I am so excited about today's post! When I began this series several weeks ago a friend of mine mentioned that she had grown stevia and would be willing to give me some to experiment with. Along with the bag of stevia she gave me a book that was filled with lots of wonderful information on growing and cooking with stevia.
BACKGROUND:
Stevia originated in Paraguay and Brazil. it is much sweeter than common sugar although it is low in glucose and calories. It has it's own flavor which is sweet but not identical to the refined sugar that we are used to.
GROWING STEVIA:
Stevia can be grown in a variety of garden soils. You can basically treat it as you would any other herb or vegetable! The stevia plant prefers full or partial sun exposure. In the hottest part of summer it may be a good idea to provide your stevia plants with some afternoon shade.
It is best to plant your stevia plants or seeds at least 2 weeks after the final frost of the year. That would typically be early to mid April for the northern VA area. You can find packets of stevia seeds on
Amazon.
When watering your stevia plants it is best to avoid getting the leaves wet. The plants will be ready to harvest just as they start blooming usually late summer or early fall. To harvest, simply pinch off the leaf and enjoy! The book, shown above, goes into much more detail on the growing and maintenance of stevia plants but I just wanted to give you a quick overview.
DRYING AND STORING:
After the leaves have been harvested and dried (done by simply leaving them in a sunny location for a few days). It's time to process them.
The simplest and most versatile way to use stevia leaves is by making them into a green stevia powder. This is done by putting your leaves into a blender or coffee grinder and blending on high speed for 30 seconds to 1 minute. It may be necessary to sift out any larger particles of leaf material as they may be tough or bitter if eaten.
CONS:
1. Cannot be used as a 1 to 1 substitute for sugar in baking.
2. Can give food a green color.
3. Has a unique flavor that can often seem bitter.
PROS:
1. Completely natural and can be produced in your own garden.
2. Low in glucose and calories.
3. Does not promote tooth decay.
BAKING WITH GREEN STEVIA POWDER:
Green stevia powder cannot, of course, be used 1 for 1 for sugar in a recipe. A good conversion is 3-4 teaspoons green stevia powder for 1 cup of sugar. Because of this, I recommend using at least 1/4 cup sugar to make up for the difference in bulk and texture.
Once again, I will be experimenting using this simple snickerdoodle recipe:
Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar, divided
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Directions
- In a large bowl, cream butter and 1 cup sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla. Combine the flour, baking soda and cream of tartar; gradually add to the creamed mixture and mix well. In a small bowl, combine cinnamon and remaining sugar.
- Shape dough into 1-in. balls; roll in cinnamon-sugar. Place 2 in. apart on ungreased baking sheets. Bake at 375° for 10-12 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove to wire racks to cool. Yield: 2-1/2 dozen.
I adjusted the recipe by decreasing the bake temperature to 350, and increasing the bake time by several minutes. Here is the revised recipe with the green stevia powder:
Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup sugar
3 teaspoons green stevia powder
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
Directions
In a large bowl, cream butter, 1/4 cup sugar and stevia powder until light and fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla. Combine the flour, baking soda and cream of tartar; gradually add to the creamed mixture and mix well. In a small bowl, combine cinnamon and remaining sugar.
- Shape dough into 1-in. balls; roll in cinnamon-sugar. Place 2 in. apart on ungreased baking sheets. Bake at 350° for 10-12 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove to wire racks to cool. Yield: 15 cookies.
The original cookies contained 81 calories and 12 grams of carbohydrate each. The green stevia powder cookies contain 58 calories and 8.6 grams of carbohydrate each.
THE RESULTS:
The cookies have a crumbly but pleasant texture. They are a bit dryer than previous versions of the cookie using the other sweeteners. It is very important that you do not over bake them. The batter was very green but when the cookies were baked the green tint was faint. The cookie had a nice level of sweetness. The green stevia leaf adds just a hint of a green tea flavor that I found very appealing.
Once again, my kids loved the cookies, in fact, they said they tasted just like Christmas! :)
CONCLUSION:
You could not find a more natural sweetener than the one grown in your own garden. The stevia plant will definitely be showing up in pots and garden plots around my house soon!
If you are used to a lot of refined sugar and really sweet foods, switching to a stevia based sweetener might be a difficult adjustment. Stevia really has it's own flavor which I think can be compared to a green tea. I found the flavor to be very nice, (but then again, I'm an avid tea drinker!) but it might take some getting used to.
If you are interested in trying green stevia powder but don't want to grow it you can purchase it here.
So far in this series we have covered:
Truvia
Xyla (Xylitol)
