How To Use Sugar Free Sweeteners And How To Substitute Them

Sugar-free cooking is no easy feat, although, if you don’t mind my humble brag, after years of trying and failing, I’ve nailed the sugar-free dessert formula and know exactly how to use all of these ingredients.

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.  

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