Herb Of The Week - Stevia - Cookbook Review

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A Stevia Cookbook review ..

 

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Chris (list mom)

 

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Book Review from The Library Letter, Spring 2001

 

 

 

Stevia Sweet Recipes: Sugar-Free—Naturally!

By 2nd ed., by Jeffrey Goettemoeller. Vital Health Publishing, P.O. Box

544, Bloomingdale, IL 60108.

BU Library Reference No. TX 819 .S75 G64 1998.

 

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Reviewed by Leila Kozak, MSc, Di. Hom., Project Coordinator, Bastyr

University Research Institute.

 

 

 

 

Besides the recipes, this book includes a short chapter on the origins

of stevia, a succinct review of research done on the health benefits of

this herb, and a chapter on tips for cooking with stevia. Recipes

include drinks, baked goods, salads, sauces, toppings and spreads, main

dishes and a variety of desserts.

 

If you are concerned about cutting off sugar consumption, you have

probably heard about Stevia rebaudiana. Native to Brazil, Paraguay and

Argentina, this herb has been sold in the US for the last ten years as

an ideal, all-natural sweetener. The use of stevia was banned by the FDA

in between 1991 and 1995, presumably in response to pressure by the

sugar and artificial sweetener industry. In 1995, the FDA allowed stevia

onto the market but only to be sold as a dietary supplement, not as a

sweetener. Stevia manufacturers also claim that it is widely used as a

sweetener in Japan and South America. I have not been able to check the

use in Japan. However, in South America where I lived most of my life

and where I used to be an avid consumer of natural products, I can say

with certainty that stevia has never been more than a health food store

secret. The fact is, except for the native Indians in Paraguay, very few

people know about stevia.

 

Stevia extract has virtually no calories, and many claims have been made

regarding its health enhancing qualities. Among other things, stevia is

supposed to normalize sugar levels, prevent dental cavities and enhance

immune activity. On top of that, stevia is supposed to taste just like

sugar! Although I have not consumed enough to argue against stevia´s

health enhancing properties, after adding my previous experience to

Goettemoeller´s recipes I feel I have baked enough to say that stevia

does not work well enough to totally replace sugar in baked goods.

However it does seem to work pretty well in shakes and other drinks,

such as lemonade, or even in recipes that require just a pinch of

sweetness (such as corn bread).

 

Here is the list of recipes I have tried from Goettmoeller´s book and

the results:

 

* Lemonade: the taste was palatable, but nobody at home would

drink it until I added 20% real sugar to the stevia drink. After that,

it was almost unnoticeable that it had 80% less sugar.

 

* Yerba mate tea: perhaps having grown up drinking yerba mate tea

with sugar did not help in the tasting, but my impression was that

stevia provided a sweet overtaste to the tea, more than a sweet tea. It

did not ressemble sugar at all.

 

* A variety of shakes and smoothies: here was the most successful

use for stevia, probably because the combination of fructose from fruit

and stevia is precisely the one that gives the best result (most of the

recipes for baked goods in this book require the use of concentrate

fruit juice in addition to stevia.)

 

* Vanilla poached pears: as in the smoothies and shakes, it worked

just fine.

 

* Grandma´s apple pie: As before, the apple filling was fine, but

the crust was really awful. The “easy oil pastry“ recipe for pie crust

came out inedible in taste and extremely crumbly in texture.

 

* Heart warmin´corn muffins: I took these to a family dinner and

people liked them except that they said they could use a little more

sugar.

 

* I also tried a recipe I had for a chocolate tofu pie. I replaced

half the sugar in the recipe with stevia. This one was a double mistake:

the same crust problem that the apple pie had, plus a really bad

aftertaste, probably a result of the interaction between tofu and

stevia.

 

I have known about stevia for at least seven years. During that time I

have tried at least five different variations of stevia extract and

various cookbooks. Every single recipe I have tried was either not sweet

enough or unpalatable. I always thought that I either did not have the

right stuff (some extracts are said to have a strong aftertaste) or that

the recipe was not good enough. Until my last try with Goettmoeller´s

book, I kept hoping some day I would find the right stuff and/or the

right recipe. I give up. I believe stevia is simply not what people want

to make it. I think it can be succesfully used to replace between 50%

and 80% of the sugar required in some recipes, but recipes done with

stevia alone as sweetener are usually either not sweet enough or have an

“aftertaste.” In summary, if you have already cut off sugar consumption

and are not too attached to very sweet stuff, you may find stevia a

viable alternative. However, if you are like most people, baking with

stevia may be a fiasco. Also, you may notice that most of the recipes

for baked goods in this book use a combination of stevia and fruit juice

concentrate. Juice concentrate is still sugar, even if the sugar in

fruit juice is mainly fructose instead of glucose. Unless you are

diabetic, this may not make much of a differerence in your sugar

consumption.

 

To summarize, Goettemoeller’s book is the best one I have ever seen

about cooking with stevia. It does have some interesting recipes for

those who have already cut off their sugar consumption and are looking

for some good alternatives to satisfy their sweet tooth. But do not

expect this book to make of you an ex-sugar user.