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And when I say digestive upset, I don’t mean a little twinge here and there. Be warned, excessive ingestion of products like maltitol, for some people can cause a Category 4 Hurricane reaction in your guts. Enough said. Not my ideal weight loss method.
Here’s my story. As a recovering candy addict, one night, while watching a rather dark and sombre moment on The Wire. I think it was The Wire, and I think someone was getting shot, dying of an overdose, or all of the above. I stumbled onto the idea that Haribo may make Sugar Free Gummy Bears. In my excitement, as a gummy bear lover, and Haribo, being the maker of the best gummy bear, I had to know more.
That’s when I clicked on the article on buzzfeed called “Sugarless Haribo Gummy Bear Reviews On Amazon Are The Most Insane Thing You’ll Read Today”. As soon as I started reading it, almost rolling on the floor laughter ensued, and equally, began the glances from my beloved, inquiring if I had finally completely lost it.
Anyone wanting to acquaint themselves more with what can happen when one eats these sugar-free treats, you can read the entirety of the reviews for Haribo Sugar Free Gummy Bears on Amazon. If it’s not you suffering from said gummy bear overdose, it’s outrageously funny. I do advise not reading them while watching something dark with your partner though. He or she may question your sanity with all your inappropriate laughter and regaling while someone is getting murdered on the screen.
I digress. Apologies. Back to erythritol. Yes, it can affect some people. Some erythritol is sourced from fruit and some from corn, if you have a corn sensitivity (that might be everyone, so shall we say a particular sensitivity), than you may be sensitive to certain brands.
That said, erythritol when it comes to taste does do a remarkable job. There is a cooling sensation but it does not have the aftertaste that Stevia has. There are times that I feel the sweetness of erythritol doesn’t have the full character of the taste of sugar—it’s just sweet. I think for that reason, if you add too much it can come off as too sweet. I find this as well with Stevia, but not as pronounced. Monk fruit is similar to erythritol in this regard.
That said, erythritol can be a key ingredient to give you a scrumptious dessert that will not kick you out of ketosis, or raise your sugars if you are diabetic. It also is a benefit to oral health in a number of ways because primarily, it does not contribute to cavity formation. So one could say, when you spend on your erythritol, you may save at the dentist?
Erythritol falls into the gray area, and the Paleo community is divided on whether it’s truly Paleo or not. Those very strict Paleo followers may not use it, but those Paleo followers may not be wholly low carb as well as being Paleo. I see it as an ingredient in Paleo friendly foods and is often advertised as such when sold on its own. It is a common sweetener for many paleo and keto recipes.
Who’s kidding who, using Keto sweeteners are not cheap. So an advantage to erythritol is that it may be less expensive and available in larger quantities than other options. You can also be thrifty and create variations of it yourself. For instance, making your own Icing Sugar (also called Powdered sugar or Confectioners’ sugar) or brown sugar.
You can find 100% pure erythritol at the store. There are also certain brands that combine erythritol with other ingredients, such as monk fruit, like Lakanto Classic, or Swerve Granular, which uses inulin to round out taste and lessen crystallization.
Just make sure the erythritol combination doesn’t contain other additives that can spike your carb count and affect blood sugar. If you are buying a combination sweetener such as erythritol and monk fruit, or brands such as Swerve Granular, check the ratio of the combination. Some would be 1:1 with sugar, others may be less or more. Lakanto’s powdered sugar is actually 2:1 with regular icing sugar so you need less of it in your recipes.
To note, recipes on my site would all be adjusted for this 1.3 to 1 ratio for keto sweeteners like erythritol or allulose unless otherwise stated. So, if you are using a combination sweetener that is 1 to 1, you would want to adjust the recipe accordingly.
In most situations, as a keto sweetener, baking with erythritol shines, as it is similar to baking with sugar. You can mix it with dry ingredients or cream butter with it.
However, there are several main differences when baking with erythritol instead of sugar:
Erythritol does not dissolve quite as well as sugar. It’s still possible, just a little more difficult. For any uses where a smooth texture is important, you can use a powdered (or confectioners) version instead for a good end result or grind the granulated Erythritol yourself into a powder using a nut grinder.
As I mentioned, Erythritol can cause a cooling sensation, similar to mint. This is the only type of aftertaste that it might have, and is more prevalent when using large quantities. Usually it’s not a problem unless you try to make something extremely sweet with it. Additionally, this is more likely to be noticeable with recipes that include less fat, so a syrup, jam, or chutney.
Erythritol does not caramelize. Depending on what you are trying to make, you would need to find an alternate way to achieve the same result.
Erythritol will crystallize. Again, this only tends to happen when using a lot of it. It might also happen over time if you store leftovers of something, especially in sauces, frostings, etc. Using the powdered form can help reduce this phenomenon. That said, if I’m making ice cream or anything that requires storage for longer period in the fridge, I may not use it, or use a combination of erythritol with other sweeteners.
The crystallization is because erythritol does not attract moisture, meaning it’s hydroscopic. So when making recipes that require a moist texture that depends on the sweetener to contribute to the moisture, for instance cakes, you need to use a blend of erythritol and another sweetener to ensure it doesn’t seem dry. That said, in a cheesecake, you’d hardly notice.
Do I use erythritol in meringue? Yes, but not alone. It is hydroscopic, so alone, meringues could be less chewy and, perish the thought, weep. That said, using it in combination with other keto sweeteners, you can achieve stunning meringue that I will be posting recipes for shortly.
Last, erythritol makes an excellent bulking agent for low-carb keto baked goods. So overall, in my opinion it remains a top contender as one of my top sugar substitutes in baking.
Thanks for reading!
References
1. Erythritol as sweetener—where from and whereto? https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5756564/
2. Keto sweeteners – the best and the worst. https://www.dietdoctor.com/low-carb/keto/sweeteners
Welcome! I'm Nikkey Elizabeth.
Hi! My name is Nikkey Elizabeth and this me, after cutting down raspberry canes in my snow shoes. La Femme Nikketo is a combination of two dreams, making delicious sugar-free products that you’d never guess where sugar-free and transforming the farm my husband and I have, The Farm in Glenville, into a working farm where we grow what we make. Together these sugar-free dreams offer boutique farm-to-table preserves and confections, all made here on our farm in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia.
Netrition is a great source for resistant starch flour like Cabalose, which I use in my
Super Flaky No-Fail Keto Pie Pastry
These easy & quick Triple Chocolate Keto Coconut Flour Brownies are sugar-free, gluten-free, nut-free, & paleo! With the chocolate ganache frosting on top, this brownie is meant to satisfy some serious chocolate lover cravings––like mine!
Pineapple extract is totally simple to make and doesn’t take much time at all. I adapted my recipe
I just love this Keto Nut-Free Turtles recipe and I hope that you’re going to love it to. That’s right, you heard me correctly; I am talking about keto nut free turtles.
Crème Brûlée is a classic that is always a crowd pleaser and doesn’t take a huge amount of effort.
Sugar-Free & Nut-Free
Where are you located?
Our farm is located in Glenville, Nova Scotia. It’s a little hamlet between Mabou and Inverness on the island of Cape Breton.
My Jam looks separated, what do I do?
Our sugar-free jams are natural products. Because we are sugar-free and use all-natural products, from time to time ‘fruit float’ can happen to fruit like strawberry or rhubarb during the canning process leaving pulp at the top and jelly on the bottom. If this occurred with your jam, don’t worry, it’s just as delicious as all our other jams. When this happens, we encourage our customers to dig in and mix it up!!!
What does it mean you’re sold out for the season?
We are a farm-to-table business, where we believe strongly in growing a large proportion of what we make. Sometimes, if there are other local growers that have supplies beyond our own, we may top-up our fruit or berry inventory (this is especially true with Blueberries as our bushes are young and our neighbour has acres of stunning wild blueberries!). However, for the most part, we grow what we make and when we run out, that’s it until next year. Every year our capacity grows so we hope to run out a little later each year.
I just bought from you at a market, will those items be on your website?
For the most part, yes, but not yet, or soon. If you are reading this and we are still in a growing season, I usually am so busy farming, making, and selling at my local farmer’s markets that I don’t have a chance to update my website. However, once the farmers markets at the end of Thanksgiving Weekend (That’s the second weekend of October here in Canada), I usually put aside time to update the website with all the current products. If you follow me on Instagram or Facebook, I post when that happens.
Why don’t you use the same sweetener in all your products?
Sometimes I feel that by producing sugar-free goods, you have to be part magician, chemist, and explorer. There are so many sugar-free sweeteners out there and not one of them behaves exactly like sugar. Each of them has its positive and negative qualities depending on the application. For instance, I use a lot of allulose, not never in meringue, because it loves water too much, so you could back that meringue for hours and it would still be sticky.
Are there sweeteners you don’t use in your products?
Yes, there are a few. I don’t use artificial sweeteners at all. Next, I’m not a fan of stevia because of the after taste so I don’t use that either. Also, I don’t use xylitol as it’s toxic to dogs. I love dogs and have an adorable retired racing greyhound myself who is an expert at catching what falls on the floor before anyone can get to it first — he’s that fast. As such, if I wouldn’t have any food with xylitol in my house, just in case it could fall on the floor and could be consumed by my super-fast houndie, I won’t put in my products just in case for your puppies too. Finally, I don’t use products like maltitol or mannitol, as they are notorious for upsetting the stomach.
Shipping & Pickup
Deliciousness takes time. Many of our products are made to order in a small facility. Orders typically take 2-3 business days to produce and process before they ship – excluding weekends and holidays. At times, we reserve 5-7 business days to ship your order in case any ingredients are delayed in shipment from our suppliers. You would be notified by email if this occurs. You will receive an email confirmation with your order tracking number when your order ships. Please read the shipping notification email carefully.
Shipping
We ship via Canada Post. A shipping estimate will be provided during the checkout process. We only ship within Canada and to the US at this time.
Shipping within Canada is a flat rate of $9.99 or FREE if you spend $125 or more!
Shipping rates to the U.S. are calculated in real time during checkout based on destination and weight of the package.
For all shipments within Canada: Expedited shipping via Canada Post takes an estimated 3-9 Business Days depending on your location.
All shipments the the US may be subject to customs charges and or duty. We are not responsible for any costs associated with customs charges, taxes, brokerage charges, and or duty.
International Shipping is not available at this time.
Note that delivery dates are always an estimate only, delivery times may vary depending on your location, weather conditions, and other factors.
Pickup
From June to October we offer pick-up every Sunday during the Mabou Farmer’s Market for local shoppers.
Please have your order in by Friday to ensure we have it ready for you for the Market that Sunday.
From November to March we offer local porch pick-up or drop in the Greektown/Pocket/Danforth Village area.
Below is your return policy. However, more than anything, La Femme Nikketo wants to ensure their customers are happy and love their purchases. If you have any concerns with your purchases, please contact us right away so we can assist you.
We accept returns within 15 days from shipping date under certain circumstances. La Femme Nikketo will ONLY pay for a return label if a product arrived damaged or was shipped in error. In all other cases, the customer is responsible for the shipping costs. Please contact us if you need to return your purchase. Please note that a product is required to be returned in order for a refund to be issued. Sometimes we might be able to issue a refund based on a photo confirmation of a product damage. We do not accept returns on any opened/used items.
