[jeneticallymodified]

i use stevia as my sole sweetener (no barley malt or agave nectar or fruit juices or brown rice syrup for me) and while its great as a drop or two in drinks like soya milk hot cocoa, i haven't had much success in using it in adapting recipes origionally made with a lot of sugar in them. i did use blended silken tofu once or twice to replace the bulk lost from liquid sugars, which worked out pretty much ok, but silken tofu doesn't sit well in my tummy, so thats out too.

so, getting to the point..... lol..... a minute ago, i found a recipe online which said i could switch 1 cup of honey/corn syrup/liquid sugar for a sweet gloop made from 1 cup of unsweetened ricemilk mixed with a heaped tablespoon of agar agar, and drops of stevia added to make the sweetness right.

this sounds intreuging... has anyone done this before? does it work? any clues on how many drops of stevia sounds right for the sweetness of a cup of honey? i'll probably try it myself sooner or later, but i'd have to go and buy agar agar especially to do so (and master using it, lol), so if anyone has done this before and can vouch for its plausability, i'd be more inclined to try it out sooner.

i also wonder if a mixture made with flax seeds would make a similar gloop which would work like this too, or not? *makes mental note to try using flax seeds generally, one of these days, too*.

anyway... any wisdom on the subject would be gratefully received and much appreciated!

 

[sararie]

I just picked up an allergen free cookbook and she uses stevia, so I bought some, but haven't been thru all the recipes. I will take a look tonite and see if she says anything in there about it..conversions and all..and then get back to you. I know in another cookbook they did use flax seeds, but I've never tried that.

 

[jeneticallymodified]

thanks

 

[orapunzel]

The amount of agar agar sounds a bit high to me, though. You might end up with a rather goopy item (especially if it's a baked item). I'd be inclined to go half that as a start and see where you end up once it's done. (As long as the rest of ingredients aren't too expensive to make it a bit of an experiment.)

 

[orapunzel]

I'm sitting here thinking about this a bit more... and here's what I'd do. Rather than add those ingredients to your recipe and do a wait and see. I'd be more inclined to take that 1 cup of rice milk, warm it up on the stove, sprinkle in 1/2 tsp of agar agar to start and see if it thickens. If it doesn't thicken (or enough), then add a tad more until it does. Then add your stevia.

(ETA: oh and be sure to whisk it as you add it and until it thickens to right consistency. If you oops, you could always add more rice milk and save the extra for another recipe on another day.)

Then let it cool (if it matters to the recipe) and pour it in to the rest of the mix.

How does that sound to you?

 

[jeneticallymodified]

sounds good

i'll have to find some agar agar (just moved and not found a new health food store yet) but i think it sounds like a good plan. i've made weird milk puddings with rice milk and cornstarch before, so i can visualise the process, seems the same as with cornstarch- its the agar agar which is new to me- and finding out how it'd react in baking. i think i vaguely remember having it in vegan packet jello in the uk years ago. i'll make a half batch of muffins or something, and if they go weird, they'll just end up as a sort of sponge pudding or breadcrumbs in something else, lol. it'll be fun trying it out, if nothing else. thanks

 

[orapunzel]

Hey HCJ,

I was just going through some of my old subscribed threads and culling outdated ones when I saw this one and wondered if you had a chance to give this a try or if you found something that worked?

JC!

 

[jeneticallymodified]

not yet.... i got the agar agar, and some flax seed, but then i found a pizza recipe, and a bread recipe, and got addicted to making those, and then i bought a sewing machine, and the whole idea of cookery went out of the window when batted agaist the novelty of whiling away the hours sewing wonky lines to make curtains, and accelerating outta control with the foot pedal (i miss driving but sewing is probably safer with my lead footedness!).

i should definately definately try it out though.

must ....motivate... self.

off topic: i did make green pancakes today by accident

 

[smedley]

i have very successfully replaced one cup of sugar with one cup of an apple i pureed in the blender and then added stevia drops to taste. i am sure store bought applesauce would work as well. i havent tried to replace more than that in a recipe though.

 

[orapunzel]

^^ I'm sure that will work great for others but for HCJ, it won't. Her system is so extremely sensitive she is unable to handle a fruit like that. Thanks for the tip, anyway... the rest of us can try that sometime!

HCJ - LOL! I love your sewing story! It's alright... I get easily distracted, too. Except for me, when I get distracted... it usually from something else and I end up cooking, instead! (I'm addicted to food.)

Okay...I'll bite (but not hard)... what happened with the pancakes?

 

[happyhealthy1]

I agree about the pureed apple as a filler to replace bulk that sugar normaly would add. I love baking with stevia, i use the sweetleaf stevia vanilla creme that is in a liquid dropper, it replaces vanilla extract and sugar, it's two in one and tastes great. I have also had success using an extra banana in banana bread recipes as bulk. My favorite bulking ingredients include applesauce (homemade is best no preservatives or added ingredients!) yogurt, fruit juice, fruit puree, apple butter, agar agar, pureed pumpkin is awesome too. I just read a recipe that said to add canned pumpkin to brownie mixes instead of oil and eggs and they promise the oowiest, gooiest, richest brownies! Goood Luck Bakers!

 

[jeneticallymodified]

pumpkin sounds like a good idea... i wonder if carrot would work too?

 

[jeneticallymodified]

Quote:

Okay...I'll bite (but not hard)... what happened with the pancakes?

i made a big batch of pancakes (i freeze them in ziplock bags for lazy breakfasts) with a combination of g/f flours including chickpea/gram flour - which is a beautiful yellow - then as a rare treat, when i got to the end of the batch i slipped a few microwaved frozen blueberries* and their microwave induced explosion formed juice (oops over microwaved them) in there and mixed it in.... it went a gorgeous halloween shade of green, lol.

so now i have a stash of pancakes lined up in the freezer, each ziplock bag containing 5 beautiful little sunny yellow pancakes, and one decidedly dodgy looking green one. hahaha. least it'll keep my bf's hands off em, he's quite suspicious of any abnormal looking 'jennyfoods creations'.

*i'm experimenting with adding a teeny bit of fruit, starting with berries, cautiously back into my diet, and so far, its going ok, as long as i don't push it. strawberries weren't good :-( , but blueberries and blackberries and raspberries seem ok in small amounts once a week or so, so far... yey!