I have had good luck substituting agave in most recipes. You use about 2/3 of the amount of sugar called for. If the recipe calls for 1 cup of sugar, use 2/3 cup of agave. I actually reduced the amount to 3/8 cup the last time I made the fudge and it was fine. I find it in the same area of the grocery store as the sugar, usually near the honey. It's not cheap. I'm not a nutritionist, and I'm sure it's better for diabetics to not have any sweetener, but that's not going to happen with my mother, so I'm thinking this is a little better for her.

Well, I bought a jar of Extra Virgin Olive oil and just made a batch of chocolate chip cookies with it. I had to use my ice cream scoop to get it out of the jar, but the cookies are delicious! Hope they will help my husband--he eats chocolate chip cookies every day. I'll keep you posted.

Pat -

Did you mean coconut oil? It comes solid and looks like lard. But the ice cream scoop is a good idea to get it out.

Well, I bought some Agave at Costco today. Now all I have to get is the cocoa powder and I'll try making that fudge. I already have the coconut oil.

Karen

Sorry, yes... coconut oil Must be dementia setting in. Thanks. I won't edit my post because that would nullify yours.

I've done a couple things to make it easier to measure the coconut oil. I scoop some out into a smaller glass jar (I have a short, fat jar that jam came in that I use). If I just need a little bit of oil, I'll put this jar into a bowl of hot tap water for a few minutes, and then pour what I need out as it melts. I also melted a lot of it one day, measured 1/2 cup at a time, and poured it into custard cups lined with a plastic baggies. Once they had hardened back up, I popped the baggies out and had little 1/2 cup nuggets to use later in recipes (don't use plastic wrap, it's too thin, tears when you try to pop it out). I've been substituting both the coconut oil and agave in recipes for my mother lately and I've been overcooking my baked goods. I'm not sure if one of those 2 items causes things to bake quicker, or if I'm just not paying attention. Just a word of caution.

Thanks, Cindy. Yes, my cookies took a minute less to cook than usual, so it must to the coconut oil. Clever idea with the custard cups. I might try that, too. Since chocolate chip cookies are his thing, I'll probably just measure out portions of 3/4c in ziplock bags to keep in the refrigerator.

Everyone may already know this, and I have never seen coconut oil so it may not work. If you need 1/4 or 1/2 cup of the oil, I'm guessing it somewhat like crisco, fill a measuring cup 3/4 with cold water, for the 1/4cup, then just scoop the oil into the cold water, when the water reaches the cup line, you have a 1/4 cup of oil. For the 1/2 cup, fill the cup with 1/2 cup cold water. Sorry if this seems obvious, just a lesson from my junior high home economics class.

Gerry, that would work great with coconut oil. It's harder than Crisco.

yes, that's a great idea, just make sure it's cold water, or the oil will melt.

Here's an article on the downsides to agave syrup by an MD:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-mercol ... 37936.html

Thanks for that article, Robin.

After I purchased some organic blue agave, I looked at the nutrition facts on the back of the bottle. 1 tablespoon has 16g of sugar and
1 tablespoon has 16g total carbs

so I thought that was a little too much sugar & carbs for my diabetic hubby.

He now uses PureVia from Costco (made from Stevia extract for his coffee and cereal in the morning. One packet has only 1g sugar & 1g carbs. I'm sorry I didn't read the label in the store. Well, maybe I'll make the fudge for my grand daughter - she will love it. Better yet, she's 8 urs old, I'll have her help me!

Karen

This article is so interesting. My dad who has been diagnosed with LBD was on a non fat diet for over 20 years until 6 months ago when a neurologist told him to add lots of oils to his diet. Our family has long suspected that his way of eating was going to cause some harm. Could this have been the cause?

I doubt it. My husband has eaten fats like they were going out of style and he still got LBD.

My dad has eaten a diet of lots of fat, sugar, salt and basic junk food his whole life. Ex., a Coke and Hershey bar for breakfast, Coke break and peanut butter crackers, cupcakes, whatever for a morning snack, hamburger for lunch almost every day. We could never understand why his diet alone didn't kill him at an early age. He's been on Lipitor or other cholesterol drugs forever. Eating lots of fat didn't preclude him from dementia. Lynn

Has anyone tried Axona?? It's a medical food that our geriatric Dr gave us to try today. A powder to be mixed with water and drank soon after breakfast.
Info from the company..."Axona is a medical food containing a proprietary formulation of medium-chain triglycerides (MCTs), specifically caprylic triglyceride, for the clinical dietary management of the metabolic processes associated with mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease."

I read on the packet it contains coconut oil.
Just wondered if anyone here knows anything about this product or had any experience...

Thanks
Sandilee