"If you work food correctly, it's like poetry" - Mom

Thursday, October 14, 2010

Cooking with Natural Sweetness



When I go out and order an iced tea I can sweeten it with Blue, Pink, White, or Yellow.  If I'm lucky, some places will carry brown.  I'm almost inclined to carry little packets of raw sugar in my purse like an old lady carries around her equal.  But there are so many other natural sweeteners that we can use! 

In baking, recipes usually call for white granulated sugar (refined sugar).  When sugar has been refined and washed, it turns white and loses it's natural molasses flavor.  Some sugar refineries may even bleach their sugar to get it the desirable white color.

Because of high sugar content in diets and diabetes on the rise, artificial sweeteners have been developed.  They contain very low calorie content (0 calories per gram) and are significantly sweeter than regular sugar.  These artificial sweeteners are synthetic or heavily refined.  Some of the sweeteners we carry in the US are actually banned in other countries, and other countries carry sweeteners that are banned here!  Artificial sweeteners have gotten a bad wrap since the 70's with rumors of causing cancer, and having side effects including headaches and diarrhea (especially to people who are sensitive or if eaten in excess).  I'm a big supporter of eating as natural as possible, so I poo-poo on artificial sweeteners.  Here, I list the many alternatives you can use instead:

Agave:  Isn't that what Tequila is made of??  Yep.  It is.  Agave nectar looks similar to honey, yet not as thick and it tastes sweeter.  You can purchase raw agave which hasn't been heated to high temperatures to protect the nutrients and enzymes which does make it safe for raw vegans.  I like to put agave in my coffee when I drink the stuff...  It comes in light, amber, and dark and can be derived from different agave plants.  Buy some, play around, and find which flavor works for you!

Blackstrap Molasses:  When refining sugar, this is what the processing removes.  Molasses!  It's full of nutrients and has a very distinct flavor.  It's best used in some breads and mostly cookies, cakes, and pies.

Brown Rice Syrup:  It's a whole foods natural sweetener made by fermenting brown rice with natural enzymes to break down the starch.  It's considered one of the healthiest of natural sweeteners and is also similar to honey in consistency and flavor.

Honey:    Some vegans don't eat honey but I do.  If you don't eat honey, use agave instead.   Raw honey is extracted without using heat so it is not deprived natural enzymes.  honey can be used in cooking to replace sugar, in a drink for a sweetener, or used as a spread.

Maple Syrup:  Pure maple syrup, not the fake cheap kind you can buy.  Can be used in cookies, cakes, breads, and pies.  Mostly, it's used drizzled over waffles or pancakes.  It's made from boiling the sap from maple trees and contains potassium, calcium, zinc, and manganese.

Natural Cane Sugar:  Aka Raw Sugar, Turbinado Sugar or Sugar in the Raw.  When processing sugar cane, this is the first pressing and is less processed than white sugar.  It contains less calories than white sugar and contains more flavor.  Its granules are larger than white sugar and is more of a brown color.  It has a higher moisture content so it's recommended that you store it in an airtight container like brown sugar.  But dont confuse it with brown sugar.  Brown sugar is white sugar that has molasses added back into it.

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