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| Cooking
with stevia: guideline to sugar free success |
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Cooking with stevia
can be a lot of fun. After all, you know you're doing something
healthy, because you can see that not only are you working with an all
natural product, you also need less of it. A lot less! In fact, less is
certainly more when it comes to cooking or baking with stevia.
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Be sure to take
a look at the sugar
to stevia conversion chart before you
start on your
journey. For most stevia recipes, just a simple conversion is enough,
just replace the amount of sugar by the correct amount of stevia
sweetener, and you're done!
But it's not always that easy. For those of you
still wondering "What
is stevia": the sweet leaf comes in many different forms,
and for recipes that require only a small amount of sugar, it's almost
impossible to measure the exact amount of stevioside
because there is so little needed.
That's why
stevia also comes as a
liquid
extract , or in packet form, so that smaller
amounts can be added
more easily to your recipe.
If you plan on using powdered
stevia ,
be
sure to
check the label for other substances. Avoid
using stevia with food additives such as maltodextrin that may contain
a lot of carbohydrates and calories, and when possible, try to stick to
pure
stevia-based products whenever you can.
Stevia
improves the taste of strong-flavored food types, but its effect tends
to dull when used in combination with other, delicately flavored
ingredients.
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Some
other things to note, especially when you're baking with
stevia, is that the sweetener doesn't
ferment like sugar does, for
example when you're considering to try out one of our
delicious sugar
free cake recipes. So
you'll have to add a certain amount of leaven, preferably baking
powder, to the mix.
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If
you're cooking up some creme brulée for
example, you're always going to need a small amount of sugar in order
to get that crusty topping, because stevia doesn't caramelize.
Using
stevia for the custard itself is of course no problem. If you want to
keep it completely sugar free, you can always use a different topping,
such as nuts or fruit.
Also important if you intend to make
canned fruit preserves or apple sauce-like purées, is that stevia in
this form has a rather short shelf life (maximum one week in the
refrigerator). If you intend to preserve it for longer than that, you
should freeze it. In addition to the stevia sweetener, you will also
need a gelling agent such as pectin
for the syrupy effect.
Apart
from these exceptions, baking or cooking with stevia in all its forms
is a breeze. Stevia
powder is soluble in water, pH neutral
and remains stable in temperatures up to 200°C (392°F) which should be
sufficient for most of your sweet recipes. It's time to sink your teeth
into them, so have fun with it, and see you over at the recipes page!
If
you want more resources on cooking with stevia, I can personally
recommend the
following books:
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