This column is not meant to be a treatise on the ills of sugar.

This column is not meant to be a treatise on the ills of sugar. Rather, it is about exploring non-white sugar ways to sweeten your food to add better health benefits.
Disclaimer aside, whether you replace a tablespoon with an alternate sweetener, reduce how much sugar you add or replace all the sugar in a recipe with a fresh fruit (banana bread), you soon will learn we’ve been adding way more of that white stuff than we need.
Another lesson from experimenting with sweeteners is that less is more. Reducing sweeteners opens the door for your taste buds to taste something other than “sweet!“
We are blessed by God to live in a time where natural, unrefined sweetening agents abound. A few options:

• Real maple syrup has its unique flavors. I say that in plural form, because no two pure maple syrups will ever taste or smell alike.
• Apples are a great sweetener, and applesauce, unsweetened, makes it easy to swap out sugar in your favorite muffin recipes.
• Honey is quite sweet. In fact, it is far sweeter than sugar so substituting it in a recipe requires that you drastically reduce the amount.
• Agave nectar, which is extracted from the agave cactus plant, is a little sweeter than sugar.
• Barley malt syrup comes from sprouted barley that is roasted and cooked down to a syrup and offers a malt-like flavor, making it great for savory recipes like barbecue sauce.
• Brown rice syrup, which comes from rice, offers a mild flavor and tastes about half as sweet as white sugar.
• Stevia, derived from the green leaves of a perennial shrub, is 30 times sweeter than sugar and calorie-free.
• Xylitol, a sweetener made from corn cobs, tastes similar to cane sugar.

Personally, I like pure maple syrup because it’s not at all like the fake stuff in the store and it imparts its unique flavor into anything you make. Here are a couple of daring and delicious ways for you to serve up some sweet alternatives. Enjoy!

Naturally-sweet oatmeal-peanut butter-chocolate chip cookies
Naturally gluten-free and dairy-free.
1 cup creamy peanut butter
1/2 cup pure maple syrup
2 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 cup gluten-free rolled oats
1 cup dark chocolate chips
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon natural fine sea salt
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a bowl, beat peanut butter, maple syrup, eggs, and vanilla. In a separate bowl, whisk together the oats, baking powder, and salt. Add dry mixture to wet and beat until combined. Beat or stir in the chocolate chips. Drop by spoonfuls onto a baking sheet, Bake at 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes, or until the center is cooked through. Makes about 24 cookies.
Time: Prep: 10 minutes. Bake: 16-20 minutes. Total time: 26 to 30 minutes.

Chocolate chip banana bread
3 very ripe bananas
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/4 cup honey
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour or gluten-free oat flour
1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup dark chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Spray a loaf pan with nonstick cooking spray. In the bowl of a processor or blender, add bananas, vanilla extract, honey, chocolate extract and applesauce then blend until smooth.
In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt, mixing until well combined. Add flour to blender/processor and pulse just until dry is mixed into wet. Using a spoon, fold in chocolate chips then pour the batter into prepared pan, spreading out evenly with a spatula. Bake 35-50 minutes or until a toothpick can be removed from the center of the loaf almost clean. Cool bread in the pan for 30 minutes on a wire rack. Store in the refrigerator in a container to stay fresh up to a week. Makes 16 servings.
Time: Prep: 10 minutes. Bake: 35-50 minutes. Total time: 45-60 minutes.