Sugars and sweeteners perform critical roles in baking and pastry making. As a matter of fact, sugar makes up the third most significant constituent of baking fundamentals: fat, flour and sugar. If you are not a pastry chef already, and think of joining one of the baking and pastry schools around, take independent baking and pastry courses or even enroll in cake decorating classes, you will get a chance to explore on a more professional level-all different kinds of sugars and sweeteners available in the baking and pastry industry, the mechanics of sugars and sweeteners, the right way to cook them, when and how to substitute one for another, and by how much you can reduce the amount of sugar in your baking and pastry recipes without affecting the quality of your final product. Below are few kinds of sweeteners that are commonly used among bakers and pastry chefs along with their major functions in baking:
Granulated Sugar: also known as white or table sugar with fine and uniform size crystals refined from sugar beets or sugarcane, and used for almost all culinary and baking creations. Granulated sugar can also be used as a nice topping on cookies for extra sweetness and double crunch. Check peanut butter chocolate chip cookies recipe.
Caster Sugar: or superfine sugar whose crystals are smaller in size than those of granulated sugar, and thus, it dissolves quite faster and needs minimal stirring. Caster sugar is perfect for making whipped cream, meringues and light, tender cakes. If you don't have caster sugar handy, you may grind granulated sugar in a food processor to a finer texture for few seconds (usually 25-30 seconds).
Confectioners Sugar: also called powdered sugar, and is produced by grinding granulated sugar to the most finest texture possible. Though available in different degrees of fineness, "10X" is the finest because it is being processed 10 times, and it is most common in stores. Confectioners sugar has a tendency to lump, therefore, a 3%-5% of cornstarch need to be added for moisture absorption purposes. If you happen to replace part of granulated sugar with confectioners sugar in a sugar cookie recipe, the added cornstarch will make your dough a bit stiffer, and the cookies will hold their shapes much better. Unlike brown or granulated sugar, confectioners sugar doesn't create air pockets and unable to lift batter up when creamed with butter and shortening because it is extremely fine in texture. Pastry chefs and bakers usually use confectioners sugar to make glazes, icings, sweet pastries and decorating cakes and other confections as in honey pear tart. If you don't have confectioners sugar handy, for each cup of granulated sugar, add 1 teaspoon of cornstarch and grind in a coffee grinder till you end up with fine confectioners sugar. Of course, if your recipe calls for more than 1 cup of confectioners sugar, repeat the above process.
Brown Sugar: is a refined cane sugar with various percentages of added molasses that give baked products a caramel-like flavor and keep them fresh longer. Brown sugar is available in light and dark color varieties:
- Light Brown Sugar: contains about 3.5% of added molasses.
- Dark Brown Sugar: contains about 6.5% of added molasses.
Unless the recipe calls for dark brown sugar, we suggest that you use light brown sugar instead. You may use brown sugar in conjunction with granulated sugar in a cookie recipe as in chocolate chip cookies. In a granulated sugar cookie recipe, you may also substitute brown sugar for part of granulated sugar to increase the cookie spread, add caramel-like flavor, and keep cookies moist and tender quite longer. Keep in mind that goods baked with brown sugar tend to brown faster than those baked with granulated sugar. If you don't have brown sugar handy, you can create one at home per the following measures:
- 1 cup of light brown sugar = 1 cup of granulated sugar + 1 tbsp of molasses.
- 1 cup of dark brown sugar = 1 cup of granulated sugar + 2 tbsp of molasses.
Decorative Sugar: is a coarse sugar with large-size crystals, usually used for decorating cookies, cakes and pastries. Because decorative sugar has a coarse texture to it, pastry chefs and bakers use it to add a nice crunch and extra sweetness on top of cookies, muffins, and pies. It is available in different colors (white, green, red, amber) and different sizes that range between A, AA, and larger than the latter. Turbinado sugar (or Demerara sugar) is an example of decorative sugar that is manufactured into coarse crystals with high moisture content. It has an amber color and nice caramel flavor similar to that of brown sugar. Turbinado sugar is used in certain baked products, and makes a wonderful crunchy topping on cookies. However, because it has a relatively high moisture content, it is not recommend as substitute for brown sugar or even granulated sugar.
Honey: a thick sweetener, composed of glucose and fructose derived from the nectar of flowers and naturally made by honeybees. Of course, the flavor and color of honey depends on three main factors: type of flowers the nectar comes from, season in which it is being made, and its age. Honey is quite used in baking, however, if you are to substitute honey for sugar in your baking and pastry recipes, you need to take into consideration the following facts:
- Honey is a very intense sweetener as it is 1 1/4 times sweeter than sugar which means you need to adjust the sweetener part of your baking and/or pastry recipe according to this fact.
- Honey has a very distinctive flavor, and if used in baking, it may very well overpower other flavors in the baking products. Thus, honey that comes from nectar of orange flowers is usually recommended to use in baking and pastry recipes since it has a mild flavor that add a light twist to the final baked products.
- Honey is very hygroscopic sweetener. That is, in humid days, it attracts water from the air and lose it very slowly through evaporation, resulting in moister and fresher baked products that last longer, compared to those made with granulated sugar.
Baker Tip: If your honey crystallizes an/or harden over time, you may want to put your honey container in a saucepan partially filled with water and occasionally stir over low heat till it becomes liquid-like.
Molasses: it is a liquid by-product of sugar refining process, and it is either dark or light in color. Since molasses derived from refining beet sugar is bitter and has an unlikable smell, the only edible molasses is the one that comes from refining cane sugar. Molasses has a distinctive flavor, and is often used in baking recipes. That being said however, it is recommended that you use light or mild molasses instead of strong or dark one, unless you are opt for a robust kind of flavor and/or your baking recipe calls for such. Unlike granulated sugar, molasses doesn't include sucrose, and therefore, it attracts moisture easily, and thus keep baked products moist, and prevent them from getting dry.
Corn Syrup: like honey, corn syrup is thick, viscous and very hygroscopic sweetener, yet less sweeter. Corn syrup is produced by converting starch found in corn into sugar, using some kind of enzymes. The more successful the corn conversion process is, the sweeter, thicker and more viscous the syrup will be. Corn syrup can be purchased in dark and light varieties, and is often used in making frosting and candies because it doesn't become grainy like sugar does, and if used in conjunction with sugar in a baking or pastry recipe, it keeps from recrystallization, and add a nice chewy and thick texture to the final baked product due to its viscosity-like nature.
The Roles of Sugar and Sweeteners In Baking and Pastry Making:
- Tenderness: like butter, margarine and oil, sugar acts a shortening agents when added to a bread or pastry dough. It shortens developed gluten strands as it competes with protein in flour for moisture, and thus keep baked product quite tender. Sugar also has the ability to hinder starch in flour from getting gelatinized. This explains why a pastry dough rich in sugar is less chewy and more tender than French baguette or sourdough bread.
- Moisture: molasses, brown sugar, corn syrup and honey have the ability to retain moisture when used in baking and/or pastry recipes. Meanwhile, They attract additional moisture from the air, and thus keep the baked products moist and fresh longer. Nonetheless, when using highly hygroscopic sweeteners in certain recipes like candies', you are likely to end up with sticky-like product over time due to the extra moisture drawn from the air.
- Browning: when used in baking and pastry recipes, sugar has the tendency to brown baked goods like cookies, cake, muffins and other pastries as it melts and caramelizes while baking. Using milk in a bread recipe also tend to enhance the crust color due to the lactose (sugar) found in milk. Corn syrup, honey and other hygroscopic sweeteners provide a deep brown color to the baked products while baking at a low temperature.
- Leavening: Unlike confectioners sugar which lacks the ability to cream well with butter as mentioned earlier, granulated sugar and sharp sugar crystals can be nicely beaten into margarine, butter, or shortening, forming little air pockets into the mixture which give the batter or pastry dough a nice loft and structure while baking in the oven.
- Fermentation: yeast feeds on sugar for growth. For this to happen, it converts starch found in flour into sugar for food. Without this ability, yeast wont' be able to grow and thrive as rapidly, especially in sugar-free bread. Therefore, adding a little bit of sugar to a bread dough is recommended so as to speed up the fermentation process and force the dough to rise more quickly. Too much sugar may ruin your dough though.
- Spread: molasses, brown sugar, honey and corn syrup contribute to the spread of pastry dough (especially cookie dough) due to their moisture retention qualities. While baking, they melt and turn somehow into liquid, allowing cookie dough to expand. Keep in mind that cookies made with granulated sugar spread less compared to those made with brown sugar. Cookies made with confectioners sugar decrease the spread of dough even more, allowing the cookie to hold their shape better.
Baker Tip:
If you decide to replace a portion of granulated sugar with confectioners sugar in a cookie dough, beat granulated sugar with butter or any other type of shortening to create aeration, then add in the dry ingredients along with the confectioners sugar.
