Has anyone baked using Agave instead of sugar?

[ThePetiteMummy]

I made some raisin & oat biscuits the other day, but found them rather sugary. I use Agave nectar in tea, and I know it can be used in baking, but since it's wet, and sugar is dry, does anyone know how you go about this? My mum mentioned that surely sugar becomes liquid when baked, which I suppose it does, but I still have no idea what quantity to use. Agave is pretty expensive, so hopefully not much!

I've never baked with agave nectar but I think you just use it 1:1 for honey in recipes. A friend did try baking with agave and told me it worked well for her in wetter things (like brownies) and not so well in things which need to be crisp (like biscuits). No idea if this is really the case, just passing on what she said.

There's a good list of alternative healthy sweeteners here with some agave recipes.

Thanks for that, the info from your friend gives me a guide. Thanks for the link too, some useful stuff on there.

I never use 'normal' sugar in cooking. i use fructose (which behaves and looks just like sugar also much cheaper than agave) and or rice syrup , molasses which is fab for flavour in gingerbread etc. I melt in a saucepan before baking.

Thanks ppeatfruit, I was hoping to use something low GI, so I'll give fructose a try.

No, becuase we found out the hard way that DS3 is allergic to it! I would quite like to try it though.

Gosh, not the sort of thing you'd expect them to be allergic to! I can highly recommend it though, I love it in my tea, although I don't drink it alot, as I find drinking tea with sugar in makes me feel all jittery.

Yes, I have made cake and biscuits using agave syrup. I just used a trial and error approach! Didnt use any particular recipes.

For the biscuits I rubbed together flour and butter (I think I used around 200g flour and 125g butter) then added a beaten egg, a handful of raisins (previously soaked in tea for extra juiciness) and stirred in the agave syrup a tablespoon at a time until the mixture had bound together. Just tasted the raw mix to check for sweetness. Dolloped on a baking tray and baked at around 170 c for 8-10 minutes, keeping an eye on the oven just in case!

The cake was a carrot and date loaf. In the electric mixer, I just mixed three eggs, 200g self raising flour, 180g butter, a pinch each of cinnamon and ginger, two grated carrots and a handful of chopped dates and then poured in the agave bit by bit, tasting for sweetness. Poured it into a loaf tin and baked it for about 45 mins at 170c. Was very tasty!

Thanks for taking the time to write out those recipes Gastrognome, they both sound yummy, that gives me somewhere to start!