Stevia: how to make liquid extract and syrup from sweet grass - secrets of preparing a natural sweetener

Under production conditions, the sugar substitute is prepared in the form of dried leaves powder, bleached granular preparation “Stevioside” or liquid extract. To know exactly how much stevia to use instead of sugar in regular recipes, we suggest you familiarize yourself with the table.

You can buy a jar of stevia syrup or extract in specialized health food stores or pharmacies. The price of these products is quite high, so we want to share with you recipes for making a sugar substitute at home.

What raw materials are best to use?

Syrup and liquid extract can be prepared from both fresh leaves and dried raw materials.

Stevia is a very heat-loving perennial plant. It can be grown in your own area using seedlings. In this case, for the winter, stevia must be dug up and placed in a cool place indoors.It is advisable to collect fresh herbs during the flowering period. At this time, the foliage synthesizes sweet glycosides such as stevioside and rebaudioside with maximum power. Before use, stevia is washed, dried on napkins, and then cut into arbitrary shapes.

If it is not possible to grow stevia yourself, then dried raw materials can be used to prepare a natural sweetener. Dried stevia herb or powder made from it can be purchased at pharmacy chains or stores that specialize in selling herbs.

Preparing liquid stevia extract

On vodka

The most popular method of preparing stevia extract is using ethyl alcohol. This is due to the fact that alcohol draws out the sweetness from the leaves better than water, and the finished product can be stored longer.

To prepare the extract, take one liter of vodka and herbs. If fresh grass is used, then you will need one bunch, weighing approximately 300 grams. For a given volume of liquid, 150 grams of dried product is required.

Place stevia in a clean glass container and fill it with vodka. To ensure that the herb is evenly distributed in the liquid, shake the jar several times. The top of the container is tightly closed with a lid and put away in a dark place for two days. Exceeding the infusion time may make the extract bitter. After the allotted time, the infusion is filtered through several layers of gauze.

All that's left is to get rid of alcohol. To do this, the finished extract is poured into a saucepan and heated over low heat for a quarter of an hour. Important condition: the mass should not boil!

During the “evaporation” procedure, the extract may slightly change color and thicken. It is also quite normal for sediment to form.Before packing the liquid into bottles, it is filtered again.

Store the finished product in the refrigerator for six months.

On the water

This option is less popular, but also has a right to exist. To prepare an aqueous extract, you can also use dry herbs or crushed fresh leaves.

For 1 liter of liquid you need 100 grams of dry leaves or 250 grams of fresh stevia. The raw materials are poured with boiling water, covered loosely with a lid and left to infuse at room temperature for 24 hours.

The finished extract is filtered and poured into clean storage containers. This extract is stored for a relatively short time. It must be used within 10 days.

Halle Cottis in his video will show you in detail how to make your own liquid extract from stevia.

How to make stevia syrup

The syrup, in comparison with the liquid extract, can be stored for as long as possible – up to 1.5 years. No special conditions are required: even at room temperature, stevia syrup retains all its properties.

Any liquid extract is used to prepare syrup. It does not matter how the glycosides were extracted, alcoholic or aqueous.

The sweet extract is poured into an enamel pan and placed on low heat. The main goal: to evaporate the liquid without letting it boil. To do this, the food container must be constantly monitored. The total evaporation time is from 4 to 6 hours. As soon as the syrup begins to flow smoothly from the spoon in a thin stream, the fire is turned off, and the finished product is packaged in bottles.