Truvia Banana Bread Recipe

My favorite recipe that calls for the Truvia Brown Sugar blend is Truvia Banana Bread. I bought it with good intentions a while ago, but I haven’t used it much. I made this straightforward banana bread because I wanted to try it and use up some overripe bananas. It needs about 3 1/2 bananas and is baked in a loaf pan 8 1/2 inches by 4 1/2 inches.

Truvia is a sugar substitute with no calories and is mainly made from the stevia leaf. It is one of the most popular alternatives to sugar and can be bought at grocery stores. Truvia can be used to sweeten coffee or to sprinkle on grapefruit, and it can also be used in baking. The catch is that you may have to do some math depending on which Truvia sweetener you use.

What is Truvia?

Truvia is a sugar substitute made from erythritol, a food additive made from sugar alcohol, stevia leaf extract, and natural flavors. The sweet leaves of the stevia plant, which is in the chrysanthemum family, are used to make stevia leaf extract. The plant comes from South America, but most are grown in China. The leaves are picked and then dried to get the natural sweetness of the plant.

Once the leaves are dry, they are steeped in hot water. The liquid from the steeping is filtered, cleaned, and then dried. At the end of this process, a form of stevia leaf extract that has crystallized is made. Even though Truvia has no calories, it is more than 200 times sweeter than sugar.

Cargill, Inc., a multinational food and agricultural company, and The Coca-Cola Company worked together to make Truvia, a sugar substitute. It has become one of the most popular sweeteners in the US since it came out in 2008.

It is manufactured from a blend of three ingredients:

Erythritol: A sugar alcohol
Rebaudioside A: A sweet compound isolated from the stevia plant, listed as Rebiana on the label
Natural flavors: The manufacturer does not specify the flavorings used

People often mix up Truvia with Stevia, which is a natural sweetener made from the leaf of the stevia plant. Even though Truvia is sold as a sweetener made from Stevia and its name sounds like it, Truvia and Stevia are not the same.

It’s excellent! Truvia does leave a taste in your mouth, but it’s not always bad. The fact that it has less sugar makes it worth it. The texture is soft, very moist, and full of bananas. It has so much banana that the dense banana can be seen gathering at the bottom of the loaf. I wouldn’t say I liked this at first, but the banana flavor is so good that I don’t mind it much anymore. This is almost as good as my favorite banana bread, which is probably a copycat of the banana bread at Starbucks.

Ingredients

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour 180 grams
One teaspoon of baking powder
One teaspoon of baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup Truvía Brown Sugar Blend 82 grams
1/3 cup unsalted butter 75 grams
Two large eggs
One teaspoon of vanilla extract
1/3 cup buttermilk
1 1/2 cups very ripe bananas mashed (330 grams)

Instructions

Turn the oven to 350° F. Grease a loaf pan 8 1/2 by 4 1/2 inches.
Mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a bowl and set it aside.
In another bowl, beat together the Truvia and the softened butter. Then, add the eggs and vanilla and beat again. Stir the buttermilk in after scraping the bowl.
Pour the liquid into the flour mixture and stir until everything is combined. Then add the bananas and start again. Don’t mix too much.
Pour the batter into the loaf pan and bake until the top is golden brown and a toothpick stuck in the middle comes out clean (about 55 minutes).
Let cool for 10 minutes in the pan. Take the loaf out of the pan and put it on a wire rack.

Note

Since bananas come in different sizes, I measure them after mashing them. I used 1 1/2 cups and 3 1/3 large bananas to make this bread.

What are the Varieties of Truvia?

Truvia makes granulated, powdered, and liquid forms of some sugar substitutes.

This calorie-free granulated sweetener, Truvia Sweet Complete Granulated All-Purpose Sweetener, can be used just like white granulated sugar, even in baked goods.
Truvia Sweet Complete Brown has molasses in this calorie-free substitute for brown sugar.
Truvia Sweet Complete Confectioners’ Sweetener: Use this sweetener instead of confectioners’ sugar because it doesn’t have any calories. It has cornstarch in it.
Truvia Cane Sugar Blend: This used to be called “Baking Blend,” and it was Truvia’s first alternative to granulated sugar made especially for baking. It has a small amount of natural sugar to keep baked goods tasting, feeling, and looking sweet, but it has 75% fewer calories.
Truvia Brown Sugar Blend is the other original Truvia baking sugar substitute. It has natural sugar and molasses to taste and work like brown sugar, and it is also 75% less caloric than brown sugar.

What are the Uses of Truvia?

Truvia can be used anywhere sugar is, though you may need to use less in some cases. The original Truvia sweeteners are great for adding sweetness to coffee, yogurt, fruit, and other foods. The liquid forms are best for drinks because you don’t have to worry about dissolving the crystals and are suitable for cold drinks. Truvia has versions that can be used for baking, and the “Sweet Complete” sweeteners can be used for baking or as a regular sweetener.

What does Truvia Taste Like?

Truvia tastes very sweet on its own. Some people think it tastes a bit bitter or has an aftertaste that is sweet or artificial. When Truvia is mixed with liquid, the taste isn’t as vital because the Truvia dissolves, and this makes the liquid taste sweet. When Truvia is put on berries, the taste of the Truvia may be a little bit fake. When Truvia is used to make baked goods, the texture may become more grainy or dense, and a sweet taste may linger.

What is Truvia Substitute?

Since Truvia is a sugar replacement, it can also be used instead of sugar. Stevia in the Raw, Splenda Naturals Stevia, and other organic brands are also based on Stevia. Even though these can usually be used in place of each other, the different formulas may change the taste, texture, and browning of the finished food, especially when baking.

Truvia Recipes

You can use Truvia in any recipe that calls for sugar, as long as you remember to do the proper conversions for the type of Truvia you are using. There are also a few recipes that call for a stevia sweetener and where Truvia would work well.

Keto Sugar Cookies
Gluten-Free Devil’s Food Flax Microwave Muffin
Sugar-Free Orange Sorbet

Are there Any Side Effects?

Some of the ingredients in Truvia have been looked into, but the sweetener itself has not.
There were no harmful side effects in a human study that lasted four weeks and used a high dose of rebaudioside A. This study, though, was paid for by Cargill, the company that makes Truvia.
A recent study found that the common fruit fly could die from eating erythritol. The authors even suggested erythritol as a pesticide safe for the environment.
Even though these results are worrying, it looks like people and other mammals can handle erythritol.
Still, sugar alcohols like erythritol may make it hard to digest food.
It looks like your body handles erythritol better than the other sugar alcohols because it doesn’t get into your large intestine in large amounts.
In one study, digestive problems only happened when 50 grams of erythritol, a vast amount, were taken all at once.
In another test, it took at least four times as much erythritol as the sugar alcohol sorbitol, which is often used, to cause diarrhea.
Keep in mind that everyone has a different level of tolerance. Be very careful with Truvia if you have trouble with sugar alcohols.
Still, most people shouldn’t have digestive problems if they use Truvia every day, at least not if they don’t use too much.

Is Truvia or Stevia Better for People with Diabetes?

Even though there isn’t much research on whether Truvia or Stevia is better for people with diabetes to use as a replacement sweetener, several websites hosted and written by people with diabetes seem to prefer Stevia over Truvia. Diabetes Strong says Stevia is their favorite sweetener because it won’t increase their blood sugar.

Vitagene says in his book that “Stevia doesn’t cause glycemic responses, and it has been shown to lower blood sugar levels, and it also makes insulin less effective.” Similar reports and reviews from people with diabetes who use Truvia are less common, which may mean that Stevia is a slightly better choice. Both are nonnutritive sweeteners, and according to Everyday Health, nonnutritive sweeteners have little to no effect on blood sugar.

If you have diabetes and are trying to decide, you could try both options to see if you like one better than the other. The taste can also be a little different, and you can see if you have any reactions to either before buying many of them.

Conclusion

Most big grocery stores sell Truvia. It’s in the baking section near the sugar. It comes in plastic pouches, big containers, and single packets in packs of 30 to 400. You can go to a warehouse club store if you want to buy it in large quantities. Keep Truvia in a cool, dry place out of the light. The product has a shelf life of three years from its date.

Truvia is a brand name for an alternative sweetener that comes in part from the stevia plant. The official website says that Truvia combines erythritol, stevia leaf extract, and natural flavors. The erythritol and Stevia in Truvia help spread out the sweetness and make it less intense than it would be with pure stevia leaf extract, which can sometimes have a bitter aftertaste.