Joy Filled Eats Natural Sweetener
Looking for an all natural and economical sugar-free sweetener that actually tastes good? You need to try my natural sweetener blend! I’ve found that by using a combination of xylitol, erythritol, and stevia I can save money while enjoying a low carb sweetener that tastes just like sugar.
Joy Filled Eats Natural Sweetener Blend – Xylitol, Erythritol, & Stevia – Low Carb, Keto, Trim Healthy Mama, Diabetic Friendly, Sugar Free
When I started the Trim Healthy Mama diet I was leery about all the recipes using stevia because I have never liked it. All of the grocery store varieties and even the flavored liquid drops have a bitter aftertaste to me. In the past when I stopped using sugar on the South Beach Diet I used artificial sweeteners to replace it. Over the years I’ve read more about the negative effects of artificial sweeteners and I knew I needed to give stevia another try.
I heard that the Trim Healthy Mama Gentle Sweet natural sweetener, which is a blend of xylitol, erythritol, and stevia, was a game changer so I thought I would give it a try. It really changed my perception of stevia. It had no aftertaste or bitterness.
Because we have a strict food budget I became determined to come up with my own blend of erythritol, xylitol, and stevia. I try to save as many pennies as I can when I shop. Making my own sweeteners, baking mixes, seasonings, and cooking from scratch saves the most.
These Tagalong Cupcakes are one use for my sweetener. Don’t they look yummy? They are sugar-free! But you would never know. Even my husband who isn’t a dessert guy loved them.
You can now mix up your own sweetener that measures just like Gentle Sweet. If you are on a tight budget this helps with this way of eating immensely. I use this sweetener in all my dessert recipes and I’ve subbed in it recipes from the Trim Healthy Mama Cookbook like the Trimtastic Cake.
You can make everything from Sweetened Condensed Milk to Caramel with this recipe and more.
If you grind this in a food processor it works great as a low carb powdered sugar. It is the best out of the low carb and keto sweeteners!
Ingredients in Joy Filled Eats Sweetener
Xylitol is a natural sweetener. It is a sugar alcohol made from birch trees or corncobs. It has 40% fewer calories than sugar and is a 7 on the glycemic index (white sugar is a 64). Please note that xylitol can be fatal to dogs so don’t share treats containing xylitol with your furry friends.
Erythritol is a sugar alcohol like xylitol. It occurs naturally in some fruits and vegetables It has zero calories and no impact on blood sugar. It is produced from glucose by fermentation with yeast.
Stevia is a plant discovered in South America. To make stevia powder a water extraction method is typically used. Stevia is 100 to 200 times sweeter than sugar so a little goes a long way.
Where Do I Buy Sweetener Ingredients?
My natural sweetener recipe is easy and economical. There are many choices on where to order the ingredients from. And I’ve used several brands of these products successfully.
I personally order the ingredients for this natural sweetener from amazon, walmart, thrive market, and iherb.
Thrive Market: My Thrive Market Coupon works on everything from sweeteners and baking supplies to vitamins and beauty products! Thrive has great prices on coconut products, spices, organic health items, baby food, and more especially since they often will email codes for an additional 25-30% off your entire order. Head over to this post to see more of the latest deals at Thrive. My favorite deal is always getting Lily’s Chocolate Chips for $4 a bag!
iherb:
If you are ordering from iherb you save $5 with my link. Generally, you can get the ingredients to make for under $8 a pound. Free shipping is on orders over $20.
I ordered the ingredients from iherb with free shipping. They have a lot of products that work for Keto, Low Carb, and Trim Healthy Mama eating plans. Other products they have that are compatible with THM are oat fiber, psyllium husks, whey protein powder, coconut flour, almond flour, etc. etc. This link takes you right to iherb so you can start making your own sugar free sweetener! Just put each ingredient into the search bar and add to your cart. It’s cheaper to buy the 2.5 pounds but they also have 1 pound bags if you’d like to go small before you commit to a huge bag. It is very very easy.
Amazon:
With free one day and two-day Prime shipping, Amazon is where I order from most often. I can consistently get xylitol and erythritol inexpensively. I buy the largest size stevia and it lasts me about 2 years. And I bake A LOT.
I have tried all of these brands and just buy whichever is the cheapest on the day I order! No big deal.
Walmart:
Over the last year or so I’ve been buying more and more groceries from Walmart. They offer free shipping over $35 and have many low carb products in addition to having more choices in the store.
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Joy Filled Eats Natural Sweetener - Low Carb, THM, Sugar Free
Ingredients
Weight measurements:
- 16 oz xylitol *** (or allulose)
- 12 oz erythritol (or allulose)
- 2 tsp Better Stevia or any pure stevia extract
Cup measurements:
- 2 cups plus 2 tablespoons xylitol (or allulose)
- 1 1/2 cups plus 2 tablespoons erythritol (or allulose)
- 2 tsp Better Stevia or any pure stevia extract
Instructions
Powdered Sweetener
- Process the ingredients in the food processor for a few minutes if you are planning on using it in chocolate, beverages, or icing.
Granular Sweetener
- For baking and candy making, you can just mix the ingredients together by hand.
Notes
Nutrition
Please note that xylitol is fatal to dogs so don’t share treats containing xylitol with your furry friends. You may prefer to not have it in your pet-friendly house at all.
I know that if the recipe calls for sugar, you use half as much of this, but what if the recipe calls for stevia or erythritol or monkfruit? Is it then 1:1?
For any 1:1 sweetener you would use half the amount listed. You need to read the package. Once you convert that sweetener sugar you can then convert to my sweetener by dividing the amount in half. Converting from pure stevia extract is harder since it generally only uses a teaspoon or less. This might be helpful: https://media.trimhealthymama.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2017/05/07222306/THM.Sweetener-Conversion-Chart.pdf
I am newly diabetic, and have learned so much reading your recipes. They are very through, especially when you explain why you do certain things. I bought all of the components for your sweetener, and after reading the recipe half a dozen times, feel very confident!
Does this mix yield the cooling effect in baked goods? I plan to try it as I have not found anything that doesn’t affect the taste in baked goods!
Thank you!
Lisa
Since it has stevia you only use half the amount of other sweeteners which makes the cooling effect much much less.
Just curious if using this in place of other sugar substitutions is 1:1? I know when I sub erythritol, it’s a little more than regular sugar to get the same sweetness. Does this blend help balance that its more of a 1:1 ratio? Thanks!
This blend is twice as sweet as sugar, so 2:1. If a recipe calls for 1 cup of sugar or erythritol you only need 1/2 a cup.
I can’t wait to try your sugar substitute blend. I have tried all of these and can’t help but think that combining them would result in a better product. I wonder what you do for brown sugar. Would you just add a teaspoon of molasses per cup of your sugar substitute? I noticed you used 1 tsp molasses in your coffee cake recipe for flavor and it only adds .25g of carbs. Thank you! I’m following and have signed up for your newsletter and tips! Thanks again! 💖
Yup! I just add a teaspoon of molasses to a cup of the blend.
Question. The THM Gentle Sweet lists their ingredients in this order. Xylitol, Erythritol & Stevia Ground Blend. Usually the ingredients are listed in order by predominance, with the ingredients used in the greatest amount first, followed in descending order by those in smaller amounts. Unless they don’t follow FDA rules, shouldn’t there be more Xylitol then Erythritol? Or did you experiment? I haven’t purchased any Gentle Sweet and have been using your recipe. Thanks so much!
Yes, when I was recipe testing this sweetener blend I did assume xylitol was the greatest amount based on that label.
To replace the stevia , how much Monk Fruit Extract powder should I use? I am so excited to try this sweetener mix.
I haven’t tested that but I think it would be a similar amount. I’d suggest making a small batch and using it in a single serve recipe, like a mug cake, to test it before making a full size recipe.
Is the Stevia extract a liquid?
No, it is a powder. Make sure to choose one with no added ingredients.
I can’t find it in this recipe but I thought I saw you comment that you could substitute Allulose for the xylitol? Will it still have that cooling effect?
Yes, you can sub in allulose. The cooling effect comes from the erythritol which I why I don’t recommend using 100% erythritol. It is better to have a blend of a few sweeteners.
How do you measure this? 1 cup sugar = to how much sweetner?
1 cup sugar = 1/2 cup sweetener
I accidentally bought the stevia granulated instead of powder. Can I still use this for the sweetener mix?
Is the only ingredient stevia?
You just need one that stevia is the only ingredient on the list.
I am new to try making my own sweets and all of your recipes look amazing! What are your thoughts on Monkfruit sweetener? All these different sweeteners are so confusing and they are not cheap so I want to try to get a good understanding of the differences between them. Thank you so much!
Most monk fruit sweeteners are a tiny amount of pure monk fruit extract combined with erythritol. It is cheaper to just buy erythritol and add pure monk fruit powder if you prefer that to stevia.
This is the reason that I can stay on keto and still enjoy treats! This is the best sweetener option. I’m not a fan of Pyure or Lakanto or Swerve but this I can do. It’s also cheaper and tastes so much better. Thank you Taryn!!!
I like the recipe. Just be careful about the weight measurements. 1 1/2 cups of erythritol does not weigh 12 ounces on a scale. It weighs about 6 ounces…remember, a cup of feathers is not going to weigh the same as a cup of rocks so you can’t turn around and use 8 ounces of rocks and 8 ounces of feathers….that would really mess up a recipe.
Yes, it does. I weighed my erythritol on a scale and then measured it out from that amount to be able to give that measurement. I think you may be confusing granular erythritol with powdered erythritol.
Is the taste any different when you do not use the xylitol? Just wondering the benefit of using all three vs just erythritol and stevia?
Erythritol has a cooling taste. By using a combination of that with the xylitol you minimize it. I only recommend using all erythritol if you have a pet in the house and do not use xylitol at all.
Hi
Does this mix leave a strange after taste?
Nope!
Cool thanks! I’m onto it 👍😊