Thursday, May 5, 2011

A healthier alternative for sugar...STEVIA!

Today I made a Banana Cream Pie for my mother, to honor her for this upcoming Mother's Day.
She needs to watch her sugar intake, so.......instead of using sugar to sweeten my pie, I used Stevia.
Stevia is an herbal sweetener which, in its extracted form, is over 200 times sweeter than sugar! Non-glycemic, safe, and virtually calorie free, Stevia offers a healthy, natural alternative to cooking with refined sugar or artificial sweeteners. Learn how to incorporate this amazing herb into your own recipes and begin to sweeten your cookies, cakes, pies, puddings, jellies, jams and sauces the natural way....with Stevia!




Easy Oil Pastry
(Yields a 10 inch crust)            

Mix right in the pie dish.
May use all organic ingredients if you choose

* 1 1/2 cups whole spelt flour (or flour of your choice) sifted
* 1/8 tea. Stevia Extract Powder
* 1/4 tea. sea salt
* 1/4 cup of grapeseed oil or olive oil
* 1/4 cup applesauce
* 2 tablespoons milk or water (coconut milk, goat  milk or milk of your choice)
 In a 10 inch pie dish mix flour, stevia, and salt.  Add oil, applesauce and milk, then stir with a fork just until dough holds together.
Press evenly over sides and botton of pie dish. Flute edges and prick with a fork in serveral places.  Bake in a  preheated 360 degree oven for 10 to 12 minutes or until lightly browned. The crust may also be baked after it is filled.

Banana Cream Pie
Yields a 9 or 10 inch pie
Topped with golden meringue
May use all organic ingredients

* 9 or 10 inch baked pastry shell
* 1 tea.Stevia Extract Powder
* 5 tablespoons cornstarch
* 2 cups milk ( may use fresh almond milk, goat, coconut, soy,etc.)
* 1 cup water
* 4 eggs separated
* 1 tablespoon butter
* 2 tea. vanilla extract
* few drops of lemon extract
* 1/4 tea. cream of tarter
* 1/2 vanilla extract
* 3 medium bananas
* 3 tablespoon unsweetened coconut meal
 Place cornstarch and Stevia in a double boiler pan. Gradually stir in milk and water.  Place over boiling water and stir while mixture thickens.
Separate eggs.  Reserve whites for meringue.  Lightly stir the yolks. Dip about 1/2 cup pie filling into yolks and stir thoroughly. Add back to cooling pie filling.  Reduce heat to low and continue cooking about 2 minutes. Remove form heat.  Stir in butter, 2 tea. vanilla extract, and lemon extract. Cool while preparing meringue.
In a bowl beat together egg whites, cream of tarter, and 1/2 tea. vanilla extract, until stiff peaks form.  Spread half the filling onto the crust.  Slice bananas into the filling and spoon on remaining filling.  Spread with meringue.  Sprinkle coconut meal over merinque.  Bake in a 350 degree preheated oven for 10 to 12 minutes or until golden.  Serve at room temperature and refrigerate leftovers
  
I served one of my favorite organic teas... (Kombucha tea) which is made weekly at, The Natural Way Health Center.

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