I'd like to know if powdered stevia can be used to make the meringue in the pudding. I'm trying to get away from sugar, but not sure how to use stevia. I've seen a recipe for stevia in the pudding, but I like the fluffy form of tapioca made by mixing the pudding with meringue, but I need advice on the meringue part.
Also want to try replacing the milk with coconut milk. Has anyone tried this?
Sugar – Is it possible to replace the sugar in Tapioca Meringue pudding with stevia
substitutionssugarsugar-free
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I do exactly that.
I use a clear plastic squeeze bottles. I fill a mug 2/3 full with sugar, and top up with boiling water, stir, cool, funnel into the squeeze bottle, and keep in the fridge door. The squeeze bottle makes it easier to get the right amount of sugar into your beverage.
I don't even worry about keeping it sealed. There's nothing much to oxidize. And the osmotic pressure of sugar solutions makes it very difficult for pathogens to live. This is why jams and jellies keep forever in your fridge. Like jams and jellies, the first thing you're probably going to see in the way of spoilage is mold. In the case of simple syrup, we're talking dark thready stuff at the bottom of the bottle. This happens about a month out. I chuck it, wash the bottle, and carry on.
On a related note, I have a blog post about iced coffee. And it's kind of a little wrong. Cold-brew coffee is pretty good for making iced coffee, but it's not better than leftover percolated coffee. Seriously. We make hot coffee at my workplace using this cheapo percolator urn. We learned from the reviews on Amazon that we could just pour off the leftover coffee in the afternoon and have excellent iced coffee. And that's exactly what we do. (To be fair, we use Gorilla coffee, so that might have something to do with it, but I think it'd be good with average coffee.)
You can replace the granulated sugar with confectioner's sugar, but due to that starch, you'll end up with an icing-like consistency. In fact, royal icing is just egg whites and confectioner's sugar.
There is actually a surprisingly large number of variables when it comes to beating egg whites, with the amount and type of sugar being just one of them. I'm not sure if this is going to be a complete list, but here's the basics of what you need to know for beating up to the "stiff peak" stage (and if you want soft peaks, then just don't beat for as long):
Age of eggs. Older eggs will whip faster and to a greater volume, but will be less stable (i.e. will deflate faster). Most people seem to find they get the best results with eggs that are about 3 days old. Very fresh eggs are difficult to whip, and very old eggs (more than 1-2 weeks) are just too unstable to work with.
Temperature. You want to separate the eggs when cold, because the whites are firmer and it will be easier for you to cleanly separate the yolks from the whites. But you always want to allow the whites themselves to come up to room temperature before you start beating them, for the exact opposite reason - the proteins are less firm, more stretchy, and will more readily accept air.
Impurities (especially fat). Make sure you don't have any impurities. Use a clean, dry mixing bowl and whisk. Don't let any of the yolk get in; even a trace amount will significantly decrease the amount of air you can incorporate, and if you happen to contaminate the whites this way, it's probably better just to start over.
Salt and acid both help egg whites to coagulate, which you might remember if you've ever had to poach them. That has a stabilizing effect which will allow you to whip the eggs longer and firmer without blowing a hole in the web of proteins, and will also help to prevent (or at least slow down) the foam/meringue from deflating afterward. You don't need more than a pinch of salt, and the traditional amount of acid is either 1/8 tsp cream of tartar (preferred) or 1/4 tsp lemon juice or vinegar. You'll want to start adding these early, as soon as you see the egg whites starting to foam.
Finally, sugar is critical to attain the stiffest peaks, but it is critical that you do not add it too early or too quickly! Sugar serves a similar role here as it does in baking; it dissolves in the water, absorbing it and drawing it away from the proteins, which improves stability a lot. But this particular type of stabilization is a double-edged sword; if you add it too early, it will interfere with the coagulation process and it will take forever to beat them to peaks. And if you dump in all the sugar at once, it will just deflate the foam you've worked so hard to produce (and possibly break it, requiring you to start all over again with new eggs).
In general, you want to add the sugar right after you see soft peaks beginning to form, and incorporate it very gradually while beating. If you want the final result to be soft peaks instead of stiff peaks (which you do, in this case), you can add the sugar slightly early, but err on the side of caution here. Stiffer peaks won't harm your pudding that much, but no peaks definitely will. I also suggest using superfine sugar, because the finer the granules, the quicker they will dissolve; but don't use icing sugar unless you want icing.
Finally, don't over-beat the whites. As I alluded to above in the salt/acid section, the beating process involves stretching the proteins and incorporating air; incorporate too much air and you'll just break the proteins, and then you'll have to throw the eggs out and start all over again. This is especially easy to do accidentally if you use cold eggs.
If you keep all of these things in mind then you can whip the eggs all the way to a nice stiff meringue; soft peaks should be a piece of cake.
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Best Answer
In meringues sugar is important mainly for the final texture, much more so than for it's sweetening effect. Since Stevia is much sweeter than sugar, one would have to use far less in order to not ruin the taste. ("collectively, they give stevia 100 to 300 times the sweetness of sucrose") Yet even taking half as much normal sugar than the recipe calls for will result in a vastly different meringue (not as stiff and less stable over time). The same problem stands for other sweeteners.
I'd therefore try using a sugar alcohol that has comparable (or even lower) sweetness to sucrose, so you can use a similar weight of material and get the texture just right (after some experimentation perhaps). Then, if that ends up not being sweet enough, you can still add a tiny bit of stevia solely for sweetening.
For meringue, the following properties seem especially important in sugar substitutes:
Have a look at this list. Erythritol won't work well because it is not hygroscopic enough, all the other options have a laxative effect.
I'd therefore advise against using sugar substitutes if you don't absolutely need to.
If you want to just sweeten the pudding itself separately with stevia, go for it. Pudding gets it's texture mostly from starch (or gelatin) so the lack of sugar won't have a detrimental (or even positive, in the case of starch) effect on texture.
Having said all that; it seems possible to get decent meringue without adding any sugar at all if you get the technique just right otherwise (and add cream of tartar and perhaps starch). See also this answer. Personally, I've been dissatisfied whenever I used less than a ratio of 1/3 of sugar to egg whites and find 1/2 best for swiss meringue.