Looking for an answer to your sugar woes? Stevia (Book Publishing Company, 2002) by Rita DePuydt explores how this incredibly sweet herb, that contains no calories and has a glycemic index of 0, can become your sugar replacement. Learn how to use stevia as a healthy substitute for other sweeteners and peruse over 100 naturally sweet recipes. Find delectable stevia recipes and tips for how to make stevia extract in the following excerpt.
You can purchase this book from the MOTHER EARTH NEWS store: Stevia — Naturally Sweet Recipes for Desserts and More!
Crisscross Peanut Butter Cookies Recipe
1/4 cup butter or margarine, softened
2/3 cup natural peanut butter
1/4 teaspoon powdered or clear liquid stevia extract (See “How to Make Stevia Extract” toward the end of this article.)
2 tablespoons date sugar (optional)
1/2 teaspoon maple flavoring
1/4 cup apple butter
1 large egg
3/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon salt
• Preheat the oven to 350°F. Oil a cookie sheet.
• Soften and cream the butter or margarine in a mixing bowl. Cream the peanut butter into the butter. Mix in the stevia extract, date sugar, maple flavoring, and apple butter. Beat in the egg until thick and smooth.
• Stir the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt together in a bowl. Add the flour mixture to the peanut butter mixture.
• Place large balls of batter on the cookie sheet using two spoons. Flatten each cookie with a floured fork, making a crisscross pattern.
• Bake for 12 minutes.
Yield:
16 large cookies
Per cookie:
Calories 123
Total Fat 8 g
Sat. Fat 3 g
Protein 4 g
Carb. 8 g
Fiber 2 g
Sodium 114 mg
For a Vegan Peanut Butter Cookies Recipe, Use:
1/4 cup oil
2/3 cup peanut butter
1/3 cup apple butter
2 ounces tofu (mix the tofu with the apple butter in a blender first)
1/2 teaspoon stevia extract (See “How to Make Stevia Extract” toward the end of this article.)
2 tablespoons date sugar (optional)
1/2 teaspoon maple flavoring
3/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon salt
Yield:
16 large cookies
Per cookie:
Calories 123
Total Fat 8 g
Sat. Fat 1 g
Protein 4 g
Carb. 8 g
Fiber 2 g
Sodium 79 mg
Apple Crisp Recipe
Filling:
7 to 8 cups chopped apples (peeling is optional)
3 tablespoons lemon juice or apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 to 1 1/2 teaspoons powdered stevia leaf or 1/2 teaspoon powdered or clear liquid stevia extract (See “How to Make Stevia Extract” toward the end of this article.)
2 tablespoons whole wheat flour
3 tablespoons natural peanut butter (optional)
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup apple juice or blend
Topping:
1 cup rolled oats
2/3 cup chopped nuts and seeds
1/4 teaspoon powdered or clear liquid stevia extract (See “How to Make Stevia Extract” toward the end of this article.)
3/4 teaspoon stevia concentrate
2 tablespoons oil
• Preheat the oven to 350°F. Butter a large, 9 x 13-inch baking dish.
• Place the apples in a large mixing bowl. Stir in the lemon juice. Mix the vanilla, stevia leaf or stevia extract, flour, peanut butter, cinnamon, and salt into the apples.
• Pour the fruit juice into the bottom of the dish. Spoon in the apple mixture.
• Mix the oats, chopped nuts and seeds, stevia extract, and stevia concentrate together in a bowl. Sprinkle and stir in the oil. Spread the topping over the apples so it is evenly distributed.
• Bake for 50 minutes to l hour. If the topping gets done before the apples, cover pan with foil the last 15 minutes of baking
Option: Use about 1 1/2 cups granola for the topping. Mix 1/2 cup of the granola into the apples, and spread the rest on the top. No need to add the stevia extract, stevia concentrate, and oil from topping recipe above–granola already has sweetener and oil.
Yield:
8 servings
Per serving:
Calories 228
Total Fat 11 g
Sat. Fat 1 g
Protein 4 g
Carb. 33 g
Fiber 5 g
Sodium 69 mg
How to Make Stevia Extract
Heat 2 cups of purified water almost to the boiling point. Remove the pan from the heat, add 1/4 cup of finely crushed or powdered dried stevia leaves, and stir. Cover and steep the herb overnight. If steeping in a pan, use glass or enamel.
Pour the liquid extract off from the settled herbs in the bottom of the pan, then strain the liquid through a cheesecloth. Place the cheesecloth inside a strainer and pour over a bowl or pan. More of the herb powder will settle to the bottom. Don’t mix it in. Pour the extract off, if you prefer. The extract has a better flavor once all the powder has settled.
Keep in a covered container in the refrigerator. The extract will be dark greenish black in color.
This method of extraction produces the most pleasant-tasting extract. It is less bitter than an extract that has been cooked by simmering or boiling and has a nice, sweet, licorice-like taste. It is not a very concentrated sweetener, however. It takes about 1 or 2 tablespoons of extract to sweeten 1 cup of tea. This can vary a lot depending on the stevioside content of the herb.
To make a stronger concentrate. let the tea stand for several minutes, then pour the liquid extract off from the sediment in the bottom. Simmer the liquid on very low heat in an uncovered pan until reduced by half. Keep refrigerated.
The extract will be twice as strong but may become more bitter.
*When baking stevia recipes, liquid stevia extract is interchangeable with powdered stevia extract.*
This excerpt has been reprinted with permission from Stevia — Naturally Sweet Recipes for Desserts and More!, published by Book Publishing Company, 2002.
