Category Archives: sweeteners

Cake Questions

by baking, fats and oil, questions, sweeteners

My friend Claire recently learned about using carob as a substitute for chocolate and decided that she wanted to try it. She felt that it was best to start with a recipe that already used carob and try to change the sugar/fat ratios so she picked this recipe.

Here are her notes, “Instead of using 2/3 cup I substituted with 1/2 cup brown sugar plus 4 tbsp's milk. It turned out looking & tasting just like a chocolate cake; just not as sweet as the ones you normally get from the store, because I didn't use as much sweetener. I shared it with a friend and she liked it and thought it was a chocolate cake. The texture of the cake is dense and more like that of a banana bread. I think if I use 100% all purpose flour or cake flour it will make a difference. I baked for 30 minutes and it turned out a little dry, so I would probably bake less than 30 minutes next time. Also adding icing might help with the dryness but I didn't use it.”

My reply: “This certainly looks great and your picture looks wonderful!! I would make one small change. Instead of brown sugar (which these days is nothing more than white sugar stained with molasses) I would try demerara sugar which is a lower process than white sugar and has a fairly good moisture content mimicking the effect of brown sugar.

In case you are wondering why manufacturers pull the molasses out of sugar to make white sugar and then add it back to make brown, it's so that they can get a consistent color palette in the product. Silly but that's why they do it.

As to the moisture…the cake probably came out a little drier because you used less sweetener. You can try to modify that by either adding a little more fat (oil or butter) or by adding something like sour cream (just a little) to help which would also give a subtle richness to the cake or applesauce which would help add moisture. The applesauce typically doesn't add anything to the flavor profile, just moisture.

Since I personally encourage people to eat more whole grains I would leave the whole wheat the way it is is the recipe, switching back to 100% enriched flour is nutritionally less desirable and will also significantly change the properties of the cake.”

As a general note, when you are modifying recipes it's sometimes difficult to remember all the different pieces that make up the whole. Changing one ingredient can have a major effect on the overall result. When working with baked goods the most important things to think about are if your change will impact the loft (whole grains are more dense requiring possibly more moisture or more leavening), the moisture, or the flavor. But most importantly, like Claire, have fun and experiment with your food.

Photo: Courtesy of Claire Wang

Mesquite Flour

by baking, gluten free, legumes, protein, questions, sweeteners

My friend Misty asked me “What do you know about mesquite flour?”  Mesquite (genus Prosopis) is a deciduous, leguminous tree that grows quite well in Texas and Mexico and has a range that goes as far north as Kansas and westward to southern California.  Most people use the wood to create a flavorful smoke that imparts a fabulous taste to barbequed meats.  But mesquite also has another purpose.


I had heard of people using mesquite flour before I moved to Texas, a high protein legume that was high in fiber and originally part of the Native American diet for Southwestern tribes.

Researching it further I have discovered that it apparently also has a good profile for calcium, manganese, iron, zinc, and is high in the amino acid lysine.  Because of it's high soluble fiber content and low glycemic index, in spite of a reported sweet flavor, mesquite flour is believed to be a good choice for diabetics.  

Mesquite flour was traditionally consumed by Pima Indians.  With the advent of a modern diet many of them have developed diabetes; this seems to be attributed to their decline in consumption of mesquite flour.  According to a study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition “the slow digestion and absorption of starch in traditional foods was a factor that helped protect susceptible populations from developing diabetes.”  These traditional foods included corn, lima beans, white and yellow teparies, mesquite, and acorns.  Another study published in the Journal of Ethnopharmacology highlighted an ethnobotanical study in Israel which researched plants used for the treatment of diabetes; one of the plants included was mesquite.

Because mesquite is a legume I am assuming that it has a non-glutinous profile making it best suited for quick breads, cakes, and muffins or cookies rather than for a yeasted bread.  

Mesquite also has another use, the flowers are attractive to bees and I have heard that mesquite honey is quite flavorful.  You can purchase mesquite honey on the internet as well as mesquite flour. There are also recipes available that call for mesquite flour.  All in all it seems like it might be somewhat similar to another legume flour, carob, which I wrote about here and here. Both are sweet, high in fiber and provide a good protein content.

photo courtesy of commons.wikimedia.org

Maple Syrup: How Is It Made, Grades, & Oat Pie Recipe

by baking, oats, recipes, sweeteners

Recently at the grocery store, I overheard a conversation.  The couple standing in the middle of the aisle were looking for Grade B maple syrup and couldn't find it.  They also were wondering what the heck the difference was between Grade A and Grade B.

Having lived in Vermont before and having spent some time in a sugar shack (just tasting mind you, not cooking) I thought I would share a little information about maple syrup.

About Maple Syrup

Maple syrup is made from the sap of the sugar maple tree.  In the spring when the weather warms up the sap starts "running".  At this point, the trees are tapped and the sugar shacks start boiling to create the syrup.  We don't often think about it when buying those small containers of maple syrup at the grocery store, but it takes 40 gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup. And the average maple tree produces approximately 10 gallons of sap.  Once they start boiling in the sugar shack they don't stop until the sap stops. That includes shifts to cover 24 hours a day until there's no more to boil.  As you can imagine, this can make for some very long days.

Grades of Maple Syrup

There are five grades of maple syrup, Grade A Light Amber is the fancy grade and the one most people use.  Grade A Medium Amber and Grade A Dark Amber are darker, obviously and they have a slightly different taste.  Grade B is even darker and thicker than Grade A Dark Amber and has a more pronounced flavor.  It is more often used for cooking because of the more intense flavor.  The last grade is Grade C, or commercial, which is for flavorings and other commercial uses.
 
When we lived in Vermont and my kids were little they used to love seeing the smoke curling out of the sugar shack down the road. That meant that there was an opportunity to stop by for a sip. And if they had the time we could also sometimes make sugar on snow, taking just a little of the fresh syrup and pouring it over a pan of snow to make a maple candy. 
 
If there was some already bottled we would buy a gallon and bring it home. Until I left Vermont I didn't really appreciate how lovely it was to buy syrup directly from the source and use it for baking and other recipes. The premium that you pay for bottle syrup is so high we are now back to purchasing small bottles and doling it out.
 
According to Ed, the guy who owned the sugar shack down the way, Vermont maple syrup is better than any other because they use more gallons of sap per gallon of finished product, boiling it thicker and making it more flavorful.  

Sweetening with Syrup

I never learned to drink coffee with maple syrup (which a number of people in Vermont do). I did, however, get a recipe from my friend Carol for a Maple Oat Pie which is a Vermont specialty.  I've modified the recipe slightly over the years but still call it Carol's Maple Oat Pie and think of her every time I make it (warning, this is not a low-calorie food but it sure is good).
 
 
 

Maple Oat Pie

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Ingredients
  

  • 1 cup organic cane juice crystals
  • 1 cup organic butter
  • 3 eggs
  • 1 cup grade A maple syrup
  • 1 cup gluten free old fashioned oats
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla
  • pinch of sea salt
  • 1 cup crushed walnuts

Instructions
 

  • Preheat over to 325°F
  • Cream together sugar and butter
  • Add eggs one at a time
  • Add remaining ingredients
  • Pour mixture into unbaked 9" gluten free pie crust
  • Bake for 10 minutes
  • Reduce heat to 300°F and bake another 45 minutes or until set

Sugar Notes

by recipes, substitutions, sweeteners

Following up on yesterday's post, I received a number of questions about different types of sugar.  Rather than getting into a discussion of all the different types of sugar out there I recommend that you check this google link for the particular sugar that you are interested in.

I did, however,  want to mention a couple of ideas about substitutions that may be helpful.
 

Sugar

For most baking I substitute sucanat (SUgar CAne NATural - the lowest process sugar you can get) unless I am making something more delicate like scones or lemon cookies, etc.  The substitution is one for one, ie, if the recipe calls for 1 C. sugar use 1 C. sucanat.
 
If I cannot use sucanat because the flavor will overwhelm what I am making, I use evaporated cane juice crystals or demerara depending on what I have on hand.  Both are more processed than sucanat but far less processed than white sugar.  They are sometimes also found as raw sugar.  Again the ratio is one for one.
 

Brown Sugar

I am going to try using turbinado sugar.  I've been using sucanat with a spoonful of molasses mixed in but have recently learned that turbinado is moister and has less calories.
 

Cinnamon Sugar

I use a 7-1 ratio, 7 T. sucanat to 1 T. cinnamon.
 

Confectioner's Sugar

I use sucanat or evaporated cane juice crystals whirred in my cuisinart to make it very powdery.  For each C. of powdered sucanat I add 1 T. cornstarch.
 

Other substitutions that may prove helpful are:

Honey

If you want to use honey instead of sugar in a recipe, use 3/4 C. honey for each C. of sugar called for.  Then reduce the remaining liquid by 1/4 C, add 1/4 t. baking soda (to help neutralize the honey) and reduce the heat by 25 degrees F (honey tends to make things darker when baked, reducing the temperature will help keep it from over-browning).
 

Maple Syrup

 
If you want to use maple syrup instead of sugar in a recipe, use 3/4 C. maple syrup for each C. of sugar.  Reduce the remaining liquid by 3 T. and add 1/4 t. baking soda to help neutralize the maple syrup).
 

Finally the non-caloric sweeteners:

I do not use and do not recommend any of the artificial sweeteners.  These include Nutrasweet, Splenda, Equal and Sweet-n-Low.
 
While I like Stevia as a sugar alternative I have not worked much at substituting it in family favorite recipes.  The general theory is that 1 C. of sugar can be replaced with 1 t. stevia liquid/1/2 t. stevia concentrate/18 stevia packets. In baking, for every 1 C. of sugar that is replaced with stevia you need to add 1/3 C. "liquid" to replace the missing bulk. Acceptable substitutes would be yogurt, unsweetened applesauce, egg whites (no yolk because that will change the structure of the baked good), fruit puree, unsweetened fruit juice or water.
 

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How Sweet Is It?

by sweeteners

I just received an email from my friend Helene:


“I recently read that ‘Rapadura is just Succanat made by another company. Then there is, Florida Crystals. All three the same thing, they are all processed sugars. The difference between them and regular super-market sugar is that they have not been bleached. All four are identical nutritionally.‘ what are your thoughts?”

So here goes: 

My research shows that sucanat is far less processed than regular white sugar. White sugar goes through so many filterings and then a bleaching that it has no mineral content left, it is pure disaccharide (a form of sucrose made up of fructose and glucose). Sucanat has the following:

Nutritional Analysis of Sucanat:

approximately one cup

* water………………………………..2.7g
* calories…………………………….570g
* carbohydrate………………………135.g
* fat……………………………………0g
* sodium……………………………..0.5mg
* potassium…………………………1,125mg
* vitamin A………………………….1600IU
* thiamin (B1)………………………0.21mg
* riboflavin (B2)…………………….0.21mg
* niacin……………………………….0.20mg
* calcium……………………………..165mg
* iron…………………………………..6.5mg
* vitamin B6………………………….0.60mg
* magnesium………………………..127mg
* zinc………………………………….2.3mg
* copper……………………………….0.3mg
* pantothenic acid………………….1.8mg
* chromium…………………………..40mcg
* phosphorus………………………..48mg

Source: USDA Handbook of Nutrient Content of Foods

Any form of sugar provides calories that are easily absorbed by the body. Lots of people are looking for the “perfect” sweetener that is sweet but has no impact on the body — not possible. White sugar is most easily absorbed by the body and spikes insulin because it is broken down into it's lowest form. But there are forms that are better than others, because they are less processed and retain some of the mineral content which slows down the body's response.

I personally use sucanat and find it to be a good sweetener. I do not, and have not for years, used white sugar or brown sugar (which is just white sugar with a little molasses thrown in). I also use evaporated cane juice crystals, also known as raw sugar, as an option when the rich flavor of sucanat would be too overwhelming for what I am making. I have heard that turbinado sugar is a good substitute for brown sugar because it does hold in some of the moisture unlike demerara or sucanat. Turbinado is also lower in calories with 11 calories per per teaspoon versus 16 calories for white sugar. As far as other sweeteners go I also use honey, maple syrup, molasses and stevia.


So by way of conclusion, I have heard that rapadura and sucanat are the same thing but even if they are they are not the same as white table sugar.  Because they are less processed I do believe that they are a better choice.

Update:  Helene says she's happy to hear this.  She uses sucanat and honey plus occasionally a splash of stevia in her coffee.  

photo courtesy of freephotobank.org