Another friend at work (different department than me) asked for cookies for her birthday. As usual, I was more than happy to accommodate her. She did ask that I make the cookies with Splenda to make the cookies marginally healthier so she could share them with her pre-Diabetic father. Not a problem - I have some of the "for baking" blends at home.
I haven't used them much as the texture of the doughs tend to be different than when I use sugar and I generally don't like to experiment with people's birthday presents. I searched online for an established, suitable recipe written specifically for Splenda use, rather than adapted for it. I also opted to use SmartBalance's baking blend rather than Crisco. The dough came together well, although I questioned the directions a little. It said to blend the vanilla while creaming the "sugar" and the fats. I didn't want to do it, but I did it anyway and it did eventually get to a nice creamy consistency. I knew going in that these cookies would be on the soft side since the recipe called for more brown "sugar" than white, although since it was Splenda, I wasn't entirely sure if the brown blend has the same moisture qualities that brown sugar does. The fact that the dough looked more like normal dough made me happy - my previous attempts using Splenda I ended up with dough that would hardly hold together.
As I baked up the cookies, I noticed that they didn't spread that much. I'm not sure which is the cause of this - Splenda or SmartBalance - but I don't really care. The end result was a very cakey cookie with good flavor, even if the recipient called in sick when I brought them in. We saved some for her. :)
