FOR REALS... Sugar free Marshmallows

The first time I made marshmallows, it was a "duh, that was easy, why didn't I make them before instead of paying $6.00 for corn free marshmallows," kinda moment. 

 I am now excited to say, I rock at making sugar free ones too!  Easy, peasy...  And they taste WAY better then store bought ones.  Plus if you use xylitol, they are good for your teeth.  FOR REALS!  They both toast fairly well for s'mores, which we ALL KNOW is the main reason for marshmallows?  Am I right?

Shall we begin?

Let's.

Marshmallows (of the sugar free variety)

Sugar Free Ingredients

2 tablespoons gelatin (Use Great Lakes - it’s made from pastured cows w/ no antibiotic in their feed)
1/2 cup cold water
2 cups of xylitol (or other sweetener such as Swerve or Just Like Sugar ~ you may need to adjust amounts needed.)
1/2 cup hot water

Optional ingredients:
5 drops vanilla stevia
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions for making marshmallow:
In the bowl of an electric mixer, sprinkle gelatin over 1/2 cup cold water.  Let the gelatin sit to soften, while the water and sugar are cooking.

Combine 1/2 cup water and sugar in a small sauce pan, and stir over medium-high heat until sugar is dissolved.

Stop stirring, and place a candy thermometer into sugar water; scrape sides of pan if sugar crystals have splattered up. 

Boil sugar water until temperature reaches the soft-ball stage (238-240 degrees).

Remove syrup from heat, let cool a few minutes. Add to softened gelatin. In the mixer bowl, hand-stir the mixture a few minutes to cool and combine.

 

6.  Place bowl on the mixer stand. Using the whisk attachment of a mixer or using a hand mixer on medium high whisk mixture until white peaks form and the marshmallow mixture holds shape, 8 to 15 minutes.

(Add vanilla if desired and stevia drops at this step if desired)

Moving quickly, add to a greased mold or into a bag.  Pipe desired shapes.  Dust with powdered sugar or colored sugar.

Mix gelatin with water and let sit.

Combine sugar alternative and water, bring to a boil

Beat softened gelatin and simple syrup

Beat until soft peaks form.  This is still too liquidy.

Pour into greased pan.  Let sit 4-6 hours before cutting.  Dust with sugar after cutting and let air dry for 1-2 hours.

Skinny on Sugar Part 6

I couldn't end the series on sugar without a recipe or two.  Enjoy!

Click here for Part 1, Part 2 , Part 3, Part 4, Part 5,

  ***As a reminder, I am not a doctor, dietitian or nutritionist.  However, I did have a nutritionist look it over for accuracy.  Always consult with a medical professional before changing or modifying your diet

Chocolate Chip Cookies Gluten Free

Adapted from my original recipe

 

1 ½ cup Earth Balance Soy Free Butter (room temperature)

3 eggs or 4 ½ tsp Ener G Egg Replacer

1 cup +1 TBSP Palm Sugar

1 cup + 1 TBSP evaporated cane sugar (or use palm sugar here as well, with a couple drops of stevia)

1 ½ tsp Frontier vanilla or Simply Organic

4 tsp. guar gum or Xanthum gum

1/2 tsp. sea salt

1 ½ Bob’s Red Mill baking soda
3 cups plus 6 TBSP GF flour (preferably Hagmann's GF or featherlight blends)

1 bag of Enjoy Life Chocolate Chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Mix together butter and sugars until incorporated.  Add egg replacer.  Don’t over beat, just mix until blended.  Add in vanilla.  Gradually add salt, guar gum and baking soda.  Add flour one cup at a time.  Lastly add in chocolate chips. 

Roll balls of dough, placing them about 2 inches apart. 

Bake 10-12 minutes.

 

Sugar Cookie Coolios

1 cup Earth Balance Soy Free

1 cup powdered xylitol (make sure to sift this to get lumps out)

2 cups GF flour blend (I used Hagman’s)

1 tsp baking powder

1 egg or egg replacer

1 ½ tsp. vanilla

2 tsp. guar gum

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Beat dry ingredients with egg, then add in vanilla.  Cream butter/alternative and add to dough.  Roll dough into 1 inch balls.  Flatten with tines of a fork.  Bake 10-12 minutes until light brown.  If not avoiding all sugar, lightly dust cookies with turbinado sugar (or similar type sugar)  before baking. 

Makes 36 cookies

Skinny on Sugar Part 5

Resources

Websites:

http://www.thespunkycoconut.com/  

sugar free, low sugar, grain free

http://simplysugarandglutenfree.com/ 

not all sugar free, mainly low sugar

http://www.mariahealth.blogspot.com/ 

Uses eyrithrol mostly

http://justlikesugarinc.com/ 

recipes that use Just like Sugar®

Cookbooks:

Simply Sugar and Gluten Free by Amy Green

The Spunky Coconut Cookbook: Gluten Free, Casein Free, Sugar Free

By Kelly Brozyna

Eat Free: No Gluten. No Sugar. No Guilt  by Rhiannon Lawrence

Sugar-Free Gluten-Free Baking and Desserts: Recipes for Healthy and Delicious Cookies, Cakes, Muffins, Scones, Pies, Puddings, Breads and Pizzas

by Kelly E. Keough

The Art of Eating Healthy - Sweets: grain free low carb reinvented (Volume 1)

by Maria Emmerich

Click here for Part 1, Part 2 , Part 3, Part 4, Part 6

  ***As a reminder, I am not a doctor, dietitian or nutritionist.  However, I did have a nutritionist look it over for accuracy.  Always consult with a medical professional before changing or modifying your diet

Skinny on Sugar Part 4

***This is not intended for medical advice.   

Always seek advice from a medical professional before making any changes to your diet.
 

Here is a chart I created to help people better understand Sugar and Alternatives by Glycemic Index*
Please do not reproduce without permission.

Sugar	GI	Comments/Notes
Artificial Sugars	N/A	Items such as: Saccharin, Aspartame, Sucralose These are never a good idea to use.  They are know to be cancer causing in animals and studies have shown they lead to weight gain.    Please avoid.
Stevia	0	This is one of your best bets.  It is about 200-400 times sweeter then table sugar.  However, when using it, it can leave a slight bitter aftertaste and recipes must be altered when using it for sweetener.  Derived from leaves of a shrub.
Erythritol	0	Erythritol is said to be between 70 – 100 percent as sweet as table sugar.  It is a sugar alcohol with a slight cooling affect in the mouth.  It is often corn derived in this country.  It can have a laxative effect for some people.  It has almost zero calories.  It can be used to bake, but does not dissolve well in liquids.
Xylitol	7	Is a sugar alcohol. Can be used cup for cup.  Is either corn or birch bark derived.  Can be useful in fighting cavities in mouth rinse, chewing gum, and toothpaste.  May have a laxative effect for some people and can leave a cooling effect in your mouth.
Agave	15-30	Agave is a syrup derived from the Blue Agave plant.   Not recommended due to lack of industry standards and the fact that it is almost all fructose (hard on your body to utilize)
Fructose	17	While this looks like a great low number, it is not recommended.  Fructose lacks the nutrition and benefits of other sugars.  It is linked to raising triglycerides and cholesterol levels.
Raw Honey	30	If you can tolerate some sugar, this is a great bet.  Raw honey contains minerals, vitamins, phytonutrients, amino acids, enzymes and antioxidants.  Raw honey is superfood that can help with seasonal allergies, infections, sore throats, and more.  Local raw honey is preferred.
Coconut Palm Sugar	35	Made from the sap/flowers of coconut trees, also comes in a syrup.  Has little fructose.  Replaces cup for cup.  Tastes more similar to brown sugar.  Great for baking.  Has key vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients.
Apple Juice	40	Fresh squeezed, not concentrate.
Rapadura/Sucanat	47	Sugar cane juice is mechanically extracted, then heated and cooled until tiny brown crystals form. The brown comes from the 13% molasses content.  It contains less sucrose than table sugar (88 percent and 99 percent, respectively).
Evaporated Cane Sugar	55	Is essentially a finer, lighter-colored version of Turbinado sugar. Still less refined than table sugar, it also contains some trace nutrients (that regular sugar does not), including vitamin B2. In Europe, it’s known as “unrefined sugar
Maple Syrup	54	Made from the sap of trees.  Contains nutrients and has beneficial properties.  However, it is higher on the GI scale.
Molasses	55	Molasses is all the GOOD things taken out of sugar when it is refined.  An organic molasses will contain iron, zinc, potassium, calcium, magnesium and other nutrients.  It is consider an alkalinizing agent for the body.
Turbinado	65	After the sugarcane is pressed to extract the juice, the juice is then boiled, cooled, and allowed to crystallize into granules (like sucanat, above). Next, these granules are refined to a light tan color by washing them in a centrifuge to remove impurities and surface molasses. Turbinado is lighter in color and contains less molasses than both Rapadura and sucanat. A popular brand-name of Turbinado sugar is Sugar in the Raw, which can be found in most natural food stores, and even in single-serve packets at coffee shops. Cooking notes: Replaces sugar 1:1. Turbinado is a great substitute for brown sugar.
Raw Sugar	65	Widely varies in quality.  Is a processed sugar, but a better choice then white sugar.
Corn syrup	75	Nothing nutritious in this sugar.  However, people with a fructose intolerance, with may be the only sweetener they can tolerate.  Avoid.
Refined honey	75	Nutrition is gone.  Nothing beneficial in refined honey.
Refined Table Sugar	80	Also to be avoided.  Processed, stripped of anything beneficial.  Also very acidic this is detrimental to the body, strips body of calcium.
Brown Rice Syrup	85	Brown Rice Syrup is a great substitute for corn syrup.  However it is not recommended for diabetics.  Its sweetness comes from maltose, which causes spikes in blood sugar.
HFCS	87	Is a combination of fructose and sucrose.  Avoid at all costs.
Maltodextrin	150	Sweetener and filler used in processed foods, made from rice, corn, potato or wheat starches.
Do Not Reproduce or copy without expressed or written permission		This chart was designed and researched by Nicole Ott and posted at 3boys4mama.blogspot.com

*GI is the amount of glucose released by a food over a 2-3 hour period.


 Part 1, Part 2 , Part 3, Part 5, Part 6

  ***As a reminder, I am not a doctor, dietitian or nutritionist.  However, I did have a nutritionist look it over for accuracy.  Always consult with a medical professional before changing or modifying your diet