Tag Archive for sugar free aquafaba meringue

Sugar Free Aquafaba Meringue

One of the questions I get asked a lot, as an aquafaba expert (should I even be bragging about that?!?) is, can you make a sugar free aquafaba?

The answer is, of course, yes. However, it depends on a few factors.Sugar Free Aquafaba

If you’re using the aquafaba as an egg replacer in say, a cake, you’ll most likely use it straight up (ie unwhipped) or whipped, but without sugar. When I make waffles, for example, I whip the aquafaba, but I don’t add sugar to it, because there’s sugar already in the recipe. Some recipes, I just add it straight to the batter.

The challenge comes when you’re using aquafaba for meringue. Aquafaba is much less stable that egg whites are. The protein structures aren’t as strong, so that’s why sometimes it deflates, or doesn’t even make a meringue at all.

Even more so than when you’re using egg whites, aquafaba needs a little assist. I primarily use cream of tartar, though if extra support is required, I bring in the xanthan gum.

Sugar also helps to stabilize the meringue. I’ve experimented with different types of sugars, and some work better than others. You can see those results here.

So, to answer the question, yes, you can make aquafaba without sugar, but if you’re making a meringue out of it (mousse, pie topping, or making macarons or pavlova), you’ll want to add some sugar to stabilize it.

For those of you trying to kick the evil sugar habit (and good for you, you’re a better person than I), there are loads of sugar substitutes. My own personal favourite is monkfruit, but in my experiments, it did not react well with the aquafaba.

Stevia works, most certainly. But I am not the biggest stevia fan. I’ve tried many times, but I can’t get past the metallic aftertaste. Hey, maybe my taste buds are just super sensitive, but as a recipe developer, that’s not a terrible thing!

The sugar substitute that’s worked best for me is xylitol. Unlike stevia and monkfruit, which are plant-based sugar substitutes, xylitol is a sugar alcohol. It comes from, weirdly enough, the bark of birch trees. It only rates as a 7 on the GI, whereas regular sugar is somewhere around 60.

I like that you don’t have to do any math with it. It works in equal ratio to sugar, so when you’re substituting Xylitol for sugar, you just use exactly the same amount. This is one of the other things I do not like about stevia–I can never seem to figure out what the exact right amount to use is.

So there you go! Sugar free aquafaba meringue is incredibly accessible.

What Kinds of Sugars Work with Aquafaba Meringue?

A few months back, while I was working on my cookbook, I spent a day playing with different kinds of sugars.

There are lots of folks out there (especially in the vegan community) that are trying to avoid sugar, or at least cut down on it.

An additional note to make is that most people assume that granulated sugar (which is what I primarily use to make Aquafaba meringue) is vegan. I mean, why wouldn’t you?

Different Sugars and Aquafaba

But it turns out that some sugar is processed by filtering it through bone char, which would render it non-vegan for most, given that the sugar has come into contact with an animal product (despite the fact that it contains no animal products). If you live here in BC, our main supplier of sugar is Roger’s, and their sugar is indeed filtered through bone char.

Again, it all just depends on whether or not you are vegan–there are certainly lots of people who may use aquafaba for other reasons.

But let’s go with this–let’s say you are vegan and you’re trying to avoid granulated sugar–which, let’s face it, is the worst kind for you, anyway.

Want more Aquafaba recipes? I wrote a whole book about it: Aquafabulous!: 100+ Egg-Free Vegan Recipes Using Aquafaba (Bean Water)

You have lots of options! Basically any sugar that is unrefined, organic or raw, will not be filtered through bone char (here’s a list of vegan sugars). BUT if you’re making aquafaba meringue, will these sugars work?

Sugar is important to the process. When you’re making a meringue, sugar helps to stabilize the aquafaba, and of course, if you’re adding it to desserts, it adds sweetness. I’ve made aquafaba meringue without sugar (just some stabilizer like cream of tartar) and it worked fine for non-sweet recipes, but most of the time, I’m using it in sweeter interpretations, so I do add sugar.

I was curious to see what sugars worked best with aquafaba, so I did a little experiment.

I tried making meringue with aquafaba and 6 different kinds of sugars.

For these, I used the ratio:

  • 3 tbsp aquafaba
  • 1 tbsp sugar
  • 1/4 tsp cream of tartar

I then fired all of that in my KitchenAid stand mixer and let it go for about 6-10 minutes.

Organic: Organic sugar is less processed than white sugar. First off, it comes from organic sugarcane, and secondly, there are no chemical processes done to the sugarcane. So it’s a much purer result.

Coconut sugar: Coconut sugar has a lower GI (about 30-35) than regular sugar, which is why it’s becoming so popular right now. I actually like this one quite a bit.

Turbinado: this is “Sugar in the Raw” or raw sugar. It’s a coarser grain and a darker colour.

Brown Sugar: So, while it might seem less refined than white sugar (and to some degree it is), brown sugar is mostly white sugar with molasses added back in for flavor and colour. So, again, ideally buy the organic version of this to ensure it’s vegan, if that’s your deal.

Xylitol: made from the bark of birch trees (I know, sounds weird, right?) Xylitol is as sweet as sugar, so you can use it cup-for-cup, but it’s natural, and doesn’t have an aftertaste like stevia does. It’s also basically zero on the GI scale, so it’s kind of like sugar free sugar.

Monkfruit: It’s made from a tropical melon, and it’s pretty sweet, though it has a GI of zero. I’ve been using it for about a year. You have to be careful not to use too much. I put some in my coffee the other day and couldn’t drink it. Monkfruit was the only sweetener that did not work at all with the Aquafaba.

Conclusion: they all worked with aquafaba to some degree. Some formed better peaks than others. Surprisingly, Xylitol worked really well. The browner sugars changed the colour of the meringue, so if that’s an issue for you, stick to to organic white sugar.