Baking with Honey and Maple Syrup: How to Substitute Liquid and Granulated Sweeteners

Changing sweeteners for a recipe can be challenging! If you are wondering about baking with honey or baking with maple syrup instead of sugar in a recipe, you have come to the right place.

Here are some handy dandy tips to make your baked goods and more turn out right!

There are several reasons that you might want to change up the sweeteners that you are using for a recipe.

One is that you ran out of the sweetener that you needed.

The second is that you are using sugar substitutes for health reasons.

Using Healthier Sweeteners

One of the ways that our family started moving towards more whole foods was to move away from white sugar and start baking with honey, sucanat, and other sweeteners.

Now, instead of making my Homemade Jello, Homemade Chocolate Chips, and Gluten-Free Cupcakes with granulated sugar, I moved to other, more wholesome sweeteners.

If you've been wondering about baking with honey or baking with maple syrup,  or what to do about substituting sugar in your baked goods or other sweet (or not-so-sweet) dishes, then this post should help.

Never Run Out Again of Sweeteners Again

One of my pet peeves (and probably yours too) is running out of something when you are in the middle of the recipe.

And one of my best time and money-saving cooking and baking tips is learning how to substitute one thing for another.

That way you're not running out to the store at the last minute because you ran out of something.  You spend extra time (a lot), extra money on gas, more money than usual because you are making a last minute purchase, plus you might end up buying other things that you don't need, which really add up.

When you need to substitute a liquid for a granulated sweetener, how do you do that quickly and easily?

Mainly, you just need to make up for, or take away from, the liquid part of the liquid sweetener, when adding it to a recipe, and adjust a little for the different sweetness of the sweeteners you are substituting.

If the recipe we are talking about is a dish with very little sweetener (like my Focaccia Flax Bread), then it really doesn't matter.  Just substitute one sweetener for another and don't worry about it.

Additionally, with some non-baking recipes like

• Silky Smooth Bean Fudge and
• Easy Chocolate / Carob Chips

you can use whatever sugar substitute you wish (liquid or granulated).  The result won't differ that much regardless of which sugar substitutes you use.

However, when you are dealing with a sweet baked good, things get more complicated.

Here's how to make a sugar substitute in baking and have the result turn out well.

Baking with Honey / Baking with Maple Syrup

Here are some helpful tips for baking with honey and maple syrup and for substituting sweetener for sure.

Substituting Liquid Sweetener for Granulated

When substituting a liquid for a granulated sweetener (e.g. using honey when the recipe calls for sucanat or brown sugar, or subbing in a liquid low carb sweetener like this sugar-free simple syrup for xylitol, etc.), for every 1 cup of liquid sweetener, subtract 1/4 cup of liquid from the recipe (likewise, for every 1/4 cup of honey, subtract 1 tablespoon of liquid).

Substituting Granulated Sweetener for Liquid Sweetener

The reverse is then, when substituting a granulated for a liquid sweetener (e.g. using sucanat, coconut sugar, or xylitol when the recipe calls for maple syrup or honey), for every 1 cup of granulated sweetener, add 1/4 cup of liquid to the recipe (likewise, for every 1/4 cup of granulated sweetener, add 1 tablespoon of liquid).

Adjusting for Sweetness

Honey and maple syrup are about 25 percent (or more) sweeter than sugar.
So you'll want to use less honey or maple syrup (about 1/2 – 3/4 cup) for each cup of sugar. And if you are substituting another “sugar-equivalent” sweetener for honey or maple syrup, you'll want to use at least 1.25 times as much.

Oven Temperature Adjustments

If baking with honey or maple syrup, reduce the oven temperature by 25 °Fahrenheit, since maple syrup and honey will tend to caramelize and burn faster than granulated sweeteners. If you are substituting another sweetener for honey or maple syrup, you might wish to raise the oven temperature a bit.

The Acidic Component

Since maple syrup and honey are somewhat acidic, when baking you will need to add 1/4 – 1/2 teaspoon baking soda per cup of honey or maple syrup to the batter so it will rise.
You might want to remove that same amount of baking soda from a recipe when substituting another sweetener for maple syrup or honey.

Baking with Stevia

If you'd like to use stevia in your baking and cooking, check out Stevia-What It Is and How to Use It for helpful tips.
Stevia is super sweet. In general, 1/32 of a teaspoon is the equivalent of 2 tablespooons of sugar. However, it is a little tricky to bake with it. The bulk that you lose by moving to a sweetener that is this concentrated makes it difficult.
Typically I will replace half of the sweetener in a recipe with Stevia Extract and the other half with another low-carb sweetener.

Pretty simple, isn't it?

These tips are super helpful if you run out of the sweetener, but also if you're trying out a new recipe and want to use the least expensive sweetener that I have.  Then if the recipe isn't a winner, I've spent less money on it than I would have otherwise.

Other Substitution Tips

Here are some other great posts to help you make easy substitutions in the kitchen.

23 Vanilla Extract Substitutes
Homemade Powdered Egg-replacer

Hope these tips are helpful for you as well!

What sweetener do you most use in your home?