Cooking & Baking Tips

Tips for Cooking and Baking with Equal:

Beyond sweetness, sugar contributes functionality to baked goods. Sugar provides physical properties such as bulk, structure, moisture, tenderness, and browning. Due to these properties, replacing sugar in baked goods can be tricky. The most difficult recipes to replace sugar are in baked goods such as cookies, cakes, muffins, and brownies.

With a few helpful hints using a sugar substitute, like Equal, you will feel comfortable replacing the sugar along with those extra calories and carbohydrates in your recipes!

For best results using Equal in your recipes keep these recommendations in mind:

Equal works best in recipes where sugar's primary role is for flavouring and sweetening, such as fruit pie fillings and cheesecakes. For added sweetness Equal is great sprinkled on top of cakes and desserts.

For recipes such as beverages, smoothies, entrees, sauces, and salad dressings that do not require baking, it may simply be a matter of replacing all the sugar with the proper conversion of Equal to compensate for the sweetness. Use the sweetness conversion chart provided on the website. And, since sweetness in foods is a personal preference simply adjust to your taste.

Using a blend of sugar and Equal sweetener provides another opportunity for preparing recipes that are still lower in calories and carbohydrates than a traditional version using all sugar. Using some sugar will help with the bulk, tenderness, moisture and browning properties. Equal will provide the balance of the sweetness.

Before using Equal in your own recipes make note of the following tips:

Volume
Sugar contributes volume to many recipes by increasing the effectiveness of yeast. When using Equal for baking, you need to replace sugar with other bulking ingredients, such as cornstarch. Alternatively, you can decrease the proportions of other ingredients to compensate for the smaller yield and/or cook in smaller sized pans - such as replacing a 9-inch square with an 8-inch square or using an 8-inch by 4-inch loaf pan instead of a 9-inch by 5-inch pan.

Creaming
Sugar incorporates air into shortening in the creaming process. When beating Equal together with margarine, butter or eggs, add the Equal last to avoid separation. It is normal for the mixture to not be as smooth.

Browning
Sugar caramelizes under heat to provide baked foods with colour and aroma. To help achieve browning when baking with Equal Granular sweetener, lightly spray the batter or dough with cooking spray just before placing in the oven.

Storage
Since sugar helps retain moisture and is also a preservative, it is best to consume baked goods made with Equal in 1-2 days. Baked products made with Equal are best stored in the refrigerator in an airtight container.

Gluten Development and Moisture Retention
Sugar interacts with protein molecules during baking. Cookies made with Equal tend to be softer and cakes tend to be harder than their sugar-made counterparts. This is to be expected.

Bake Times
Baked goods made with Equal may bake more quickly than if made with sugar. Therefore, check your recipe for doneness 5-10 minutes before the expected baking time.

Texture
It is suggested to flatten cookie dough prior to baking. In cookie recipes containing brown sugar, if a chewy, crunchy texture is desired do not omit the brown sugar.

Measuring
Equal Granular is lighter than sugar, so use volume measurements (such as cups and teaspoons) in your recipes, rather than measuring gram for gram.