How sweet are you?
When making homemade protein bars & energy bites with Creation Nation's No-Bake Mix, you can choose to add a sweetener (or not) according to your preferred taste and nutrition needs. Just follow the easy recipe chart on the back of each package. Whether you're Vegan, Keto or have a sweet tooth, we got ya covered!
Our mixes have a tiny bit of Monk Fruit for a subtle sweetness that acts as a sweetener-booster, so you only need to add a small amount of natural syrup or fruit. Thus keeping your bars low-carb and low-glycemic, yet totally sweetlicious.
Here are our favorite sweet additions...
- Raw Unfiltered Honey & Manuka Honey as superfoods! Packed with enzymes, amino acids, antioxidants, iron, zinc, potassium, calcium, manganese, vitamin B6, and niacin. With Manuka honey, the nutritional content is up to 4 times that of normal flower honeys and has additional healing properties. Look for local raw unfiltered honey at farmer's markets, or Manuka Honey from New Zealand.
- Date Syrup (iLoveDateLady.com) is another favorite way to naturally sweeten our bars & bites, and is made from 100% date fruit. If you also love making balls & bites with dates then you know the wonderful flavor and benefits, like: high in minerals (especially potassium), and Vegan. Alternatively, if you have the extra time and kitchen equipment, you can grind pitted dates with a little water in a food processor and make your own date paste.
- Apple Syrup (BeeFreeHonee.com and organic Dolcedi.com) is made from concentrated apple juice and is low-glycemic, vegan, and safe for children. We love its sweet but neutral taste and transparency!
- Maple is also full of minerals and antioxidants. We love its flavor profile and that it gets a lower score on the glycemic index. Vegan plant-based
- Coconut Nectar
- Cassava Syrup (Madhava.com) is a fructose-free organic sweetener made from the root of the cassava plant (a tuber like potatoes). Its thickness works great for making protein balls. Fructose is a fast releasing sugar, which tends to cause insulin to spike. But cassava is a more complex sugar, so it may dissolve more easily in the bloodstream, giving you a longer digestion time and a longer lasting flow of energy.
- Fruit Juice or Purée like: Applesauce or Mashed Bananas. Bananas are rich in fiber and potassium, a good source of vitamins B6 and C, and boost the flavor of any bar! We love making Chunky Monkey Bars and Banana Balls! ;) Those recipes are on the back label of our Protein Bar Mixes and on our BANANAS blog post
- Real Fruit Jams from berries, stone fruit, and grapes are fruitastic for making your homemade protein bars. Best if there is no added sugar (or very little), just pure fruit. Perfectly paired with peanut butter, PB&J style!
- Low Cal/ Zero Cal Syrups work in our mixes too, and are preferred substitutes for those on a Keto or low-carb diet, or diabetic. Our customers often share that they like Lakanto and Choc Zero's flavored “syrups”.
- IMO isomalto-oligosaccharide We don't recommend using this type of syrup due to its propensity to cause gas, bloating, and disruption to the gut. But it will work in our mixes if it is your syrup of choice.
With all the talk about sugar these days, we often hear discussions around Coconut Sugar vs Natural Cane Sugar. For more insight, we recommend reading LILSIPPER's insightful article - Coconut Sugar - Is it Healthier?
We'd love to hear about your favorite sweet additions in your protein bar recipes!
