Sweeteners

Table-top sweeteners are intensely sweet ingredients blended into granules or pressed into tablets, used in place of ordinary sugar by people who want sweetness with less of it. They sit on the sugar shelf beside sugar cubes and glucose. Tablets are the simplest to use in hot drinks, while granules measure more like sugar and can be spooned over fruit, yoghurt or porridge.

Most people use them in tea and coffee, including milky masala chai, and in cold drinks such as lassi, lemonade and iced coffee. Granular types can go into some desserts, fruit crumbles and custard, but check the pack before baking, because many do not brown, caramelise or give a cake the same structure that sugar does.

As a rough guide, start with one tablet or a small pinch of granules for each teaspoon of sugar you would normally take, then adjust, as sweetness builds as they dissolve. Keep the dispenser dry and closed, since the tablets soften and stick together in a steamy kitchen.