1. Most people experience an "aftertaste" when they switch to stevia. After a period of time you may become accustomed to that taste, so expect some time for your taste buds to adapt to the taste. Beverages are a good place to use stevia.

-Using "Sun Crystals", which is a mixture of stevia and sugar may be a good way to transition.

2. It doesn't act like sugar in baked goods:

-foods won't brown like they do with sugar (Maillard reaction)

-it won't feed yeast to raise dough (although the flour in yeast breads has more than enough carbohydrates in it for that)

-sugar adds tenderness to baked goods, so expect to find tougher textures

-you may find recipes include not only stevia, but other "sugars" like date sugar, honey, fruit, fruit juices/sauces/purees, which are all a form of "sugar". So stevia isn't always a stand-alone sweetener.

3. Be sure to check the labels of stevia products. Some of them contain fillers and sweeteners. If you are low-carbing, this may be important to you.

4. The day after... Some things may not seem as sweet as when you used sugar and often will taste sweeter the day after they are made than right out of the oven.

-Cranberries, which are extremely tart, need to soak in the stevia for a period of time. The longer it soaks, the sweeter it will get, so as much as an overnight soak may help with really tart foods.

-Refrigerate or freeze cookie dough sweetened with stevia for several hours - or overnight - before baking. The dough/cookies will taste sweeter. Go ahead and make the dollops of dough and freeze them for even more convenience.

-Refrigerate or freeze baked goods (it works best to portion them before freezing). The lack of sugar in recipes will cause them to dry out quickly - they won't be good "keepers".

5. You will have better results if you use recipes that were designed with stevia as the sweetener. After you get accustomed to those, you will be able to alter your favorite recipes.
Check out: "Stevia" by Rita DePuydt
And the link below has more information and recipes.

-Grainlady

Here is a link that might be useful: Stevia Extract In The Raw

I haven't tried to use it for baking. It works just fine for me in tea, coffee, sauces, soups, stir-fries, and dressings.

I've tested Stevia in some baked recipes and do not like the results. Sometimes not very sweet and other times overly sweet with a strange unidentifiable "off" taste.

I do not want to try it for canning jam since no one seems to know the pH of it and since it is a vegetable, there may be the potential of it harboring mold or bacteria that does not happen with the antifungal, antibacterial attributes of sugar.

I do use it in hot and cold beverages and in salad dressings that are cold, while those made by heating did not work out well as far as the taste when cooled. I think Stevia is a much better sweetener than chemical ones like Splenda or Equal, as far as health goes. And, I agree with Grainlady that you have to read the ingredients on the packaging to make sure you aren't ingesting something that may not be so good for you. I think it ideal for my diabetic friends who seem to crave forbidden sweet things. For the baked goods I make for them, I use agave nectar (low glycemic index but still fructose). I'm still trying recipes with Stevia though and perhaps there are some interactions with ingredients in baked goods that we don't know about yet that cause the resultant "off" taste. It's still pretty new on the market to tell for sure.

Nancy

I didn't look for a couple days and didn't realize how fast this forum moves.

Thanks for the inputs!

As a Type II Diabetic, I use Truvia (brand) when I'm behaving. I've baked with it a couple times, but I honestly did a half and half with sugar. I could not tell a difference. Used in sauces (i.e. oriental garlic sauce -or- Thai sweet chili) there is absolutely no difference.

I've tried a couple other brands of crystalized stevia, and it has been more like a Splenda or Equal experience. Truvia is way ahead of the curve. And, no, I do not own stock in the company.

ajh

I think Truvia is pretty good, although I detect a slight cotton candy flavor to it. A half packet cuts the sharpness of some strawberries, a blintz or pancake or some iced tea. I don't drink loads of it as I find it might provoke my allergies, but overall, I prefer it to most artificial types of sweeteners.

I use stevia to sweeten my yogurt, teas, smoothies and iced coffee. I've never tried it for baking.

Grainlady is right, it takes some getting used to. There was a little bit of a bitter aftertaste at first, but now I don't notice it.

My SIL has a stevia plant that she was going to divide so I could plant some in my herb garden. She says the leaves are very sweet, and I was wondering whether they could be used in a pitcher of iced tea. I'll have to try it and find out.

Susytwo -

I've grown stevia and your SIL is correct. The leaves are so sweet, in fact, that they taste like saccharin. Steeped with tea would tone them way down though.

ajh

Try Truvia, because unlike Stevia, there's no bitter aftertaste.