If you want to sweeten your cookies without using sugar, you can try a number of alternatives. Artificial sweeteners offer a low-calorie option, while substitutes like honey or agave nectar can provide a different flavor and other possible benefits. To bake tasty and healthy cookies, think not only about the sweetener you use but the other ingredients as well.
Honey
Honey contains fructose and glucose, the same two sugars your body gets from digestion of sucrose or table sugar. If you're cooking with honey, reduce the amount of liquids in your recipe by 1/4 cup or so for every cup of honey you use. Usually 1/2 cup to 2/3 cup of honey will serve as a substitute for 1 cup of straight sucrose. Honey won't necessarily cut the calories, however. According to MayoClinic.com, a teaspoon of honey actually contains a few more calories and carbs than an equal amount of sugar. Consequently, if you're diabetic or trying to lose weight, you may want to consider other sweeteners instead.
Agave Nectar and Maple Syrup
Agave nectar is a fructose-rich sweetener that, like honey, contains just about the same amount of calories per teaspoon as sucrose. Proponents claim it's sweeter than sugar, so you can use less of it and thereby reduce the calorie content slightly, although this may vary depending on the brand and recipe you use. Maple syrup is also similar to sugar in its energy content, although it can provide you with a flavor that you may find preferable. Bear in mind that a cup of maple syrup provides 7.5 ounces of sugar -- roughly equivalent to the 7.4 ounces of sugar in a cup of granulated sugar. When cooking with maple syrup, decrease the amount of liquids in the recipe by 1/3 to 1/2 cup for each cup of maple syrup you use.
Sucralose
Sucralose, or Splenda, is an artificial sweetener -- a sugar molecule with several of the oxygen-hydrogen groups replaced by chlorine atoms. Your body can't digest sucralose for the most part, so unlike honey or maple syrup, substituting sucralose for sugar will reduce the amount of calories your cookies contain. And unlike another sweetener called aspartame, sucralose is heat-stable, so it's a viable ingredient for use in cooking. Unless the product you purchase advises otherwise, you can typically substitute 1 cup of granulated sucralose for an equal amount of sugar.
Considerations
Another artificial sweetener you can substitute for sugar in cooking is saccharin. Unlike sucralose, however, saccharin has a somewhat metallic aftertaste. Evaporated cane juice is often billed as a sugar alternative, but much like maple syrup, it is basically sugar and has roughly the same calorie content. Proponents note that it also contains trace vitamins and minerals not found in sugar and may actually be slightly sweeter, which allows you to use less in a recipe.
References
- "Discover Magazine"; The Chemistry of...Artificial Sweeteners; Jocelyn Selim; August 2005
- MayoClinic.com; Is Honey a Good Substitute for Sugar; Maria Collazo-Clavell, M.D.; November 2010
- Kalamazoo Bee Club: Cooking With Honey
- "The Wall Street Journal"; Agave Syrup May Not Be So Simple; Laura Johannes; October 2009
- Cornell Maple Bulletin; Replacing Table Sugar With Maple Sugar; Stephen Childs; 2007
- University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign: Using Artificial Sweeteners in Cooking
- "Glamour"; Ask Dr. G: Is Evaporated Cane Juice Any Better Than Sugar?; Sarah Jio; January 2009
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