Experimenting with sugar free alternatives

 If you have read my blog for probably any amount of time, you would notice that I try baking things with sugar alternatives.  One of the big reasons is because Casey is Diabetic, but there are other reasons too, sugar is not healthy for anyone.  I also have issues with using the chemical alternatives to sugar, I just would rather use something that is natural.

Anyways...  I was excited when a representative from Xylitol USA contacted me because I have been wanting to try xylitol and I have only heard good things about it from others.  What is Xylitol you ask?  Here is some information about it.   

I decided to make some chocolate chip cookies using xylitol.  I used the recipe I talked about in this post.

I made a few changes, first swapping the white sugar for xylitol, and I did half and half white and wheat flour, and I used dark chocolate not semi-sweet.  In the pictures they look a little overdone, but they are not, they are darker because of the wheat flour.  These cookies are soft and chewy and delish.  I actually think that me using half wheat flour affected the recipe more than the xylitol.  I can not tell a difference with using the xylitol, and I can not tell you how excited that makes me.

There is a couple other reasons I am excited about xylitol; it doesn't allow bad bacteria to grow, which will be helpful with my youngest daughter and her UTI's.  And it is good for your teeth.  I put an order in for a few things to try out, toothpaste, lollipops, candy and gum, I'll let you know what I think about those when I have a chance to try them.  I would feel so much better about letting my kids have a treat knowing that it is made with xylitol and that it has health benefits.  And I think I may have finally found a natural alternative to sugar that actually acts like sugar does, yay!

Xylitol USA has given me the coupon code FIRST 

it will give you 10% off your first order

They also told me about a special offer they have going on right now.  For the first 5,000 customers that purchase $20 or more of products, a 1 lb. bag of xylitol will automatically be added to your cart free of charge.

Disclaimer:  Xylitol USA sent me a complimentary sample of xylitol.  I would not have accepted it if it wasn't something I was truly interested in.