Xylitol, Part 3

With my last wee bit of Xylitol left over from the 16 ounce bag Xylitol USA sent me, I made some chocolate and coconut... things. I wanted to call them cups, because I had visions of molding them in little paper candy cups, but that turned out to be a messy disaster. They still tasted good, though.

I planned to re-melt everything and try again, but I keep eating the broken up pieces, so I don't think that's going to happen. Instead, I'll just go ahead and post the recipe. A friend of mine actually told me how to make these, only her quantities just made a small amount. That's good in a way, because you can only eat what you have. Recipes yielding only a few servings can help prevent overindulgence. Still, I wanted to make these into bite-sized candies, so I made TWELVE TIMES the recipe. It's a good thing I did, too. In the process of trying to pour the melted chocolate into the candy cups, I spilled it everywhere, losing almost a third of it.

Anyway, the original recipe is: 2 tablespoons of coconut oil, 2 tablespoons cocoa powder, 1 teasppon Xylitol and 1 tablespoon of shredded coconut. Here's where I have to fess up and let you know that I used Angel Flake coconut because that's what I had on hand. Since it's sweetened, the chocolates I made aren't technically sugar free, but you can easily use whatever variety of coconut you want.

I'd also like to point out that I followed the same friend's advice and processed my Xylitol in a coffee grinder so that the grains would be finer. It worked, as you can see the difference below. I wish I had thought to do this when I made the meringues and peanut butter cookies, as that may have helped, but that's something to try later.

   

Chocolate Coconut Cups (as I made them)

24 Tbsp (1 1/2 cups) coconut oil, melted
24 Tbsp (1 1/2 cups) cocoa powder
12 tsp (1/4 cup) Xylitol
12 Tbsp (3/4 cup) shredded coconut

Melt the coconut oil, and then mix everything together. I poured the mixture into a gallon-sized ziploc bag, thinking it would be easiest to pipe the chocolate into the cups. Wrong. As soon as I cut the corner off the bag, the chocolate gushed out everywhere. Oops.

Here is a photo of my mini muffin pan all prepped with candy cup wrappers to mold the chocolate. Luckily, I have no pictures of the debacle that resulted from me trying to fill these things.

I did get a few chocolates that looked okay. There's major blooming and discoloration going on, and I'm not quite sure what's up with that. I didn't do any sort of tempering, so that may be it. If you have any ideas, let me know because it looks dreadful. Luckily, that doesn't affect the taste.

By the way, I also used the coffee grinder to chop the coconut into smaller pieces, but a food processor would work just as well for that. Here you can see what they look like inside. Yum!

Oh, and don't forget about the coupon code for Xylitol. Save 10% off your first order at www.emeraldforestxylitol.com with coupon code FIRST.

Xylitol, Part 2

I'm thinking that I should make meringues more often. They're naturally gluten free, low in fat, and relatively easy to make. I realize most meringue recipes call for quite a lot of sugar, so I decided to try making these Cocoa Meringue Kisses with Xylitol instead. For the sake of comparison, I also made the recipe with sugar. The results were rather interesting. Let me just point out that the original recipe tells you to dust the finished cookies with powdered sugar. I never got around to doing that. The cookies are more than sweet enough already, and that would have added sugar when I'm trying to make these sugar free.

Cocoa Meringue Kisses:

3 large (1/2 cup plus 1 Tablespoon) egg whites

1/2 cup Xylitol

1/4 cup cocoa powder

1/8 tsp cream of tartar

pinch salt (not pictured, but I added it)

First, preheat your oven to 300 degrees and line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Sift the cocoa powder, 1/4 cup of the Xylitol, and and salt into a small bowl. As you can see, the Xylitol crystals were too big to filter through my sieve, so I ended up combining everything well with a whisk.

Beat the egg whites with the cream of tartar until soft peaks start to form, then gradually add in the remaining Xylitol. Beat until the mixture forms medium-firm peaks.

  

Slowly add the cocoa mixture, beating until stiff and glossy. I had no trouble with this step when using the Xylitol, despite the fact that I could tell the Xylitol wasn't really dissolving. But for some strange reason, when I reached this step using sugar, my meringue got pretty dang glossy, but it didn't firm up any more--in fact, it started looking slightly deflated so I quit mixing it. 

 

Drop meringues onto prepared cookie sheets, spacing cookies an inch apart. I piped mine with a tip #1M in the corner of a gallon ziploc bag.


  
I used a tall plastic tumbler to hold the bag open for me.

 

Bake 25-40 minutes depending on how chewy/crisp you want them to be, and then allow them to cool completely. Here you can see the difference. The cookies made with sugar are on the left, and the ones made with Xylitol are on the right. Remember in my previous post how I said that Xylitol has a tendency to dry everything out? Well, this is very noticeable with this recipe.

When made with sugar, these cookies are meant to be eaten right away, as they go chewy after a while. The Xylitol caused the texture of these meringues to be way off initially--they were more like eating styrofoam or  a dry sponge--but, after a few days in the refrigerator they were more like a crispy meringue. The Xylitol meringues also got a little over browned, even though I baked them for less time than the recipe made with sugar. Overall, they came out okay, but I think they were way too sweet, and I could still detect just the slightest aftertaste.

  

The meringues made with sugar were softer and didn't hold their shape quite as well, but they tasted better and had the right texture. They did go very chewy after a day or so, as warned, but I didn't mind as that gave them more of a brownie-like mouthfeel. Also, I could taste more cocoa and less sweetness with these.

  

I'm wondering what would happen if I substituted half the sugar for Xylitol. That would still lower the glycemic index and calorie count, and maybe it would keep them from going quite so chewy while at the same time maintaining more of a true meringue texture. I would try it, except I have other plans for the last bit of Xylitol left in the bag that Xylitol USA sent me. If you decided to try this recipe with half sugar and half Xyltiol, please let me know how the cookies come out.

Oh, and don't forget about the coupon code! Save 10% off your first order at www.emeraldforestxylitol.com with coupon code FIRST.

Xylitol, Part 1

Recently Xylitol USA offered to send me a sample of their natural sweetener to try. To be honest, I hadn't heard that much about Xylitol. While I'm interested in learning about all-natural sugar substitutes, I'm also a bit skeptical, especially when I'm not sure what they are or how they're made. So I did some research.

Anyone interested in detailed information can check out the eight step extraction process at www.emeraldforestxylitol.com, but basically Xylitol is derived from birch trees. It looks similar to sugar because it's purified and processed into crystals. It claims to be a healthier choice than sugar because it has 40% fewer calories, 75% less carbs, and it somehow inhibits dental cavities. There are actually many more health benefit claims listed on the company website.

It can be tricky finding something to use in place of sugar. Maple syrup, honey, and agave nectar are great, but the recipe has to be adjusted accordingly because you're replacing a solid with a liquid. Stevia is way too sweet, and I don't like the aftertaste. Xylitol looks like sugar, and it supposedly also tastes and bakes like sugar. Plus, it claims to have no aftertaste, so I decided to try it.

 

The product information brochure I received with the 1 lb. bag of Xylitol included a recipe for chocolate chip cookies. Unfortunately, that recipe wasn't gluten free. Besides, using a recipe the company gives me probably isn't really a test to see if it bakes like sugar, is it? They would have already made any necessary adjustments. I needed to know if this stuff will work in my recipes. So I made my favorite peanut butter cookies, replacing the sugar 1:1 with Xylitol.

Recipe:
1 large egg
3/4 cup Xylitol
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup creamy peanut butter
1/2 teaspoon gluten-free vanilla extract

Since I already shared this recipe, you can see the assembled ingredients on the original post. Just imagine a bowl of this in place of the unbleached whole cane sugar. The grains are much coarser than sugar, and they're more of a translucent white.

This is what it looked like after I beat the egg, sugar, and vanilla. The crystals didn't dissolve like sugar.

 

Even after adding the peanut butter, you can still see crystals in the cookie dough. Over mixing this dough makes it fall apart, so I baked it like this.

 

Apart from subbing the Xylitol, I did everything else the same as in the original recipe. I baked the cookies on parchment lined baking sheets. Each cookie is about a tablespoon of dough, flattened with a fork. The undissolved crystals aren't as noticeable in these photos.

 

They were done after 10 minutes in a 350 degree oven, only I think the Xylitol causes them to brown a bit more. A few even looked over baked. But the good news is that the crystals either melted or dissolved during the baking process, because there wasn't any gritty feel to the cookies.

  

Texture-wise they came out really crumbly, so be careful not to move them around much until they're cool. They keep better are more likely to stay together when refrigerated.

After making these cookies, I decided to look up some tips for cooking with Xylitol, and I read that it absorbs a lot of moisture (hence the dry, crumbly texture) and that many recipes would need adjustment. Sigh.

 

The cookies tasted different, but overall okay. Because I normally use unrefined cane sugar or maple syrup when I make this recipe, the cookies usually have a deeper flavor. Made with Xylitol, they're plenty sweet, but they're bland. That may be because I use all-natural peanut butter, which doesn't have as much salt. Perhaps a pinch or two would help maintain the taste of the peanut butter.

I can detect a very slight aftertaste. Other people may not even notice it, but to me it's kind of like I just brushed my teeth, only with a sweet toothpaste as instead of minty. I was impressed with how well Xylitol works as a sweetener for tea and coffee, though. It dissolves well in hot liquid, and tastes only slightly different than sugar. There's plenty of Xylitol left in the bag they sent me, so I'll make some other recipes using it and post the results.

If you're interested in trying Xylitol, then I have some good news: Not only can you save 10% off your first order at www.emeraldforestxylitol.com with coupon code FIRST, but while supplies last you'll also receive a FREE 1 lb bag of Xylitol (an $8 value) with your purchase of $20 or more, limit one per household.