Brownie Test Alternative Sweetener #4

Today's brownie test is our fourth substitute sweetener experiment using the basic Hershey's recipe and all other identical ingredients. This brand is called KETO: SWEET and is a zero-calorie sweetener compared to cane sugar. The Fibrelle substitute set a high standard so I don't know if this brand will make the grade but every product deserves a fair shot on The Chocolate Cult. I got this bag of 12 ounces via the Amazon Vine program in exchange for a fair and honest review on that website; this article is unexpected by either brand; no other form of compensation was received.

Looking at the back of the bag, we find that this is a erythritol and natural flavors product. We also see that it should add zero calories to anything that it is used. The ratio should be the same as sugar so without other instructions I follow the recipe we've been using down to the minute of baking time. I note that like all erythritol products I've worked with before, the crystals are bigger than in cane sugar and not fluffy or flakey as other sugar substitutes have been. This is likely to affect the texture of the brownies.

Let's refresh our memory of the basic brownie results:

Now let's look at the KETO: SWEET brownie:

KETO: SWEET created brownies that were dry, didn't raise, burnt on the outer edges, and had the popped bubbles and burnt bubbles on the top even worse than the Pereg sweetener did. These were unpleasantly sweet and didn't taste like cocoa or chocolate at all. I threw them all away and since I was raised to not waste food, that tells you how bad these turned out. I cannot recommend this product at all for baking.