Sugars

Purposes in baking:

Add sweetness and flavors

Create tenderness and fineness of texture, partly by weakening the gluten structure.

Give crust color

Increase keeping qualities by retaining moisture

Act as creaming agents with fats and as foaming agents with eggs

Provide food for yeast

Regular refined sugars are derived from sugarcane or beets.

The chemical name for these sugars is sucrose. However, other sugars of different chemical structures are also used in the bakeshop.

Sugars belong to a group of substances called carbohydrates, a group that also includes starches.

There are two basic groups of sugar: – Simple sugars (or monosaccharides, which means “simple sugars” – Complex sugars (or disaccharides, meaning “double sugars”

Starches, or polysaccharides, have more complex chemical structures than sugars. Sucrose is a disaccharide, as are maltose (malt sugar) and lactose (the sugar found in milk). Examples of simple sugars are glucose and fructose.

All these sugars have different degrees of sweetness. For example, lactose is much less sweet than regular table sugar (sucrose), while fructose (or fruit sugar, one of the sugars in honey) is much sweeter than sucrose.

Invert Sugar When a sucrose solution is heated with an acid, some of the sucrose breaks down into equal parts of two simple sugars, dextrose and levulose. A mixture of equal parts of dextrose and levulose is called invert sugar

Invert sugar has two properties that make it interesting to the baker.

First, it holds moisture especially well mixed, therefore helps keep cakes fresh and moist.

Second, resists crystallization. Thus, it promotes smoothness in candies, icings, and syrups.

This is why an acid such as cream of tartar is often added to sugar syrups.

The heat inverts some of the sugar when it is boiled, thus preventing graininess in the candy or icing.

Invert sugar is produced commercially, and it is also present in honey.

Regular Refined Sugars, or Sucrose Refined sugars are classified by the size of the grains. However, there is no standardized system of labeling, the names of the various granulations will vary, depending on the manufacturer.

Granulated sugar, also called fine granulated or fine sugar, is the most familiar and the most commonly used.

Very fine and ultra-fine sugars are finer than regular granulated sugar. They are prized for making cakes and cookies because they make amore uniform batter and will support higher quantities of fat.

Finer granulations are better for mixing doughs and batters, because they dissolve more quickly. Course sugars are likely to leave undissolved grains, even after long mixing. These show up after baking as dark spots on crusts and irregular texture. Also, fine sugars are better for creaming of fats, because they create a finer, more uniform air structure and better volume.

Confectioner’s sugar or Powdered sugars, are ground to a fine powder and mixed with a small amount of starch (about 3%) to prevent lumping.

They are classified by coarseness or fineness. – 10X is the finest sugar. It gives the smoothest (textures in icings) – 6X is the standard confectioners’ sugar. It is used in icings, toppings, and cream fillings. – Courser types (XXX and XX) are used for dusting and for any purposes for which 6X and 10X are too fine.

Brown sugar, is mostly sucrose (about 85 to 92%), but it also contains varying amounts of caramel, molasses, and other impurities, which give it its characteristic flavor.

The darker grades contain more of these impurities. Basically, brown sugar is regular cane sugar that has not been completely refined. However, it can also be made by adding measured amounts of these impurities to refined sugar.

Brown sugar was at one time available in fifteen grades, ranging from very dark to very light. Today, only two to four grades are generally available.

Because it contains a small amount of acids, brown sugar can be used with baking soda to provide some leavening. It is used in place of regular white sugar when its flavor is desired and its color would not be objectionable. Of course, it should not be used in white cakes. Keep brown sugar in an airtight container to prevent it form drying and hardening.

Syrups Molasses, is concentrated sugar cane juice.

Sulfured molasses is a by-product of sugar refining. It is the product that remains after most of the sugar has been extracted from cane juice. Unsulfured molasses is not a by-product but is a specially manufactured sugar product. It has a less bitter taste than sulfured molasses.

Molasses contains large amounts of sucrose and other sugars, including invert sugar. It also contains acids, moisture, and other constituents that give it is flavor and color. Darker grades are stronger in flavor and contain less sugar than lighter grades.

Molasses retains moisture in baked goods and therefore prolongs freshness. Crisp cookies made with molasses can become soft very quickly, because the invert sugars absorb moisture from the air.

Corn syrup, or glucose syrup, is a liquid sweetener consisting of water, a vegetable gum called dextrin, and various sugars, primarily dextrose (also called glucose).

Corn syrup is made by converting cornstarch into simple compounds through the use of enzymes. Corn syrup aids in retaining moisture and is used in some icings and candies.

Honey, is a natural sugar syrup consisting largely of the simple sugars glucose and fructose, in addition to other compounds that give it its flavor. Honeys vary considerably in flavor and color, depending on their source.

Flavor is the major reason for using honey, especially since it can be expensive. Because honey contains invert sugar, it helps retain moisture in baked goods. Like molasses, it contains acid, which enables it to be used with baking soda as a leavening.

Malt syrup, also called malt extract, is used primarily in yeast breads.

It serves as food for the yeast and adds flavor and crust color to the breads. Malt is extracted from barley that has been sprouted (malted) and then dried and ground.

There are two basic types of malt syrup: – Diastatic malt, contains an enzymes called diastase, which breaks down starch into sugars that can be acted on by yeast.

Thus, diastatic malt, when added to bread dough, is a powerful food for yeast. It is used when fermentation times are short. It should not be used when fermentation times are long, because too much starch will be broken down by the enzymes. This results in bread with a sticky crumb. Diastatic malt is produced with high, medium, or low diastase content.

– Non-diastatic malt, is processed at high temperatures, which destroy the enzymes and give the syrup a darker color and stronger flavor. It is used because it contains fermentable sugar and contributes flavor, crust color, and keeping qualities to breads.

If malt syrup is not available, you may substitute regular granulated sugar. Malt is available in two other forms. – Dried malt extract, is simply malt syrup that has been dried. It must be kept from the air. – Malt flour, is the dried, ground, malted barley that has not had the malt extracted from it. It is obviously a much less concentrated form of malt. When used in bread-making, it is blended with the flour.