Stevia Sweet Recipes: Sugar-Free Naturally

Well, first off, I'm prediabetic and have a sensitive system so I don't think I would have searched for stevia unless I had to. My instincts are to seek out 100% natural herbal sweeteners over the chemicals that are otherwised pushed on us.I've thumbed through stevia (and general diabetic-friendly) recipe books in book stores and have been disappointed in the recipes that mostly try to overdose on fat and other sugars (concencrated white grape juice etc.) to make up for the lost sugar. I cringe when I pick up a recipe book that uses Maltitol or Xylitol or Chemic-it-all etc etc.This book has healthy fun recipes that use stevia sensibly, within reason and within its limits. The author seems to have really done a lot of test-kitchen work and found ways to make stevia blend easily into foods. I went through on the first sitting and put post-it notes on at least 15 pages. Unusual for a recipe book.I like the spiral binding also. On anything other than a cookbook I find it annoying, but having to crack the binding of a cookbook just to get it to lay flat (and it never does) is no good. The spiral-binding here is perfect.I'd only wish there to be photographs included (there are a few simple line drawings for decorative effect) but I know that adding photographs adds greatly to the cost of the book production so I'm grateful that the cost is low instead. My monthly book budget can get out of hand otherwise.The stevia recipes use unsweetened applesauce here and there for a replacement of the bulk of the sugar. A lot of whole wheat *pastry* flour, which I'll have to look for but I understand the health and recipe value of it.The *type* of Stevia one uses is important, of course. The little coffee-shop stevia packets have a lot of filler inside, so one can't use those. Pure Stevia Extract powder (85-95% Glycosides) as is sold in bulk, or found at Trader Joe's (as noted by the author) is used throughout the book, as well as an alternative Green Stevia Powder (minimally processed, ground green stevia leaf). A small few of the recipes make use of your 1/8 and even 1/16 teaspoons, so have those handy.Here are a few of the recipes I've got lined up to try: a great granola recipe that doesn't depend on a honey base, Oatmeal Banana Bread, Roasted Squash Onion & Cheese Pie, Fudgy Brownies (uses some butter and yogurt, btw), Chocolate Chip Cookies, Moist Banana Cake, Cream Puffs, Apple Nut Crisp, and a few more.I was happily surprised to find more than just dessert recipes. The author has included many other basics (sauces, cake frostings, main dishes, beverages) that I hadn't thought of.I'm going to keep this one in my cupboard and just snag recipes here and there from other sources, online and in the bookstore. This is the book I want to actually own.

This author has a serious arithmetic deficiency resulting in sweet, SWEET, recipes. An oatmeal recipe uses 1/2 tsp of stevia extract, which at 200 times sweetness as claimed on the back cover, would be the equivalent of 100 tsp sugar. WOW! No, the 200 times is by weight, and stevia is a very light powder, but still that would be perhaps 20 times too much. The amount used for oatmeal is as much as I have used to sweeten a 3-quart pot of rhubarb. I use only sprinkles of stevia, not teaspoons. Stevia leaf is listed as 10 to 15 times as sweeet as sugar, and extract at 150 to 300. Recipes call for three times as much leaf as extract. A tsp of extract is claimed equivalent to 1 cup of sugar, which figures out to be 48 times as sweet. Again, the difference would be partly explained by the lightness of stevia extract, with powdered leaf being somewhat heavier. Many people use a liquid extract, not mentioned in this book, so they would need to make a guess at the equivalent amount to use. Also not mentioned is that the most common source of stevia is the expensive packets in the grocery stores, which have a large amount of filler with a little stevia. Not mentioned is the herbal flavor of the leaf, with a little still in the extract. This can be a problem, or an attractive new flavor. Unless covered by other strong flavors, stevia gives a different flavor. With less stevia than called for, these recipes might be very good for people like me who are not super-sweetness addicts.

After all the positive things I had heard about Stevia, I decided to give it a whirl. Coming by good Stevia recipes is quite difficult ... perhaps because many people don't know about it and/or because it doesn't taste exactly like sugar. I have tried several recipes out of this cookbook, and I haven't liked all of them. So why am I giving it 5 stars? Because it beats the competition. Also, I think that if you have never had Stevia before it takes awhile to acquire a taste for it. The recipes that I liked the most were ones that had another "sweet" ingredient in it to help dampen the bitterness of the Stevia. For example, I love the Carob Chip Cookies, Carob Brownies, the fruit sauces and the oatmeal banana bread. I did not like the coconut peanut butter cookies or the lemon pudding. If you try a recipe and do not like it, don't give up! Move onto the next one and try again!

Of the 3 Stevia cookbooks I own, this is my favorite. I would think that most people who want to use stevia, are looking for healthy too, and lower carb, not just how to replace sugar with stevia. He uses whole grains in his recipies, which are much lower on the glycemic index than their refined counter parts, making them good for diabetics and some less restrictive low carb diets. I was looking for a recipe for zucchini bread and none of the books had one, so I took his Oatmeal Banana Bread recipe and replaced the fruit with zucchini and it came out fantastic! I could do that because the basic recipe is sound. He gives a lot of info on stevia including the fact that you have to adjust it to your taste. He covers pretty much all the bases in this book, except as one person pointed out, the use of liquid stevia, other than to say that he prefers to use the powders to the liquid.

The only problem I ran into with this book is the specific wording of "green stevia extract" and "stevia extract powder" which are the primary sweeteners used in the recipies. You cannot find products in the stores with this specific labeling so it left me wondering what to use/ buy. The stevia "powder" IN THE RAW, does not list it's ingredients as either of those, nor does a liquid form (which I thought might be "extract". I couldn't find green stevia products at all. Some other stevia products on the market are actually mixed with sugar, so not useful for those with diabetes, only for calorie- counters.

Majority of the recipes use stevia extract powder (the white powder) and not the raw green grounded leaf powder which is what I was hoping for. Overall its a good recipe book however it is no what I am really looking for. It would be good if it stated on the cover that the majority of the recipes use the white extract powder. The only thing I will make is probably ketchup and barbecue sauce which you can use the green powder instead.

I'm sure this book will be fabulous once stevia is more obtainable in UK in all its forms. As it is, the bias is American and so limited, because stevia supplied are limited in UK. But I will hang on to it and wait patiently.

Nice to have a stevia recipe book so I don't have to guess with measurements anymore.

Good