Suggestions for Natural Sweeteners
Very Sweet
Figs
Wow, I am absolutely shocked that ripe figs are possibly the sweetest things I’ve tasted. If you can get your hand son some figs, you’ve got yourself sweet dessert without even trying. I seem to find that figs in the Asian supermarket is generally cheaper than the ones in the regular supermarket. If they’re very dark and soft, they are ripe.
Pineapples
Pineapples are really sweet, particularly useful if blended and cooked (to drain the water). I find raw pineapples to be slightly harder to use as it has that odd taste that seem to change the flavour of other foods, but it’s completely gone once you cook it.
Purple Yams/Sweet Potatoes
I find that purple yams/sweet potatoes are generally much sweeter than the orange ones and if you don’t mind the purple colour, you can easily use that in bread, cakes, pastries and even as frosting for muffins/cakes. It’s extremely sweet and requires no additional sweetener if you’re not baking it with lots of other ingredients.
Dates
Dates are possibly my favourite natural sweetener as it’s very neutral in flavour, you can add it and it totally just taste sweet! Though the only problem is, dates are darker in colour so you can’t really add it in a “white” dessert.
Raisins
I used to always think that raisins would just make the dessert taste like raisin bread, but I was wrong. If you blend it, you can barley taste the ‘raisins”, you only taste sweetness.
Bananas
If you don’t mind the “banana” taste, ripe bananas can replace sweeteners for a variety of things, such as pancakes, ice cream and such. The best thing is, bananas are very creamy! Though the only drawback is bananas do have a strong taste that will remind people it’s a banana.
Sort of Sweet
Malted Barley Flour – These can be used to really sweeten the food subtly, I think it’s brilliant for chocolate things or if you want to use overall less sweeteners for baking.
Cinnamon – Cinnamon is pretty strong in taste but also sweet, adding it to cookies, breakfast foods or other types of sweet desserts really enhances the flavour.
Carob Powder – Carob is actually semi sweet, if you’ve ever tried tasting it. It’s also mildly bitter. With carob, you need to add less sweetener than if you were using cacao.
