Who has experience using stevia as a sugar substitute in baking? What portion of the sugar do you replace? Advice? My goal: reduce the carbs

Nora
  • Posted by: Nora
  • March 1, 2011
  • 10940 views
  • 7 Comments

7 Comments

Nora March 3, 2011
Thanks, all. I've lost 12-15 pounds on my low carb diet, so it's here to stay. Mostly, I rely on a square or two of dark choc for a bit of sweet that can justify its existence. Also, take a look at the walnut cookie I've posted. They are wonderful little bites--not too sweet, healthy nuts, most of all tasty.

Susan g, I'll google xylitol. Brand names that you know of?
 
susan G. March 2, 2011
Not everyone has such bad experiences with stevia! While it is difficult to bake with it, there are recipes written for it. As a HF retailer, the brands that had loyal, repeat customers were NOW and Kal.
To me, the best alternative sweetener is xylitol. Although what you buy is processed, it is naturally occuring and extracted from birch sap (think maple); our own bodies make it. It has been used for over 100 years, especially in Finland and Switzerland. Studies show that it retards tooth decay and gum disease, and can even sometimes reverse it. In its granular form it can replace sugar 1/1, and I have used it in baking successfully. Because of a different chemistry from sugar, it does have fewer carbs and calories.
But the best plan, as you see above, is to reduce flour, reduce baked goods, and when you do have them use whole grains. Much as we love them, moderation is the best plan!
 
drbabs March 2, 2011
I want to apologize for my 2 cryptic answers last night--I was in a meeting and (rudely) reading my phone and trying to respond. Here's the long answer.

I have a lot of experience with Stevia. I tried it about 10 years ago as part of a low-carb diet (The Fat Flush Plan by Louise Gittleman)--which, because it advocated lots of fresh fruits and vegetables, and unprocessed meats (remember this was 10 years ago), I thought had a lot of merit. (I've never been overweight but I always gain a few pounds in the winter and have to do something to kickstart getting back to normal.) The sweetener that was recommended in that diet was Stevia. It was natural, tasted good, blah blah blah. And it was hard to get at the time. And I did use it--and have, off and on, in the interim. At the time, there was a brand you could get only in a health food store (Stevia Plus, I think), and it was OK. I never baked with it (I've been baking a long time and knew that it would mess up the chemistry.), but I once tried making cranberry sauce for Thanksgiving (a favorite of mine--I keep cranberries in the freezer all year long.) with the Stevia, and it was, in a word, vile. It was nasty when it was heated. Bitter and strange.

Now there are lots of commercial versions of Stevia, and like betteirene, I have tried them. (Trader Joe's has one, and of course now it's called Truvia and you can buy it in the grocery store.) I think they all taste bitter, too sweet and strange (and was recently horrified to discover that I have not one but 2 little jars of it lurking in the cabinet where I keep spices).

But everyone has different taste and what's bitter and strange to me might be OK to you. I don't really care for any artificial sweeteners--I can deal with Splenda in a pinch.

As for baking, if you're making something sweet, you need sugar. You can try reducing the sugar a bit, and you can use whole grain flour (I bake a lot with King Arthur's white whole wheat flour), which has a lower glycemic index that white flour if that's the issue. If that's the case, I'd suggest trying Kim Boyce's new cookbook (the Piglet winner), Good to the Grain. She uses regular a lot of different grains to make baked goods, and it's just a wonderful and inspiring cookbook.



 
betteirene March 1, 2011
You called it, drbabs.

I was so excited when I first heard that this natural leaf was finally being mass-produced, and I was so disappointed when my sweet tea tasted wierd. I threw out the entire pitcher. I was afraid to try it in anything else, so it took up space in a cabinet for a year. I finally threw the box out a few months ago. Bleccch.
 
Susan M. March 1, 2011
You cannot make a direct substitution - the chemistry will be way off. If you are looking to reduce carbs - make a lightly sweetened fruit crisp, or custard sauce for fruit. The flour contributes as much or even more carbs than the sugar. To many people Stevia tastes bitter - I am one of them.
 
drbabs March 1, 2011
Don't do it. It's really weird and bitter when you heat it.
Plus, sugar contributes to the chemistry of baking.
 
drbabs March 1, 2011
Don't do it. It's really weird and bitter when you heat it.
 
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