In 2011 the European Commission (EU) issued Regulation No 1131/2011 whereby it was allowed to use steviol glycosides obtained from leaves of a Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni plant that is a food additive. Therefore food technologists have gained new opportunities to use this sweetener in food products of many categories. The objective of the research study was to assess the effect of partially or completely substituting sucrose with steviol glycosides on rheological characteristics of milk- and starch-based desserts. The research materials were desserts made from a Superior Standard potato starch or from an acetylated potato starch, skimmed milk powder, sucrose and/or steviol glycosides, with the addition of curcumin as a colour additive and vanilla flavour. In the individual samples 0 %, 33.5 %, 66.5 % and 100 % of the sucrose amount were substituted with steviol glycosides the sweetening potential of which was taken into account. In order to assess rheological properties of the desserts, gelatinization characteristics, viscosity curves and mechanical spectra were determined. It was found that the desserts made from the acetylated starch were characterized by lower values of apparent viscosity determined in  the gelatinization and flow tests and by lower values of storage and loss moduli as compared to the desserts made from the unmodified starch. All the desserts exhibited properties of non-Newtonian, shear thinned fluids. Substituting sucrose with steviol glycosides in the recipes of starch desserts, pastes and gels were produced with significantly modified rheological characteristics, and the direction of the induced changes depended on the type of starch used. In terms of the rheological properties of starch-based dessert, sucrose may act as a  viscosity enhancing agent as well as a factor to hinder swelling of starch granules and to limit interactions between starch polymers and other ingredients of the dessert.