It's been pressuring me for some time, so I need to get something off my chest.
I really don't much like erythritol.
Having tried several of the recipes I've found at All Day I Dream About Food, I DO really like this woman's creative skills. She creates some of her recipes specifically to showcase what you can do with Swerve, and the basic recipes are very good, but i'm left with that bitter, over-sweetened feeling when I use it ... and I ALWAYS use less than her recipes call for. That latter trick I learned decades ago when substituting artificial sweeteners for sugar in conventional recipes.
Yes, there are times when the powdered Swerve will definitely come in handy, because the other things on the market don't have a very good texture for certain applications. I can even see using the granulated version as PART of the sweetening in recipes.
BUT....
Veronica Atkins is absolutely right. She's a proper CHEF, and no doubt it was on her advice that the dear doctor (NOT "the good doctor" whose advice I wouldn't take on ANYTHING) advocated using a mixture of different artificial sweeteners, for their synergistic and aesthetic advantage. When you take one packet of sucralose and one packet of saccharine-blend, it comes off tasting sweeter and more sugar-like than two packets of either one alone.
So this is not a "forgive me, readers, for I have sinned" sort of confession, just one of those "I wanted to like it but I just DON'T" situations. I'm going back to considering bulk sucralose my go-to choice, to be augmented by erythritol (plus others) for the synergy.
The only sweetener on my never-never list remains XYLITOL -- I can't repeat often enough, how toxic it is for dogs!
I use sucralose or stevia. Too much erythritol gives me gas. And unless I'm baking, I use half the sweetener conventional recipes call for because they're way too sweet for me.
ReplyDeleteYes, indeed! It's partly the artificial flavor and partly the fact that we're used to so much less sweetness in our diets, a little goes a long way, I think.... I've been using about 2/3, but I suspect your halving-the quantity might be a lot better!
DeleteI like erythritol but HATE stevia in any form. Even a trace amount is uncompromisingly bitter to me. So I don't bother with Swerve (besides, the Erythritol in Swerve comes from GMO corn). Pure Erithrtol is fine. It may be the Stevia you don't like.
ReplyDeleteI mostly use xylitol. I find it tastes just like sugar, I haven't had sugar in a long while, but my picky, picky daughter can't tell the difference when I sneak it into things. While it has a higher GI than Erythritol, it does not spike my bg.
We have a dog but she doesn't get into things. I keep it in a metal canister with a tight fitting lid, so even if it falls off the shelf it's not going to spill out. And I take extra care of things made with it so she has no chance to eat it (she wouldn't anyway). Local health food stores including WF carry it in bulk, so you don't have to make a bug commitment to try it. It's also less expensive than Erythritol alone.
Interesting, your reaction to stevia -- some people love it and some people hate it -- I wonder if there's a "tasting gene" for it, as there are for some other substances!
DeleteI'm ambivalent about it, because of its "uneven" character -- for some dishes it really doesn't do the job! I have several flavors of the liquid around the house for specific recipes, and I have some packets as well. But when it comes to making sweetened cocktails, it fails miserably. Sucralose, preferably the liquid drops, is the only way to go for "sours" of all kinds.
I bought some xylitol some years ago, and the biggest virtue it has is that I can color it to make decorative crystals for cookies and cakes. :-) Like you, i'm extremely careful with it ... because MY dog WILL eat almost anything that we do. He adores coffee, but he turns up his nose at my unsweetened black cup -- J still likes to put cream in his....
I agree that stevia works well with some foods and not others. I think it tastes fine in cole slaw dressing, but not in a chocolate dish.
DeleteI meant to say that Xylitol is sweeter than E to begin with, and since I've lost my sweet tooth I typically put in about 1/3 of the amount of sweetener called for.
ReplyDelete2 weeks ago I made a pressure cooker cheesecake and it was so good with X!
pressure-cooker cheesecake sounds interesting! did you create the recipe? :-D if you cared to share it, i'm sure everyone here would be grateful!
DeleteWorld-wide opinion on cyclamates is less negative than the one FDA has. From the article on the subject http://www.cyclamate.org/regulatorystatus.html "Health and safety organizations, including the World Health Organization's Joint Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA) and the European Union Scientific Committee for Food (now the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), have examined and studied cyclamate over the past 50 years and found it to be safe for use as a general purpose sweetener and as a sweetener in prepared food and beverages. Cyclamate is approved for use in more than 100 countries including Canada, Mexico and Australia. "
Delete" In 1984, for example, the Cancer Assessment Committee of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) concluded that cyclamate is not carcinogenic. This finding was confirmed in 1985 in an independent evaluation of the report by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences."
:-) I think the FDA was "bought off" by the people who would be introducing aspartame soon after!
DeleteI use a sugar-substitute which is already a mix of Cyclamate and Saccharin, it is made in Germany. One container contains 650 pills.
ReplyDeletecyclamates are really terrific -- it annoys the hell out of me that the FDA decided to outlaw the stuff while allowing things that are so much more questionable!!!
Deleteoops, my comment went to a wrong place!
Delete... I do think what sweetener you use is very much a personal choice. Also, most recipes may need adapting slightly depending on how 'sweet' your taste is.
ReplyDeleteAll the best Jan
Decidedly so! A lot of people have trouble with sugar-alcohols, aspartame, sucralose, and even stevia. Ideally, we should probably just do without, but a little something sweet from time to time is just PLEASANT
DeleteI've only used Swerve so far and used it only to make a lower carb panna cotta from the All Day site. It was good, but the sweetness did have a kind of "cool" aftertaste to me (I used one half of the amount called for). I'm not much for making sweet desserts these days anyway, would rather have a few berries with some plain whipped cream.
ReplyDelete