Natural Sugar - Part 5

Natural Sugar and Spice - CAN Really be Nice! Part 5

Guest Post By Regina

First read part one and part two and part three and part four

I've created a chart to make it easy to see and understand how we can use all the sweeteners we have discussed.

Sweetener            Ratio to 1 c. sugar      Decrease                   Add                    

Honey	2/3 to ¾ c.	Liquid by ¼ c.	¼ tsp. baking soda	decrease by 25 degrees
Maple Syrup	2/3 to ¾ c.	Liquid by 3 T	¼ tsp. baking soda	decrease by 25 degrees
Sucanat	Cup for cup	None	None	Keep same
Stevia	1tsp. liquid or 1/3 to ½ tsp. powder or check the back of your container to see what the company recommends.	None	Add 1/3c. of bulk per 1c. of sugar replaced. Use yogurt, applesauce, egg whites, smashed bananas, etc.	Keep same
Xylitol	Cup for cup	None	Absorbs a lot of moisture so add 1T of liquid.	Keep same

(Gina - Oops! The right hand column isn't showing up and I don't know how to fix it. The missing column lists the oven temperatures. For honey and maple syrup, decrease oven by 25 degrees. For the others, stay the same.)

Note: To replace corn syrup in baking or candy making, use a generous ¾ cup of honey plus 2-3 tablespoons of water to make 1 cup - for every 1 cup of corn syrup. 

 

These sweeteners replace white and brown sugar and corn syrup very well. In making icing and recipes that take a lot of 10x sugar, I have not found a good substitute.

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Armed with these ratios, I did a test bake in the kitchen one wintry day. I used my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe and made four batches replacing the white and brown sugar with honey, Sucanat, stevia, and xylitol.

The cookies made with honey baked beautifully. They were extremely moist and soft and had a delightful flavor. 

 

The Sucanat cookies baked flatter but crispier and darker. It is hard to tell when they are done because of the darker color; be careful you do not over-bake.

The stevia cookies baked fat and very soft. 

 

The xylitol was my flop. The cookies baked flat and lost all shape; I think I added too much extra water. They had a shiny appearance and after sitting a day or two, began to be crumbly. (Xylitol worked great when I made a chocolate cake.) 

 

Now came the fun part; I HAD to eat cookies; it was part of my homework assignment!

(Just remember, even though these sweeteners are natural and better for you than white sugar, that doesn’t give you or Tommy free reign to eat all the baked goods you want. It doesn't put them in the same category with veggies and fruits. Honey, maple syrup and Sucanat will still add calories to your food and will affect your blood sugar levels.) 

 

To me, the honey cookies won hands down for flavor and texture. 

 

My husband disagreed and placed his vote on the Sucanat. He liked the crispy texture and the deeper flavor Sucanat added. 

 

Even though they flopped, the xylitol cookies were surprisingly good. I detected a slightly cool aftertaste in my mouth, but others in the family could not.

Stevia cookies looked nice, tasted very sweet, and were moist and soft. The drawback was the slight aftertaste, but even with that, I enjoyed the stevia cookies the most because they were sugar-free and were missing the calories honey or sucanat would have added. If you don't need to worry about calories- count your blessings!

Thanks for following along on this series on natural sweeteners. I'd love to hear your experience with using natural sugars in baking.