Diabetes-Friendly Pumpkin Muffins

As mentioned before in a past post, my dad is diabetic.  I inherited lots of things from him – my love for Star Wars, my sarcasm, and my affection for pumpkin and all desserts.  He’s my loyal taste-tester of everything that comes out of my kitchen, but he’s limited to only a sliver whenever I make anything sweet.  For his birthday, he asked for a diabetes-friendly treat that he couldn’t just buy at our neighborhood Ralphs (i.e., NSA pumpkin or apple pie).  However, he does love him some pumpkin, so I decided to make some diabetes-friendly pumpkin muffins.

The recipe I used from Gourmet Magazine called for 1 1/4 cups of sugar, so I just replaced one cup of sugar with 30 (yes, 30) packets of Splenda.  I’ve never baked with Splenda before, so I didn’t want to commit to buying a large baker’s box not knowing how using it would turn out.  Admittedly, I had been pocketing a few extra packets from numerous Starbucks runs and accumulating a stash that I could use towards this recipe.  I can’t help myself.  I’m Asian.

They turned out a bit on the dough-y side, since using Splenda changes the chemistry of the dough when baking.  But it could also be because I eat cupcakes more often than muffins, so I’m used to more of a cake-y texture.  My dad liked them, and they didn’t have the strong fake-sugar aftertaste that I was worried they would have.

Happy 60th Birthday, Daddy!  Love you!