whimsy

whimsy

Friday 17 January 2014

sugar free gingerbread

The kids got some cool wee spring biscuit cutters for xmas so since it's a yuck day outside I thought we'd try them out. I'm on a bit of a health kick at the moment ( new years reso!) so I used a sugar substitute called Sweete in these. Sweete is derived from stevia. 

stevia
ˈstɛvɪə,ˈstiːvɪə/
noun
noun: stevia
1. a shrub native to tropical and subtropical America, whose leaves may be used as a calorie-free substitute for sugar.

With between 30 and 300 times the sweetness of sugar, depending on which source you believe, a pinch of stevia extract gives the same sweetness as an entire cup of sugar.
 
Stevia in liquid form is available at Piko ( a wholefoods store here in ChCh) it was $17 for a small bottle about the size vanilla essence comes in. I thought this was a cheaper option ( $8.50 for a 150g bag) and being in a sugar type form I'm hoping it will be easier to use in baking. It's available at Countdown too.

Here's an interesting article: about stevia being the latest weapon in the war against sugar

I bought our Sweete here: http://www.sweete.co.nz

For the recipe I took a gingerbread one, added an extra half a cup of flour and another egg. They tasted yum ( slightly less sweet than reular gingerbread)the kids didn't notice the difference.



cutting gingerbread in pjs, a tiara and accessories- as one does

friends helped
easy for little hands
M told us how it is done

the springs on these cutters make it easy to push the gingerbread out
I used our sandwich cutter for dino biscuits

4 comments:

  1. We have spring cutters too and they are awesome - the sugary stuff sounds interesting :)

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  2. they look pretty good. We can make some when you come up!

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    Replies
    1. you're on- lets treat ourselves the 'real' ones though : )

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