Some Stevia Receipes

Banana Muffins

1/2 cup white sugar, ¼ teaspoon stevia

2/3 cup oil

1 tsp vanilla / 1 tsp cinnamon

2 eggs

1 ½ cup flour

2 tsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

1 cup mashed banana

1) Combine sugar and oil

2) Add vanilla and eggs and beat well

3) Combine flour, baking powder and salt

Add this mixture to creamed mixture

4) Mix well and add in bananas

5) Bake in 163 degrees C for 20 minutes

                        

Stevia Apple Crumble

Part A

5 red medium-sized apples, peeled, cored and cubed

¼ tsp stevia

25 g raisins

Dash of cinnamon

Part B

220 g plain flour

¼ tsp salt

100 g cold butter cut into small pieces

50 g castor sugar , ¼ tsp stevia

10 g almonds, chopped

Pre-heat oven to 200 degrees C

A Cook for 8-10 minutes til apples are soft. Pour into an ovenproof dish

B Sift flour with salt. Rub in butter until mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.
Lightly mix in sugar and almonds.

Sprinkle crumble from B over filling from A.

Bake for 30 minutes or until golden brown. 

Our Blind Taste Test

BLIND TASTE TEST – BLUEBERRY MUFFINS

We conducted a blind taste test on 60 participants, ranging from teens to the seventies.

2 lots of blueberry muffins were baked.  1 lot was baked with sugar.  The other was baked with half the amount of sugar plus ½ teaspoon of stevia powder.  All other ingredients remain the same in quantity.

The findings of the blind taste test are as follows:

A: Compilation of statistics:

	Number who prefer regular amount of sugar in muffins	Number who prefer the stevia-substituted muffins	Number who cannot tell the difference in taste
No. of participants	31	20	9
% of particpants	51.7%	33.3%	15%

B: Additional comments made by participants:

Those who preferred the regular sugar muffins said that they like them because the muffins taste sweeter.

On the other hand, those who preferred the stevia-substituted muffins said they like them because the muffins taste less sweet.

No one mentioned that there is a difference in taste other than the sweetness. That is, no one mentioned anything about any odd taste or aftertaste.

CONCLUSION:

We conclude that the blind taste test has shown that participants were unable to tell that sugar was substituted with stevia.  Most of those who preferred one or the other thought that it was due to the quantity of sugar that was added. In fact, 15% of the participants could not tell any difference.

Hence, Stevia makes a good substitute in this case.  To cater to a person’s need for sweetness, the amount of stevia powder used can be increased or decreased accordingly.

Some Interesting Facts about Stevia

DESCRIPTION OF STEVIA

 

Stevia leaves are about 5 cm long and 2 cm wide. In the wild, the height of the plant varies from 40 to 80 cm but it can grow to about 1 metre tall when it is cultivated.  Stevia is a very hardy plant, growing even on relatively poor soil. In Paraguay and Brazil, the commercial life of a Stevia plant is 6 years, yielding 5 harvests a year. The roots remain in place and so the plant can regenerates

The glycosides in its leaves, including 10% Stevioside, make it incredibly sweet. The dried leaves of Stevia are about 40 times sweeter than sugar. 1 tablespoon of Stevia extracts is about 200-300 times sweeter than a tablespoon of normal sugar. The refined product, Stevioside, is a white crystalline powder extracted from Stevia leaves. Although it is sweet, Stevia is a 100% natural sweetener that is also calorie-free. The body does not metabolize the sweet glycosides from the leaves nor any of its extracts, so there is no caloric intake. Stevia does not adversely affect blood glucose levels and thus may be used by diabetics.

Many different uses of Stevia are already well-known: as table sugar, in soft drinks, pastry, pickles, candy, jam, chewing gum, sorbets etc.