The BEST Healthy Cinnamon Sugar–4 Ways {keto and sugar-free}
This post may contain affiliate links from which I will earn a commission. Learn more in our disclosure.
If you love cinnamon sugar, but you’re watching your sugar intake, you are going to LOVE this Healthy Cinnamon Sugar. It’s keto and sugar-free, plus I’ve got 4 delicious variations that we taste tested. It’s really funny which one came out as the family favorite!
Making your own homemade seasoning blends is a great way to save money and avoid unwanted additives in your food.
I already make my own:
taco seasoning
chili powder
curry powder, and
vegetable broth mix,
but never really had a recipe for cinnamon sugar.
I typically would just break out the cinnamon and a sweetener and mix them ad hoc to make a blend when I needed it.
I have fond memories of my mother driving me to preschool in the car while I savored a piece of toast that was topped with some margarine (yes, we were a completely processed food family) and christened with a just-right-amount of cinnamon sugar.
I’m sure the cinnamon sugar came in a pre-blended container too :-).
It tasted and smelled soooo good.
I was quite young and I was an early reader. I would munch on my toast and read the names of the street signs out loud on our way.
Funny how fragrances and flavors can trigger memories, isn’t it?
Well, I still love cinnamon sugar (my kids do too) but like everything I needed to be able to make my own and have it on hand.
Enter your email & I'll send it straight to your inbox. Plus, you'll get healthy living updates too.
How We Found the BEST Cinnamon Sugar Ratio
So I wanted to make the best homemade cinnamon sugar (and make it healthier) but what proportion to use? And why make your own?
As for the why, you can read my post on Homemade Seasoning Blends to see why I recommend making your own blends.
And for the how, here’s what I did.
We did a blind taste test (my family members were the panelists) and tested four different blends.
The results were well–basically hilarious!
Each blend won!
Each person in my family had a different favorite.
So what’s the best ratio for cinnamon sugar?
You decide.
You now have 4 cinnamon sugar blends to choose from. One for every taste in your family!
Sweetest Blend
The sweetest blend (the least amount of cinnamon) was my youngest’s favorite. He has quite the sweet tooth, just like his mama.
I predicted he’d like this one the best. I made all four blends up this morning and let him try them all once he woke up. He got a great big smile on his face after tasting the mildest (aka sweetest) version and said “This one!” when I asked which was the best.
Least Sweet Blend
The strongest was my husband’s favorite and he even said that it could still use more cinnamon. (But then, this is the man who puts Tabasco on everything.)
Medium-sweet Blend
The one in the middle was my favorite (followed closely by the sweetest version).
Cinnamon Sugar with Nutmeg Blend
The cinnamon-nutmeg blend was enjoyed by all as having just that little-extra-something. I guess technically we could have 6 blends, by adding nutmeg to each.
How to Use This Blend
This is the perfect topping for my Super and Easy Baked Oatmeal / Oatmeal Cake – Two Ways It’s a great Christmas breakfast idea but great for anytime!
Of course this works great for use in these Gluten-free Cinnamon Roll Cookies and on these Cinnamon Baked Doughnuts. It would taste great on this Pumpkin Chia Pudding too.
Directions
- Place ingredients in a bowl (Photos 1 & 2)
- Mix well and store in an airtight container. (Photos 3 & 4)
Where Should You Buy Cinnamon and Nutmeg?
We did taste tests (yes, we really did) and found that Frontier’s was by far the best cinnamon, with Costco’s coming in a close second.
We also tested Mountain Rose Herbs and Penzeys, but alas, they were not the winners. I purchase the whole nutmeg from Frontier and grind it fresh with my much-beloved Microplane grater–must-have tool.
For those of you who use white sugar, I would recommend switching to Sucanat or Rapadura or even Coconut Sugar.
And for those who cannot have sugar at all (I am in that camp), I recommend xylitol or erythritol. I am hoping to try coconut sugar soon to see how I do on it. I hope it goes well! Read more at The Beginning of My Sugar-Free Life.)
In any case, you will for sure be doing yourself a favor by making this blend healthier than the standard white sugar and cinnamon version.
Recipe Notes
- Sweetener Choice: If you would like a low-carb version, xylitol works well and erythritol does as well, but it is about 70% as sweet as sugar so you will need more. If you aren’t on a strict low-carb diet, organic sucanat, organic rapadura, or organic coconut sugar are typically considered to be better options than regular sugar.
- Which version of cinnamon to use? Whichever you like. I’ll try to post on cinnamon varieties later. However, if you use Vietnamese cinnamon, cut the recommended amounts by 1/3 since Vietnamese is typically a stronger cinnamon variety. You can use whatever amounts you would like, though.
Other Homemade Seasoning Blends
- Homemade Taco Seasoning – you for sure won’t ever need to buy those overpriced packets again once you try this!
- Pumpkin Pie Seasoning
- Mild Curry Powder
- Chat Masala (a wonderful Indian spice that we have on our table all the time)
- Vegetable Broth Mix | All-Purpose Seasoning (and a really special way to use it!)
Healthy Cinnamon Sugar (keto)
Ingredients
Sweetest Version
- 1 cup low carb sweetener (or alternative granulated sweetener as desired)
- 2 tablespoons cinnamon
Medium Strength Version
- 1 cup low carb sweetener (use xylitol for low-carb option)
- 4 tablespoons cinnamon
Strongest Version
- 1 cup low carb sweetener (use xylitol for low-carb option)
- 5 1/3 tablespoons cinnamon (or 16 teaspoons)
- 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg (freshly-ground recommended)
Cinnamon-Nutmeg Blend
- 1 cup low carb sweetener
- 1 tablespoon cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg (freshly ground recommended)
Instructions
- Place ingredients in a bowl and mix well.
- Store in an airtight container (if you are making all three blends, you could have a small container of each :-)).
- Sprinkle on anything where you might like a nice sweet topping (toast, oatmeal, coffee (coffee substitute for me), etc. This would also be the perfect topping on my Pumpkin Snickerdoodles if you’d like to vary the topping a bit.
Nutrition
Nutritional information is provided as a courtesy and is merely an approximation. Optional ingredients are not included and when there is an alternative, the primary ingredient is typically used. We cannot guarantee the accuracy of the nutritional information given for any recipe on this site. Erythritol carbs are not included in carb counts since they have been shown not to impact blood sugar. Net carbs are the total carbs minus fiber.
Hope you like it!
Do you have a special flavor or fragrance memory to share?
Thank you for these variations. They’re very good. I’ve recently been diagnosed as a diabetic and totally overhauled my diet. Through my research on alternative sweeteners I’ve found monk fruit/allulose blends to be the best. Erythritol has a lot of nasty side effects when used as an alternate sweetener. Our bodies make a miniscule amount of erythritol, but adding the amounts needed to mimic sugar make it dangerous. It increases platelet activity, leading to heart attack, stroke, and DVT’s. It contributes to insulin resistance while not having a direct impact on blood sugar. And also takes about 3 days to be eliminated from our bodies. Sorry for the long post, but I want to help inform people when I can. God bless.
Hi Holly! You are so welcome! I’m glad you like them!
While I’m all for all natural, when you can’t have the carbs, you’re kind of stuck. But I think you might be interested in this post based on your comment: https://wholenewmom.com/erythritol-heart-disease-study/
Would love to hear what you think. There is another study that came out that I haven’t researched but I think the info I shared is helpful regardless. Do let me know and thanks for reading.
I’m a diabetic and I love Splenda with my cinnamon sugarfree toast. Thank you for posting this and sharing your ideas with us.
Hi there, Jennifer! I’m sorry to hear about the diabetes, but glad I could help in this way. I mostly eat very low carb so my recipes should work for you. My mother was a very brittle diabetic so I get it. One thought, however – Splenda has quite a bit of dextrose so it does affect blood sugar quite a bit for some people. You might want to try another sweetener like erythritol / monk blend or allulose. Also, I will send an email about an MD you might be interested in. Take care!
I used swerve, and I can think of better ways to waste money.
Hi Gerri–sounds like you had a bad experience…what happened? Which version did you try?
I have made a pumpkin spice sugar in the past and plan to make a Keto version. That is how I found your site! Thank you for trying so many changes. Trust me when I say Pumpkin spice sugar is so good on toast and oatmeal too!
Ooh that sounds so good! I have been eating more carbs lately on and off—yum I need to make that. Welcome!
Adrienne,
Thank you for sharing your research, recipes and comments. I’m interested in your thoughts about a sweetener I’ve learned about recently named allulose, and how it might be a sugar substitute in the cinnamon “sugar” recipe above. Here’s hoping…
Best Regards, Pam
Hi Pam! Thanks for the kind words. You could definitely use allulose for this recipe. I haven’t researched it extensively, but I haven’t heard anything really negative, however since it’s a fairly new sweetener I would think more info would come out as time goes on. Do you use it a lot? Interested in hearing your thoughts.
Hi Adrienne
Thanks for posting these spice blend recipes. I’m sure to get use out of a few of these.
One comment I want to share is regarding alternate sweetners being used in things like the cinnamon sugar blends. We must use alternate sweetners in our house and stevia is my first choice. Xylitol is deadly to dogs and other pets. Stevia might be better for folks that have pets around. Putting a pet warning is a good idea when you recommend xylitol as some people are not aware of this.
Thanks and so sorry for the late reply. I updated the post as I have been moving away from xylitol to completely avoid carbs and I really like the sweetener that I linked for most recipes.
You do not mention Stevia in your post, but Doug in ATX does. Did you try it with Stevia and if not, why? From my understanding, it is one of the healthiest sugar alternatives available.
Hi there!
You could use a stevia blend but straight stevia will not work. There’s too little of it to make any bulk. You could try it, but I really don’t think that the result will work out. Stevia is 32 times as sweet as sugar. For recipe #1 you would have to use 1/2 tablespoon of stevia extract…..I guess you could try it but I think you won’t care for it. Let me know if you do. I seem to recall trying this years ago and the results weren’t good.