozen medium size cookies.

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1. Real chocolate rocks! Nothing compares to the rich creamy flavor of real chocolate!

2. Most of the sugar-free chocolate chips, especially those made with maltitol, a sugar alcohol, can cause digestive problems, such as laxative effects. Not good!!!

3. I tried carob chips, which kinda look like chocolate chips. Carob contains no chocolate, and is a natural sweetener. Fun fact: Carob was used as a sweetener and digestive aid in Ancient Egypt. That being said, have you ever tasted a carob chip? Ugh!!

4. A few chocolate chips in one cookie will not kill you. Come on, live a little! Remember, everything in moderation.

5. Did I say real chocolate rocks?

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Hints and Tricks to Make the Perfect Splenda Cookie

Having a great cookie recipe is a good thing. If I find one I like then I pretty much stick to it and make sure I file it in my continually expanding recipe binder. But we all know that the same recipe may produce varying results, depending on the temperature of your oven, the type of ingredients and cookie sheets you use, altitude, your kitchen, and yes, barometric pressure (according to the great Alton Brown) and so on….which is why you may have to modify your recipe based on your preferences.

Splenda cookies tend to be more cakey than regular cookies.

Solution: Instead of margarine, you can use Butter Flavor Crisco. The cookies come out less cakey, and the texture and flavor were surprisingly better. The cookies browned much better and they looked just like a “regular” cookie.
Note: The original Splenda cookie recipe from the Splenda cookbooks/website uses margarine or butter. Remember, you can always substitute!
Of course, if your tasters don’t mind cakey, no changes are necessary!

Splenda cookies may have an aftertaste, especially noticed by people who don’t consume sugar-free or diet products at all.

Solution: Try adding more vanilla and use darker chocolate chips, such as Ghirardelli with 60% more cocoa. Using these chocolate chips gives a richer, darker flavor - your tasters will love the taste, they won’t even notice that the cookie has reduced sugar.

Everyone has different tastes. I love dark chocolate chips, but some people prefer milk chocolate, butterscotch or peanut butter. Others like nuts in their cookies - pecans, walnuts and oh yes, macadamias!

Solution: Modify your recipe as needed! Remember you want to be a crowd pleaser, so make sure you cater to your crowd. If they like nuts, throw them in. If they like butterscotch chips, then by all means, substitute. There are endless combinations and options, so just use your creativity and make your tasters happy! Just remember although nuts could be healthy and a good source of fiber, they could also have some fat content, especially macadamias, so just keep watching those calories!

I made a huge batch of cookies but used different cookie sheets. One batch was baked on my KitchenAid nonstick cookie sheet, and the other batch was baked on my SiliconeZone baking mat. You’d think they would come out exactly the same, but they didn’t!

Solution: If you want the cookies to be crispier and browner at the bottom, use the nonstick cookie sheet. If you want chewier cookies, use the silicone baking mat. The constant factor here would be the baking time. If you want a browner, crispier cookie baked on a silicone baking mat, just keep it in the oven for an extra minute or two.

Another Note: There are two types of “white” Splenda products for baking.
Splenda Granular No Calorie Sweetener - this is the true sugar-free variety with no calories. Best for diabetics and people who are really cutting down on their sugar intake. The texture is powdery and very light, unlike real sugar.

Splenda Sugar Blend for Baking - this has half the sugar, so unlike the Splenda Granular, it has half the calories and carb content of real sugar. This is highly preferred for baking cookies, cakes and pies as it gives a much better texture to baked goods. Most of my taste testers could not tell the difference!

Splenda Brown Sugar Blend - like Splenda Sugar Blend for Baking, this brown sugar alternative also has half the sugar and carb content of real brown sugar. This is great for baking cookies and breads, and I highly recommend it. Texture-wise, it can pass for the real thing!

Your feedback is importat to me!  Please email me at baker@splendidbaker.com with any questions, suggestions, comments, or just to say hi!

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