Sugar substitutes
Holiday baking means using sweeteners. Try these substitutes for sugar – they’ve all been tested by our members and their families, and have passed with flying colors.
- Sugar (dry sweetener) * Most of the time, the Total Health Makeover® recommends the least processed sweeteners.
The dry versions are Sucanat® and Rapadura. However, they will make your baked goods darker in color, and while that’s not a problem with chocolate, gingerbread, molasses, or other dark cookies, with some recipes, a light color is more desirable. Instead, use turbinado sugar, Florida crystals or evaporated cane juice (different manufacturers may call them by different names). In some cases, these sweeteners are labeled “organic sugar.”
Other dry sweeteners that you may find in these recipes include date sugar and maple sugar, which are also good substitutes, especially in combination with Sucanat® or Rapadura.
When recipes call for white and brown sugar, you can often use two different sweeteners for great flavor (for example, Sucanat® and maple sugar in oatmeal cookies; Sucanat® and date sugar in chocolate chip cookies).
- Syrup (liquid sweeteners) * Liquid sweeteners include maple syrup, blackstrap molasses, raw honey, agave nectar (or agave syrup), and brown rice syrup. Brown rice syrup is a good substitute for corn syrup. Use it in combination with other syrups for more complex flavors.
Unless you want to do a lot of experimenting, substitute a dry sweetener for sugar, and a liquid sweetener for syrup. That is – dry for dry, wet for wet.
Marilu’s book Healthy Life Kitchen
