How To Use Sugar Free Sweeteners And How To Substitute Them
STEVIA
Stevia, both powdered and liquid, is best used in no-bake recipes and drinks. The heat of the oven affects the taste.
Use liquid stevia in hot drinks, cold drinks, smoothies, gummies, jellies, ice creams, nut butters or spreads, fudges and chocolates.
Even if you are heating ingredients on the stove top, it’s fine to use stevia as it doesn’t get hot enough to ruin the taste. Although for the best results, add in at the last minute after removing the mixture from the heat.
Basically, don’t bake with it and you’re fine.
Substitute
- Liquid sweeteners are the best substitute for liquid stevia – for ten drops of liquid stevia, use about a tablespoon of honey, maple syrup or brown rice syrup.
PURE MONK FRUIT
Pure monk fruit is very versatile, but I find it works best in baking. Since it’s a powder, if using it in a no-bake recipe (like that that suits liquid stevia), it doesn’t incorporate that well. But in baking such as brownies, cookies, bars and cakes, it works as an absolute treat.
It’s important to know that it is to be used in very small quantities, as it is potently sweet.
In my recipes I only ever use a max of one tablespoon in an entire recipe, mostly I only use one teaspoon. Anything more than that is too much.
The problem is that monk fruit doesn’t offer any moistness or structure that sugar offers to a baked recipe, so you can’t simply just sub out sugar in a normal recipe. But this is exactly why I spend hours developing recipes that taste delicious.
Substitute
- In a baking recipe replace one teaspoon of monk fruit with ¼-⅓ cup erythritol based blend or coconut sugar.
- In some recipes you’ll be able to sub with a liquid sweetener too, any options will be on the recipe.
ERYTHRITOL BASED SWEETENER
The good thing about these ingredients is that they act very similar to regular sugar. For that reason they can be used in most circumstances where you would use sugar like in baking cakes, cookies, bars and brownies. These are the kinds of recipes you’ll find here using erythritol.
Substitute
- The best substitute for erythritol is coconut sugar (or even raw sugar). Use the same quantity or reduce by a ¼ for a less sweet result.
- In some recipes you’ll be able to sub with a liquid sweetener too, any options will be on the recipe.
About Liv
I’m a holistic nutritionist (BSc) and healthy chef and I’m obsessed with waking up every day happy to be alive and excited for the day ahead, and eating incredible nourishing food!
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Best info I have read in years! Thank you.
I’m concerned about my spritz cookie dough not turning out with the right consistency when using monk fruit sweetener. What fill in the volume of the dough if the amount of granulated sugar is replaced with the small amount of monk fruit sweetener?
I would really like to try some of your recipes using monk fruit extract and Erythritol or Stevia.
I have been using Monk fruit extract and Erythritol for years for everyday things & I Love it! Thankyou Kim C.
I want to make a strawberry shortcake with monk fruit or Splenda. It calls for 2 Tbls erythritol. This is for a diabetic friend. What do you suggest?