Has Anyone Ever Baked With Stevia As A Sweetener?
Baking By zespri Updated 11 Aug 2010 , 1:54am by lchristi27
I went through a stage of making 'fat free, processed sugar free' banana muffins for my husband. They were fat free because instead of using butter or oil, I doubled the bananas to keep them moist. And they were sugar free becuse I added apple sauce (100% apples) and stevia for sweetening.
Besides being a little sticky, he loves them.
However I don't think the stevia sweetens them enough, it seems to almost lose some of it's sweet during baking. It's very sweet before hand, and in hot drinks etc.
Has anyone had any experience baking with it? If so, can you share any tips?
For those not familiar with it, stevia is a herb, which dried and powdered can be used in cooking. The leaves steeped in hot water with other herbs make a lovely tea It's very big in Japan, and other non-american parts of the world. I remember reading an article saying it was not big in America because it had not yet been approved by the FDA, and that the artificial sweetener companies were making sure that would never happen. I don't put much stock in conspiracy therories, but that's what I read, I've no opinion on whether it's true or not.
I haven't baked with it too much. I find it hard to get the right ratio. I MUCH prefer Agave nectar, or date sugar. I've used stevia to sweeten raspberries that I turned into a slushie/smoothie mix in my ice cream maker and it was delicious tho!
i tried the truvia in my tea and my throat closed up so i must be highly allergic to it
I have severe fructose malabsorption which means I cannot absorb sugar in any form...including fruit. I successfully bake with stevia all the time. Are you using pure stevia extract powder? I find I need about 1/4 tsp. of it for each cup of flour in a recipe to provide a mild sweetening effect. It does not lose its sweet taste when you cook with it. But I have no experience with some of the new stevia combination sweeteners.
Stevia is now FDA approved in the U.S.
I tried making something with it once (pure Stevia) and found it was bitter. It wasn't artificial sweetener bitter, it was I put a leaf in it bitter. I can't remember what I was making, but it never made it to the table.
Cas-Sorry that happened to you! I love Truvia on everything, but havent baked with it yet. Their website has a bunch of recipes.
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