Tag Archives: Dixie Carb Counters

Breakfast & Brunch, Desserts, Product Review

Product Review: DCC Carrot Snacking Cake

 

Dixie Carb Counters puts out a big assortment of low carb mixes and meals. Previously, I’ve tried and really like several of their breads. So, I picked up a package of their Carrot Snacking Cake and one of their Cinnamon Swirl Snacking Cake. Last week, I made the carrot one, but instead of making it a cake, I made cupcakes – mainly because I didn’t have the correct size cake pan. It calls for a 9×9 inch pan.

The cake goes together quickly and easily. You need to add water, eggs, melted butter, and oil. Once mixed, pour it into the cake pan and bake. Add their topping flavorings to the cream cheese and once the cake is cooled, spread the icing over it. Simple and it makes nine servings, each about 2 net carbs each. The instructions say that you can add nuts and/or crushed pineapple, water-packed with the liquid drained off, if you wish and it will add about one net carb to the count.

As I mentioned, I made cupcakes and got a dozen normal-sized cupcakes from the mix. Nice surprise for me. They looked great and so delicious. Then PK and I tasted them. They are not sweet, came out somewhat dry, and there is an aftertaste. I went back to look at the instructions thinking that I should have added sugar substitute to them, but it didn’t call for it. The added spices for the cream cheese also didn’t have much sweetener in it, so that didn’t help either. If you don’t like your carrot cake sweet, then you might enjoy this, but to be honest, the dried carrots in it didn’t seem to have much flavor and it didn’t have the moist rich texture that carrot cake usually has.

I took the last six of the cupcakes, broke them into bits and added more sugar substitute, eggs, cream, vanilla, and a little whiskey and made bread pudding out of them. I got six individual cups of bread pudding. It tastes much better, but the after taste still lingers. This uses soy flour, which I don’t care for, but I think the low glycemic mono-sacharide is the culprit producing the after taste and I suspect it is saccharine, from which I’ve always detected a bitter aftertaste.

I think if I was to try these again, I would add more oil, at least 1/2 cup sugar substitute, and pineapple to help increase the moisture. I would also add about 1/2 cup powdered sugar substitute to the cream cheese. Incidentally, I had at least half of the cream cheese left over, so it could be made with 4 ounces of cream cheese instead of the whole 8 ounce block.

On a scale of 1 to 5 with 5 being the top of the flavor profile, I would give this a 2 when prepared as stated on the package.

Disclaimer: I have not received any promotional items to review and no one from any of the companies whose products I review have asked me to do so. I have purchased the product and am giving my honest opinion about it. Should any company send me a product to try, I will state it up front and will still give my honest opinion.

Breads, Product Review

Product Review: DCC Orange Cranberry Muffins

I’ve tried several products from Dixie Carb Counters, but where the breads were excellent, I can’t say the same for these muffins.  They are simple to make as all of DCC’s mixes are.  You simply add eggs, sour cream and butter to the mix, stir it together well and bake.  It makes 12 muffins.

However, the muffins didn’t rise very much, so they are about 2 inches high.  I overcooked mine a little and they came out a little tougher than they would normally be, but the real disappointment was in the taste.  They had little bits of cranberry in them and the taste of oranges, but it wasn’t very strong and the it lacked any sweetness.

The addition of sugar substitute might help these as would another egg white to get more rise in them, but overall, these are not as good as the muffins from New Hope Mills.  I can make a better flavored muffin from scratch using CarbQuick.

Although low carb, the muffins still have 4 net carbs in each one.  They are low calories at 31 calories per muffin, with no fat and 2 grams of protein.  Given the small size and the flavor of the muffins, they aren’t worth it.

On a scale of one to five, I give them three spoons, edible, but not the tastiest.

Disclaimer: I have not received any promotional items to review and no one from any of the companies whose products I review have asked me to do so. I have purchased the product and am giving my honest opinion about it. Should any company send me a product to try, I will state it up front and will still give my honest opinion.

Product Review

Dixie Carb Counters All Natural White Bread Mix

Product Review:

I admit that I have a fondness for Dixie Carb Counters products and that’s because they taste good.  This is the first time I’ve tried their white bread mix as I usually prefer the wheat bread, but now and then it’s nice to have white bread in the house.  Besides, PK prefers it when making peanut butter toast.

This bread mix is billed as “One Step Homemade All Natural White Bread” and it is that.  It couldn’t be simpler.  Put the mix in a bowl, add egg and/or egg whites and butter. Then mix it together for about a minute.  The instructions say to use a whisk, which I tried, but find unsatisfactory as too much of the dough accumulates in the inner wires of the whisk and it’s just thick enough that it doesn’t want to release easily.  So I just used a big spoon and stirred really well, getting to the mix on the bottom of the bowl.

Put the mix in a greased (or cooking sprayed) bread pan and cook in a 325 degree oven for 50 minutes.  What could be easier?  And the result is a beautifully browned load of white bread that makes 24 thin slices at 2 net carbs each.

The flavor is great!  The ¾ cup of melted butter added to the mix insures that it will have a buttery delicious taste.  It holds up well when cut and stands up to the additional butter or peanut butter that you spread across it.

For breakfast today, I made French toast using two slices and I had a little trouble with a little-too-thin piece of bread absorbing the egg mixture and holding together, but it only broke into two pieces when I started to lift it from the soaking pan.  It did not alter the taste of the French toast in any way, so it was still a win.

This bread would also make excellent bread crumbs for making anything that requires them.  You could add additional ingredients, such as sugar substitute, cinnamon and chopped fruit (watch the carbs on that) to make a very tasty fruit bread.  One of the things I want to try with the next loaf that I make is adding yeast to it since this isn’t really a yeast bread, even though it has yeast flakes in it.

My silicone bread pan is slightly larger than the 9”x5” pan suggested in the instructions so the loaf is slightly flatter than the one pictured on the package, so I think it would be a regular-sized loaf in a normal bread pan.

The mix can be purchased from Dixie Diner or through Netrition. Other places may carry it.  The mix sells for $9.99 at Dixie Diner or for $7.79 at Netrition.  Both have shipping offers.

Disclaimer:  I have not received any promotional items to review and no one from any of the companies whose products I review have asked me to do so. I have purchased the product and am giving my honest opinion about it. Should any company send me a product to try, I will state it up front and will still give my honest opinion.