Baking with Honey and Maple Syrup: How to Substitute Liquid and Granulated Sweeteners
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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.
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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
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?
Thank you so much for this information. My question is ‘Do I cream the butter alone or with the liquid substitute?’
I am guessing that it wouldn’t matter either way but wanted to see what your thoughts are. Thanks heaps
You’re welcome. I think it depends on the recipe. If the recipe calls for creaming the sweetener w/ the butter then I would do that.
Are maple syrup and honey interchangeable in recipe’s ? My muffin recipe calls for 1/2 C honey, I’m out of honey but do have maple syrup.
I’m sorry for the late response. I don’t think so – I have read 3/4 maple syrup and 1/2 cup sugar for 1 cup honey.
My recipe calls for 2tablespoons of powered erythritol. what can I use instead of that using coconut sugar or liquid stevia
Eryth is 30% less sweet than sugar so do the conversion using that understanding.
I am baking for the first time and am worried about not having granulated sugar. My mom suggested that I use honey, but I wasn’t sure. This site has taught me a lot
So great. I hope this is of help.
What do you do with caster sugar?
As in how do I replace it with honey, maple syrup or stevia? How much do I use?
Caster is not liquid but it’s superfine so you would need to take both aspects into account. I haven’t looked at conversion for caster sugar to granulated and go from there.
Hi there, this is great info and really helps to explain why I have had some less than great experience. Awesome tips!
The trouble I have is when a no bake recipe calls for a liquid sweetener to bind things like honey or syrup, and I just want to use a few drops of my sweetener alt. Any thoughts?
If it’s just a few drops it shouldn’t matter.
hello
I need to get in touch with liquid sugars, particularly glucose syrup and fructose have comprehensive information possible, please help me.
Thanks
I’m sorry – I don’t know what you mean. Please explain.
If a recipie already calles for baking soda, will I need to add extra to the honey?
I think it’s a good idea.
I don’t have coconut sugar to make my paleo brownies. Can I use honey to substitute and how much? I tried to click on your page to the conversion but can not get. Thank you
Hi there. The conversion info is on this page – coconut sugar to honey is the same as any granulated to liquid. Hope that helps.
I am new to baking with alternate sweeteners. I find it difficult to know how to convert one sweetener to another when reading recipes. For example recipes can call for stevia, swerve, trivia, capitol, etc. I cannot stock all the different types of sweeteners. Is there a conversion chat available that equates one measure of sweetener to another? For example, 1 tbsp of stevia equals ___ xylitol. This would be so helpful to me. Thanks in advance for your help.
This should help but I hope to share more in the future: https://wholenewmom.com/kitchen-tips/stevia-what-it-is-and-how-to-use-it/
when baking what can i substitute for 1/2 cup maple powder?
Maple syrup powder is very atypical. I see only 1 chart w/ conversion values on the internet so I would use that and then follow my suggestions. Hope that helps!
Can you please provide the link to the conversion chart? Thank you for your quick reply to the first question.
Here you go: https://www.nnyagdev.org/maplefactsheets/CMB%20205%20Replacing%20Table%20Sugar%20with%20Maple%20Sugar-1.pdf
Hello! I’m making pumpkin pie with maple syrup and molasses instead of brown sugar. Would I still need to add baking soda? Its custard so doesn’t really rise
Thanks!
I don’t think you need that. Hope it works out well!
You don’t need baking soda
Question and help needed, please and thank you. I want to bake a vegan cookie, but the recipe requires 3/4 cup xylitol for the cookie and 2 cups xylitol for the syrup, What can I use in stead of xylitol as I do not stock that and will never use it again and as its rather expensive to not want to go out and buy it only for this particular recipe.
Hi there. What sweeteners do you use? Do you need to be low carb? If not you could use sugar as a 1:1 replacement.
Thank you so much for your response. I will then use regular sugar, or even try to use treacle sugar
You are welcome — I hope it works out for you!
How much honey to use if the recipe calls for 1/4 cup of white sugar?
Since it is sweeter you need to use 1/2 to 3/4 of that amount.
Can I substitute honey for brown sugar?
Yes – follow the information for subbing granulated for liquid.
when baking cookies, candy, cakes and pie are there any baked goods you would not recommend using honey instead of sugar in? i am off sugar and sugar substitutes, and trying to learn how to substitute honey or stevia. I made some ice creams I like, now to pumpkin pie 🙂 Stevia can be very bitter, Use it mostly in lemonade, 🙂
I don’t think any are off limits? I love stevia in lemonade! If you look at these tips they really help! https://wholenewmom.com/health-concerns/how-to-like-stevia/
I haven’t looked through the comments to see if you have addressed this question, but I am very curious where you stand on the sweetener Swerve. It seems to be used a lot in paleo and low-carb recipes. Thanks!
I personally don’t have real concerns with it but don’t use it. I should try it. I tend to lean on stevia and xylitol, mainly mostly b/c they are less expensive? Do you like it?
I’m just now looking into Truvia, Swerve, etc. Already a long time user of stevia. Trying to lessen sugar load for whole family in baking treats. My friend who is type 1 diabetic just discovered swerve and LOVES it for baking. FYI, though, swerve is NOT xylitol , but rather erythritol, and Oligosaccharides, and maybe best of all, is all non-GMO. I can’t wait to try it.
How do you convert honey to Truvia? Example: 2/3 cup of honey = how many tablespoons of Truvia?
Hi there. I haven’t worked w/ truvia so I would convert Truvia to sugar and then do the math. I hope that helps!
Can you tell me how to substitute Coconut Palm Sugar for honey, please? Thanks!
It the same as the other granulated sweeteners for honey.
I need to replace 1 cup sugar for honey in a recipe for wholemeal banana bread, I’m a little confused at home much honey to use and how much liquors to add or take away. Also do I need to add baking soda.
Hi there – sorry I missed your comment. You need 1/2 to 3/4 of the amt of honey and remove 1/4 cup of liquid. Does that help? Add 1/4 – 1/2 tsp b soda per cup.