[KatSG]

Anyone know of any reasons to avoid stevia? I almost never add sugar to anything but I just recently started baking and making freezer jam. I'd like to replace the sugar in my jam with unrefined sugar. Would this be a good choice? As usual, the FDA is making me thing this may be a dangerous herb without any science to back it up, as far as I can tell. Any pesonal experiences?

 

[Ruthla]

IMO, the only "downsides" to stevia are its price and its aftertaste. Also, because it's so concentrated, it's easy to use too much which makes the food taste bad. It's perfectly healthy, the FDA doesn't want to make it "legal" because it would interfere with aspartame and sucralose sales.

I've found that it doesn't work to replace all the sweetener in a recipe with stevia- the taste is "off." Stevia works well in concert with other sweeteners, to reduce the sugar content of recipes. For example, in homemade jam it would be fine because it's working with the natural sugars in the fruit. In cookies or cakes, you can replace up to half the sugar with the equivilent sweetness of stevia.

 

[kalisis]

I agree - the only thing I don't like about stevia is it's aftertaste. Blech! But, I use it in place of sugar in tea and coffee and such.

I've never tried baking with it, but it seems like Ruth has and knows what she's talking about.

 

[Maltagirl]

There are various forms of stevia, too -- powdered, liquid, etc. I would guess certain ones might be better for baking while others work best to sweeten beverages. I have the powdered kind for my tea, only half a packet or else it tastes awful!

 

[kdmama33]

Another thing to mention about stevia is that certain brands are better than others, as they use different parts of the stevia plant in the production of the sweetner. Sweetleaf is a good brand, and I've been using the same bottle of Body Ecology stevia concentrate for more than a year now. With the not-so-good brands, you REALLY get a bitter aftertaste!

Personally, I prefer xylitol for baking. Rapadura is good, too, but you're still getting a pretty high GI with that. Half Rapadura, half stevia is an excellent sugar sub. in baked goods, too.