Sugar free desserts

Jello-sugar free pudding snacks are creamy, low calorie, low fat and very tasty. There’s almost no down side--until you read the ingredients and can’t pronounce some of them. Definitely better living through chemistry. Also, I don’t think coconut and palm oils are good for your body, swallowed or spread on your skin.

INGREDIENTS:
Water, xylitol, modified food starch, cocoa processed with alkali, milk protein concentrate, contains less than 1% of hydrogenated vegetable oil (coconut and palm kernel oils), salt, sodium stearoyl lactylate (for smooth texture), sodium alginate, sucralose and acesulfame potassium (sweeteners), natural and artificial flavor, artificial color.

My husband eats one or two puddings a day, so I’ve been experimenting with homemade pudding--again. I used to always serve home cooked puddings, but got out of the habit as the processed products improved in texture and taste. Here’s what I tried recently, called interestingly enough, “Homemade Vanilla Pudding.” Pretty simple list of ingredients. 2 cups milk, ½ cup white sugar, 3 tablespoons cornstarch, ¼ teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, and 1 tablespoon butter. (See allrecipes.com)

But of course, I changed it. The first time I added two eggs, changed the sugar to Splenda, added lemon juice and used 2% milk and only a dash of salt. Then to make it fluffy, I added sugar free Cool Whip. So by the time I was finished and it was in a pie shell, all I had done was reduce the cost, not the strange ingredients.

Yesterday I made it pretty much as the recipe card said, but still used Splenda instead of sugar (sorry, Gayle). It looked a little wimpy and pale, so I added a few tablespoons of sugar free strawberry jelly. It has a nice texture, color and taste, and if I’d had fresh strawberries I would have used that instead.

I’ll keep trying. Besides, for some reason I have 3 boxes of corn starch in the cupboard.