I never really thought about the number of different ways to sweeten your food. In the last few weeks I have reviewed Maple Syrup, Honey, Corn Syrup and Agave Nectar. This week I will take a look at the sugars. It’s amazing the various sugars that are created from sugar cane and sugar beets; White Sugar, Powdered Sugar, Brown Sugar, 
 Sucanat®,
 Turbinado and Raw Cane Sugar. What is the difference between these products?

Granulated White Sugar – This is the sugar most known to consumers, it is the sugar found in every home’s sugar bowl, and most commonly used in home food preparation. It is the most common form of sugar and the type most frequently called for in recipes. Its main distinguishing characteristics are a paper-white color and fine crystals.

Powdered Sugar – In Canada and Great Britain it is called Icing Sugar and in France Sucre Glace. This sugar is granulated sugar ground to a smooth powder and then sifted. It contains about 3% cornstarch to prevent caking. Powdered sugar is ground into three different degrees of fineness. The confectioners sugar available in supermarkets – 10X – is the finest of the three and is used in icings, confections and whipping cream. Industrial bakers use the other two types of powdered sugar.

 

Brown sugar is simply white sugar combined with molasses. Brown sugar retains some of the surface molasses syrup, which imparts a characteristic pleasurable flavor. Dark brown sugar has a deeper color and stronger molasses flavor than light brown sugar. Lighter types are generally used in baking and making butterscotch, condiments and glazes. The rich, full flavor of dark brown sugar makes it good for gingerbread, mincemeat, baked beans, and other full flavored foods.

Sucanat® (which stands for Sugar Cane Natural), is a whole cane sugar. It’s made by simply crushing freshly cut sugar cane, extracting the juice and heating it in a large vat. Once the juice is reduced to a rich, dark syrup, it is hand-paddled. Hand paddling cools and dries the syrup; creating the dry porous granules we call Sucanat. Nothing is added and nothing is taken out! Because Sucanat still contains all of the cane’s natural molasses, it has a deep brown color and a distinct, natural molasses flavor that enhances many foods. It can be substituted for brown sugar in any recipe and it is especially good in chocolate-based recipes, for baking and for BBQ sauces and marinades. It is an excellent source of iron, calcium, vitamin B6, potassium and chromium, which helps balance blood sugar.

Raw Cane Sugar – It is essentially the product at the point before the molasses is removed (what’s left after sugarcane has been processed and refined).

Turbinado - is raw sugar that has been steam cleaned to remove contaminates, leaving a light molasses flavored, tan colored sugar. This sugar is raw sugar, which has been partially processed, where only the surface molasses has been washed off. It has a blond color and mild brown sugar flavor, and is often used in tea and other beverages.

Making the choice of what sweetener to use in your kitchen can be a little overwhelming. Hopefully this review of the various sweeteners can help you make good decisions. Do you have a favorite sweetener you use?

 

 

 

 

 

In deciding what to stock in my pantry, I try to have healthy and nutritious items. Last week I mentioned sweeteners; specifically Agave Nectar, which I have never tried, and Maple Syrup which we use all the time. There are many other sweeteners and as one reader pointed out you can even grow your own Stevia as a sweetener. I may have to try that this year.

This week I will talk about honey and corn syrup.

Honey
Honey is something we always have in our pantry. We used to keep bees and may have bees again. Once you get used to having your own local honey you can’t go back to the mass-produced honey that might be coming from China!

Bees using nectar from flowers make honey. Bees have a two miles radius so they will collect nectar from all the flowers they find in that area. The type of honey you collect from the bees varies depending on the flowers available to them in that radius.

Honey is slightly sweeter than sugar so less can be used to achieve the same sweetness intensity. Honey not only imparts a unique flavor to any dish, but is also balances and enhances the flavor properties of other ingredients used in a recipe. Honey acts as a binder and thickener for sauces, dressing, marinades and dips. It also provided and retains moisture to a variety of dishes and can even extend the life of baked goods. We enjoy a cup of tea each evening with a spoonful of honey.

In addition to being a great sweetener, honey also has a multitude of benefits that many people don’t know about. Honey has been proven to be a natural throat soother. It provides quick energy and the next time you get a burn rub it with honey, the pain will go away immediately! You can see why we are now buying our honey in bulk from a local beekeeper!

Corn Syrup
Corn syrup is made when cornstarch is broken down into glucose. You can buy both light and dark corn syrup, the light corn syrup may have vanilla flavoring added, while the dark corn syrup has a stronger natural flavor. The advantage of corn syrup over sugar is its resistance to crystallization. Regular syrups sold in bottles are a home cook’s ultimate resource in baking cakes and making candy from scratch. Unlike other sweeteners, corn syrup does not crystallize upon use or cause any grainy texture in foods.

High-fructose corn syrup is distinct from corn syrup in that it is created by enzymatic processing, producing a sweeter compound that contains higher levels of fructose. High fructose corn syrup is rarely sold directly to consumers, although it can be found in a majority of processed foods sold in grocery stores.

I have a bottle of corn syrup in my pantry but I really don’t use it much. I find I can usually substitute maple syrup or molasses in most recipes. If you do make candy and want to use corn syrup did you know there is a corn syrup substitute? Alea Milham has a wonderful recipe on her blog Premeditated Leftovers.

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If you are like me you want to stock your pantry with items that are nutritious and healthy for your family. In regards to sweeteners what do you use? I grew up with plain ordinary white sugar, which I realize is not the healthiest choice. I did a search on Wikipedia to see just how many sweeteners there were and I found a list containing 120 different sweeteners. I didn’t even recognize many of them. How do you decide what to stock in your pantry? I decided to look at just a few without talking about artificial sweeteners.

Agave nectar
Maple Syrup
Corn syrup
Honey
Powdered Sugar
White Sugar
Brown Sugar
Sucanet
Raw Cane Sugar
Turbinado Raw Cane Sugar

Over the next few weeks I will take a look at some of these various sweeteners.

Agave Nectar
Agave Nectar is best recognized as the plant from which tequila is made.

It is comparable in taste to honey according to some people. I have never tried it. I did read one post on Foodrenegade.com that stated that agave nectar is not a “natural sweetener” plus it has more concentrated fructose in it that high fructose corn syrup!

Apparently native Mexican peoples do make a sort of sweetener out of the agave plant, called miel de agave and it’s made by boiling the agave sap for a couple of hours. Similar to how maple syrup is made.

In a recent article now posted on the Weston A. Price foundation’s website, Ramiel Nagel and Sally Fallon Morell write

“ Agave “nectar” is not made from the sap of the yucca or agave plant but from the starch of the giant pineapple-like, root bulb. The principal constituent of the agave root is starch, similar to the starch in corn or rice, and a complex carbohydrate called inulin, which is made up of chains of fructose molecules. Technically a highly indigestible fiber, inulin, which does not taste sweet, comprises about half of the carbohydrate content of agave.

The process by which agave glucose and inulin are converted into “nectar” is similar to the process by which cornstarch is converted into HFCS. The agave starch is subject to an enzymatic and chemical process that converts the starch into a fructose-rich syrup—anywhere from 70 percent fructose and higher according to the agave nectar chemical profiles posted on agave nectar websites.”

If you are trying to stay away from highly refined products I would stay away from Agave nectar. Or make sure what you are buyng is made the authentic way!

Maple Syrup
Living in the state of Vermont maple syrup is near and dear to my heart. We have neighbors who run their own sugarhouse and collect the maple sap off the mountain we live on. It’s annual event to help them out and the men spend many nights working together to produce the maple syrup.

When the spring temperatures reach 45 degrees F during the day and the nights remain below freeing the sap starts to run. In March and April the sugar maker drills a hole in the trunk of the sugar maple and taps in a spout with either a bucket or plastic tubing attached. Sap averages 2-3% sugar and looks like clear water. The sugar content of syrup is 66.9%. For each gallon of maple syrup produced the sugar maker must collect 40 gallons. Sugaring season continues until warmer spring temperatures arrive and the leaf buds start to unfold. The sugarmaker will then pull the taps, clean their equipment and sell their wonderful product.

Maple syrup can be used in many ways. On your pancakes or waffles. Used in a salad dressing. It can also be used in many other main dish recipes or in baked goods. One of our favorite ways to enjoy maple syrup in is this delicious Maple Gazed Snack Mix.

Our family loves the taste of pure Vermont maple syrup and it is definitely something you will find in our pantry!

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