Wednesday, April 9, 2008

The tasty Splenda alternative

I've been hearing about this "Agave Nectar" thing now for a while, and while I was slightly intrigued because I'm obsessed with anything that's a sugar substitute, I was baffled by it. I recently came across a recipe for vegan cupcakes that I was just going to quickly delete (vegan = disgusting in my mind, sorry!), but I read further as I saw that is was made with low-glycemic agave nectar. Anyway, while this recipe didn't really get me too excited, I decided to seek out other such nectar options and see how to actually use the liquid. Here are some great tips I found along the way:

  • In recipes, use about 1/3 cup of agave nectar for every 1 cup of sugar. For baking, it's not recommended that all sugar is replaced — for most cakes, half the sugar can be replaced; brownies, half; fruit bars, two-thirds; gingersnaps, one-third.
  • When substituting this sweetener in recipes, reduce your liquid slightly, sometimes as much as 1/3 less.
  • First mix the agave with the fat or liquid in the recipe. If this is not done, a soggy later will form on the top of the baked product.
  • Reduce your oven temperature by 25 degrees when using the nectar in exchange for sugar in recipes.
Good sites to check out for recipes: Blue Agave Nectar and Sweet Savvy

UPDATE: Hostess with the Mostess posted this delicious cocktail recipe featuring agave nectar. I am so going to try it!

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