Want to use stevia for cooking?
Don't try it without learning about stevia equivalents.
You'll find great stevia baking recipes, too.

Don't even try to use stevia measure-for-measure in place of sugar.

ONE teaspoon of powdered stevia extract equals the sweetening power of a CUP of sugar! So, if you try to replace it measure-for-measure in a regular recipe, you'll totally oversweeten the dish.

Stevia baking recipes can be really tricky because stevia does not caramelize like sugar, so there is no browning. Sugar also keeps baked goods moist, so many other adjustments need to be made for the missing sugar. Sugar helps baked goods rise, so stevia baking recipes will look a bit different than their sugar sweetened versions.

Using stevia for cooking completely sugar free recipes is probably the toughest way to use stevia, because there is no other sugar being used. You need to find something to replace the bulk that the sugar provided.

In many of my stevia baking recipes, I use the granulated sugar alcohol called erythritol to replace sugar, and that works well. Then, I add stevia to increase the overall sweetness of the recipe.

Stevia Equivalents

Here are general guidelines to follow when replacing using stevia for cooking:

1 cup of sugar = 1 tsp of powdered stevia extract
1 tablespoon of sugar = 1/4 teaspoon of powdered stevia extract
1 teaspoon of sugar = a pinch or 1/16 of a teaspoon of powdered stevia extract

These stevia equivalents were taken from The Stevia Cookbook by Dr. Ray Sahelian, which was the first stevia cookbook I ever purchased. Another good one is Sugar-Free Cooking with Stevia.

Is it safe to use stevia for cooking at high temperatures?

Stevia is heat-stable to 392 degrees Fahrenheit, so that should cover just about any application in which you would use it.

An Important Note

When I discuss white stevia powder, I am referring to a pure stevia extract product, not one with fillers. There are many products on the market today that contain fillers such as maltodextrin. I avoid these products. The KAL brand of stevia is the best product that I have found, and I have been using their product for 15 years. The name of the product says it all, "Pure Stevia Extract". It has no aftertaste, which most of the other stevia products do.

It is also important to use a pure powdered extract when you are cooking one of my recipes; otherwise, you could get a very different result.

Stevia Baking Recipes

Although the two books that I cited above were very valuable to me when I was first learning how to use stevia for cooking, I found that they didn't completely meet my needs. So I created my own recipes after many, many years of testing in the kitchen.

Here are some of my favorites:

Blueberry Flax Seed Muffins

Sugar Free Brownies

Almost Sugar Free Pecan Pie

Decadent Chocolate Pie

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