Stevia experiments + oat and almond cookies recipe

My mum had been telling me about how wonderful stevia was (natural, good for you, no calories) and I’ve been wanting to try it for while… but the price seemed prohibitive. So when I saw a special, I jumped straight in.

It turned out it was a rush decision. The product was on special because of its October expiry date. It was 8 times sweeter than sugar – so 1 kg of stevia would be equivalent to 8 kg of sugar. We  don’t use much sugar. Last time I bought 1 kg of sugar was when I was trying to perfect my 4-ingredients apple cake and that was back in Feb. I still have a third of that packet… Now do the maths. There is no way we can get through a kilo of stevia by October.

Also, after the purchase I realised that there was Erythritol in the blend and while I couldn’t found anything bad about it, it made me question just how natural my new natural sweetener was.

Anyway, it was too late. The package arrived and I set off to test its contents.

First, I licked it and I found there was aftertaste.

Then I made banana bread substituting the sugar in the recipe for stevia. It turned out ok, but the texture wasn’t quite right. The aftertaste was gone, but the sweetness seemed a bit unusual.  When I took a bite, it was not very sweet at first and then getting sweeter and sweeter towards the end.

My next attempt were oat and almond cookies and the sweetness was still not like what I was used to with sugar they were a hit anyway.

Oat and almond cookies with stevia

(Only makes 12 small cookies. I didn’t want to make too many in case the experiment didn’t go well. )

Ingredients

2/3 cup self-raising flour

2/3 cup rolled oats

1/2 cup crushed almonds (we didn’t have any, so we crashed the raw almonds we had. The almond pieces you se on the picture are not a decoration attempt, we just didn’t do a very good job.)

75g butter

40 ml milk

4 tea spoons Naturally Sweet Stevia

(If you’d like to make these cookies with sugar instead of stevia, I am guessing that you will need about 2/3 cup sugar, but this is only a guess.)

Preparation

Preheat oven to 180°C.

In a bowl mix sifted flour, almonds, stevia and oats

Melt butter in a saucepan, add the milk and heat through. Pour into the dry ingredients and mix well.

Shape cookies and put on a baking tray lined with baking paper.

Bake for 10-15 minutes or util golden brown.

Enjoy!

Disclosure: The links in the post are affiliate links and I will get commission if you purchase Naturally Sweet Stevia through my links. I have shared my true experience of the product.  

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