How To Substitute Stevia In Baking And Preserves
Any baking that uses stevia in place of sugar should be eaten within a couple of days.
Words: Jane Wrigglesworth
Stevia can be used in baking and preserving, but some allowances need to be made.
When baking, if youre taking out the sugar in a recipe, you need to replace it with something else, bulk-wise. Thats because 1 teaspoon of refined white stevia and 1½ teaspoons to 1 tablespoon of raw green stevia is equal to 1 cup of sugar in terms of sweetness.
I like to use mesquite in my recipes as a bulking agent. This is the ground pods of a plant that grows in the tropical parts of America, South America, Africa and southern Asia. It has a malt-like flavour that goes especially well with chocolate, but I use it in most of my biscuit and cake recipes.
READ MORE: How to grow and process stevia at home
Mesquite powder
Any baking that uses stevia in place of sugar should be eaten within a couple of days sugar is a natural preservative, helping baking to last longer.I also use stevia in place of sugar in preserves that contain vinegar . You simply cannot tell there is no sugar in it. The vinegar means these preserves last well .
Stevia doesnt work for jams in the same way as sugar. You can make a fresh jam with berries and add chia seeds and stevia, but it needs to be eaten within days, or frozen for later use.
METHOD
Preheat the oven to 180°C and line a baking tray with baking paper.
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What Are The Ingredients In Sweetleaf Stevia Sweetener
SweetLeaf® Stevia Sweetener and Organic Stevia Sweetener have no artificial ingredients and contain inulin, stevia leaf extract and silica. Inulin is a soluble vegetable fiber, which nourishes the good intestinal flora that supports the bodys immune function and promotes digestion. Silica is a naturally occurring substance recommended by the FDA as an anti-caking agent in powdered foods.
SweetLeaf® Stevia comes in packets in 35- and 70-count boxes as well as a 4-oz. shaker jar. SweetLeaf® Stevia has zero calories, zero carbs, no sugars and a non-glycemic response.
What Type Of Stevia Should I Buy
The stevia that is typically approved for use in foods and beverages, and available for home cooking is high-purity stevia leaf extract which is 200-350 times sweeter than sugar. For this reason, stevia is usually blended with other ingredients like sugar alcohols, dextrose , or plant fibers such as inulin or cellulose. Without blending, it would be very difficult for home cooks to measure out the extremely small amounts of stevia that would be needed in most recipes.
Stevia is typically sold in one-to-one sugar equivalent spoonable packages and in single serve packets. The packets are a convenient option when sweetening coffee or tea. Spoonable stevia is great when using larger amounts, but many manufacturer recipes will also include the number of single serve packets needed.
More recently, products that blend stevia with sugars such as white sugar, brown sugar and honey have come on the market. These products provide a partial sugar reduction while still maintaining some of the taste and functional benefits sugar provides. The white and brown sugar blends are great for baking. The honey blends are wonderful for tea, and anywhere you would normally drizzle honey such as over fruit or yogurt.
Not all purified stevia extracts taste the same, and most stores carry several different brands. You may want to try a few until you find a brand and variety which best suits your taste and cooking needs.
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How To Prepare The Cake
For the jam
1. Separate the tangerines and remove any seeds by making a small incision in the middle and gently pushing the seeds out.
2. Place in a food processor to get a rough puree.
3. Transfer the tangerine in a medium sized pot along with the cardamom and the stevia.
4. Bring to the boil and let simmer for about 25-30 minutes until the mixture is thickened.
5. Add the lemon juice just before removing from the hob.
6. You can place the tangerine jam in sterilised container to keep for later or simply cool and serve along with your cake.
What Are The Ingredients In Sweetleaf Sweet Drops Liquid Stevia
Liquid Stevia Sweet Drops® in the 2-oz glass bottles contain purified water, organic stevia leaf extract, natural flavors and some concentrates. They have no artificial ingredients, zero calories, zero carbs and no sugars. SweetLeaf® Liquid Stevia Sweet Drops® in convenient 50ML plastic bottles contain vegetable glycerin, purified water, stevia leaf extract, natural flavors and water soluble dietary fiber. They have no artificial sweeteners, zero calories and no sugars. For details, go to our products page, click on the product youre interested in and then click on nutrition facts.
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Frosting Icing & Toppings
Mmmm, frosting Who doesn’t remember the good ole days when you were barely taller than the kitchen counter as you watched your mom whip frosting in a bowl? You knew that if you stared at her long enough and exercised enough patience, she would let you lick the whisk, the bowl, and anything else that had frosting on it the spatula, the spoon, the countertops where globs had plopped down as she mixed ingredients Our mouths are watering just thinking about it!
Whether you call it frosting, icing, or simply “topping”, the best part about the list of ingredients is that it’s short, simple, and all-natural. Most frosting recipes call for powdered sugar, softened butter, vanilla extract, and milk.
You’re a quick study, so we’re willing to bet that as you read this, you’re already anticipating the texture and consistency issues that could arise if you use stevia instead of sugar without adding additional ingredients to compensate. Not this time, baby!
Well, there you have it! We invite you to embark on your baking-with-stevia journey by trying out these tips on your cookies, cakes, and frostings using Sweetly Stevia’s granulated stevia products. If you’d like to stay up to date with the latest stevia recipes, then be sure to click the subscribe button to follow our blog! We are always posting new articles and recipes every week! You can also visit the Recipe tab of our website if you would like to see a list of recipes’-past! Happy baking!
When And How To Use It
If you are doing some baking then Stevia will be the perfect substitute for you.
You need to make sure that the recipe calls for dry, granulated sugar in the recipe.
If it requires some sort of liquid sweetener, I recommend that you use Agave Nectar instead, because it is a much more suitable liquid sugar substitute, as its taste is even closer to the natural taste of sugar.
Also, you may find that Stevia wont work so well if the recipe calls for Brown Sugar, or Icing sugar.
Not to say that it wont work at all, but the taste and texture of the final product will most likely be different than you originally intended.
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Using Stevia In Beverages
The most obvious use for stevia is for sweetening coffee and tea, especially with the convenience of single serve packets. In many countries, over 50% of the adult population drinks either coffee or tea daily. The majority of people add a sweetener, milk or cream, or both, resulting in an average daily caloric increase of 69 calories.1 Over the course of a day, many heavy coffee and tea drinkers use their entire recommended daily allotment of no more than 5-10% of total calories from added sugars .2 This is especially true for those who frequent coffees shops where blended coffee drinks can contain more than 25 teaspoons of added sugar.
Stevia presents an attractive alternative for replacing sugar in both coffee and tea. It has a sugar-like taste, and easily dissolves into both hot and cold beverages. Stevia is also a great addition to smoothies, refreshing non-alcoholic beverages and alcoholic cocktails.
Here are some beverage recipes you may want to try:
- This black and white spiced coffee tastes like its from your favorite gourmet coffee shop without all the sugar
- Here is a low sugar version of a fantastic strawberry banana breakfast smoothie
Do Use The Right Amount Of Stevia When You Are Replacing Sugar
If you have done no research on stevia and have failed to read the instructions on the package, you could quite easily make the mistake that it is a 1:1 substitute for sugar. After all, it is a white powder with a similar appearance. This would be a mistake since undiluted stevia is many times sweeter than sugar.
Stevias sweetness is so concentrated that you can use about a 1/2 teaspoon of it to replace a cup of sugar. In some cases, you may be able to use as little as 1/3 teaspoon to replace a cup of sugar depending on your preferred level of sweetness. Note: some stevia products use bulking agents that make stevia a 1:1 equivalent of sugar.
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The Role Of Sugar In Baking And Cooking
Regular or table sugar is known for its sweetness and its calories and carbs. Sugar gets a bad rap and is blamed for many major health problems such as obesity and Type 2 diabetes. But all cooks and bakers know that sugar is an invaluable ingredient in helping to ensure foods not only taste good, but also have the right texture, color, and volume. Sugar does more than just make foods and beverages taste good. In baked goods, such as cakes, cookies, and brownies, sugar creates a light, tender product and adds volume. It also helps trap and hold moisture so that those chewy chocolate chip cookies dont immediately turn into hockey pucks. Sugar also helps with browning and can crystalize to add crunch or texture to baked goods. If youre a bread baker, you probably know that sugar helps to feed the yeast that provides leavening. When sugar is heated, it caramelizes, forming the basis for caramel sauce or flan. And who doesnt appreciate the beauty of a flaming baked Alaska dessert or lemon meringue pie with its frosty white peaks, formed by egg whites beaten with you guessed it sugar!
Sugar also plays a role in cooked dishes to help smooth out bitterness and tartness. For example, spaghetti sauce, barbeque sauce, and some salad dressing recipes often call for a little bit of sugar to help tame sharp flavors.
Did You Know That 4
Its the same delicious SweetLeaf® Sweet Drops® in 288-serving glass bottles that you know and love with a refreshed look. As one of our first products developed, we wanted to modernize its look and feel going into 2020. Our goal was to design a label that still has the history and trust of SweetLeaf®, but blends with our newer product lines such as our 48-serving squeezable Water Drops® and Sweet Drops®. Keep your eyes peeled for Sweet Drops® in-store and online.
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How Sugar Substitutes Stack Up
We put them to the test by baking cakes.
There are plenty of reasons to avoid fructose and its even more vilified twin, high-fructose corn syrup.
For athletes, these sweeteners provide much-needed energy. For the rest of us, they’re high-calorie, zero-nutrition temptations that can lead to obesity and a host of related conditionsdiabetes, high cholesterol, heart disease.
When sugar has a rap sheet like this, alternative sweeteners start to look appealing. For diabetics, most of these substitutes don’t cause the dramatic blood sugar spikes associated with the real thing. For weight watchers, zero calories are a dieter’s boon.
But which to choose? There are scores of sugar substitutes most fall into one of four categories: natural sweeteners, artificial sweeteners, dietary supplements, and sugar alcohols. And there’s a new hybrid sweetenertagatosethat is natural and has fewer calories than sugar.
Natural Sweeteners
As a category, natural sweeteners are a less processed, better-for-you-option than fructose. Like sugar, they produce energy when metabolized by the body. Unlike sugar, they have some nutritional value in the form of trace vitamins and minerals.
There’s agave from the eponymous plant, honey , molasses, and the syrup family . Over the years I’ve performed enough tests to know that while there are taste and textural differences, most of these more distinctive sweeteners are fine stand-ins for sugar.
Artificial Sweeteners
Brand names: Sunett, Sweet One
Tips For Baking With Stevia
There are a few adjustments that should be made to substitute stevia for sugar. When baking cookies, stevia is best used in recipes for crisp cookie types such as shortbread. If you are making chewy cookie types, it is best to add some bulk and moisture in the form of pumpkin, applesauce, uncooked oatmeal or nut and seed butter. Otherwise, your cookies could end up dry and crumbly.
In the case of cakes, separate the egg whites and whip them to stiff peaks to help maintain the volume of the cake batter. Be sure to invert the cake onto a cooling rack when finished baking in order to maintain volume and avoid the cake collapsing.
Yeast breads need sugar to rise. Replace only half of the sugar and increase the baking soda or baking powder to compensate for the lack of sugars available to feed the yeast. In all cases, preheat the oven to the correct temperature beforehand.
Read more:Erythritol vs. Stevia vs. Xylitol
Warning
Although stevia does not contain calories or cause fluctuations in blood sugar, the Mayo Clinic still recommends using it in moderation due to the excess calories in desserts. Other ingredients in the recipe can contribute to spikes in blood sugar.
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Why Is Splenda Bad For You
Splenda isnt bad for you, but it can cause some negative health effects like an increase in sugar cravings which may lead to weight gain. Some preliminary studies in animals have shown that Splenda may affect gut health and cause GI issues. An excess of Splenda may also cause you to have higher blood sugar.
How To Replace Stevia For Sugar In Baking Cakes
Related Articles
Stevia is a natural, non-nutritive sweetener extracted from the leaf of the stevia plant. More than 200 times sweeter than sugar, stevia extract can be substituted into baked goods if another food is used to replace the lost bulk that the sugar would have added. Replacing sugar in your diet can help control diabetes and aid in weight loss, but substituting sugar is most effective when used as part of an overall healthy diet and regular exercise plan.
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How Do I Substitute Stevia For Sugar In A Recipe
For our stevia packets and powder, the sugar to stevia ratio is 8 to 1, so 1 teaspoon of sugar equals teaspoon of stevia powder. Conversion is just as easy if youre substituting sugar for SweetLeaf® Liquid Stevia Sweet Drops®. A recipe using 1 tablespoon of sugar would use 15 drops of Sweet Drops®.
How Do You Bake With Stevia
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- Best Overall: Splenda Naturals Stevia Sweetener.
- Best Tasting: Truvia Natural Sweetener 9.8 oz.
- Best for Baking: Truvia Baking Blend.
- Best for People with Diabetes: Sweet Like Sugar by Good Good.
- Best for Keto: HaleFresh Erythritol Sweetener Natural Sugar Substitute.
- Best Natural: Stevia in the Raw Zero Calorie Sweetener.
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Can Stevia Be Used For Baking
Can stevia be used for baking? Stevia is a virtually calorie-free sweetener that is 200 times sweeter than sugar it has been used for centuries as a sweetener in South America. Used for baking: Yes, but like many of the artificial sweeteners, pure stevia doesnt have the bulk to deliver appealing baked goods.
How do I substitute stevia for sugar in baking? The Basic Substitution
Substitute 1 cup of sugar for 18 to 24 stevia sweetener packets, 1/3 to 1/2 teaspoon of undiluted stevia powder or 1 teaspoon of a liquid stevia extract. Choose the amount based on how sweet you wish your cake to be.
What happens when you bake with stevia? Stevia is an all-natural sweetener and with no calories or carbs, it adds a sweet flavor to baked goods without any of the negative effects of refined sugar. Since its naturally much sweeter, a little stevia goes a long way when baking. Baking with stevia has a learning curve.
How do you use stevia powder in baking? Dissolve green stevia powder in a small amount of water and add to recipes in place of sugar. Note that the green stevia powder may contribute a green color in addition to sweetness. Replace lost sugar bulk with shredded apples or carrots to maintain recipe consistency.
Does Stevia Measure The Same As Sugar
Stevia is a calorie-free, carbohydrate-free natural sweetener that, in its highly purified form, can be more than 200 times sweeter than a similar amount of sugar. Measure out approximately 1 teaspoon of powdered or liquid stevia extract as a substitute for every cup of sugar called for in a recipe.
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Substitute Stevia For Sugar
When attempting to substitute stevia for sugar, it is recommended for best results to only remove half of the sugar in place of stevia. This is due to the moisture, browning and rising effects that sugar contributes to.
There are commercial sugar and stevia blends available as well. Follow the directions for sugar-to-stevia conversion stated on the package. Many of these are designed for a cup-for-cup stevia-to-sugar ratio making baking with stevia no different than when using regular sugar.
For stevia packets, the sweetness of one packet is similar to 2 teaspoons of sugar. Twenty-four packets equal 1 cup of sugar. If you are using a bag of bakingstevia, then 1/3 cup plus 1 1/2 tablespoons are equal to 1 cup of sugar. For pure powdered stevia, the stevia-to-sugar ratio is much lower. Only 1 teaspoon of powdered stevia equals 1 cup of sugar. For baking purposes, the bags of baking stevia are more convenient and practical than individual packets.
Read more:Stevia is One Sweet Substitute for Sugar!