Sugar and Spice and everything nice!

This week the Peas Perspective is here to talk about the "nicest" natural sweeteners on the market. It can be overwhelming to pick a sweetener this day and age as there are ENTIRE aisles at the grocery store dedicated to natural and non-natural sweeteners.

To keep things simple we made a list of the nine most popular sweeteners available today and compared them by calories, nutritional benefits, where they fall on the glycemic index and taste.  In case you were wondering what the glycemic index is, we've also got that covered.  The glycemic index is a number given to a particular food that indicates the food's effect on a person's blood sugar level.  To keep things simple, when it comes to sweeteners, the lower the number, the better.

Agave, molasses, brown rice syrup, honey and maple syrup are all liquid sweeteners.  Molasses, brown rice syrup and maple syrup are all wonderful when used in baked goods. Honey and agave are best when used in hot and cold liquids (i.e.: hot tea and iced coffee).  Coconut sugar and turbinado sugar can be used exactly as you would white sugar.  Stevia is VERY sweet so follow the directions on the stevia packaging.

Happy baking and don't forget to STAY SWEET!

Sugar 9 Ways!

We, at Peas of Mind, like to avoid adding sugar whenever possible, but there are some situations where added sweetness is necessary. For example, let's say your child has a few friends over and you decide to make lemonade. Might you consider using a 'raw' type cane sugar or maybe even agave syrup to stand in for the good ole' white standard?

Refined white sugar is 99.9% pure sucrose, which means it is almost entirely absent of any vitamins or minerals. When considering alternative sweetners, natural food stores offer such an overwhelming selection that its tough to know what to choose. Below is a chart we created to help differentiate among several natural sweetners:


Note the sweetners that are "sweeter" than white sugar (honey and agave). These naturally contain fructose which, molecule for molecule, tastes sweeter than the sucrose in table sugar. That means that you can use a smaller amount of honey or agave to acheive the same sweet taste as sugar!

Sources:
On Food and Cooking - Harold McGee
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agave_nectar