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I've noticed that often when using recipes from the US that corn syrup is called for, and I was wondering what the best alternative to it would be to get in the UK?

I've heard some people saying that golden syrup is comparable, but when using it in cooking (particularly baking) it always seems to give a sticky / stodgy texture that I don't think is meant to be there?

Any ideas?

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    What are you using the syrup in?
    – awithrow
    Commented Sep 13, 2010 at 15:13
  • Usually baking - but when using the golden syrup it tends ot make everything much stickier than I expect it to - however as I don't really know what corn syrup is it could be turning out how it should be!
    – Dibstar
    Commented Sep 14, 2010 at 10:56
  • Corn syrup does tend to make things sticky. One of the classic uses for it is to make pecan pie, which is a sticky, sugary, yummy mass.
    – Martha F.
    Commented Sep 14, 2010 at 18:28

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As far as I understand the basic chemistry, golden syrup should do well for you.

A different option is to dissolve a lot of sugar in some hot water and then to slowly reduce it to the right consistency, which should be more or less identical to corn syrup.

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  • Golden syrup should work. But corn syrup in the US usually has added vanilla. You may want to add some vanilla extract to get the same flavor.
    – Martha F.
    Commented Sep 13, 2010 at 16:51
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    Note that for candy making (including fudge), the sugar-dissolved-in-water trick will not work. The reason you add corn syrup to many candy/fudge recipes is that the different types of sugar molecules (fructose vs. glucose vs. sucrose) interfere with each other, thus preventing crystallization.
    – Marti
    Commented Oct 28, 2015 at 19:19
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I did attempt too make hard blue candy for a "Disney Frozen" birthday cake with golden syrup.
Now I know why they say "use corn syrup" - as the golden syrup affects the color of the candy. While the color was wrong the candy came out really nice.

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    Hello and welcome to the site! I took the liberty to edit your question a bit: We usually skip "the niceties" like greetings and just give the bare facts. This keeps the site easier to read. If you do object, you may rollback my changes any time.
    – Stephie ♦
    Commented Feb 6, 2015 at 13:07
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Liquid glucose will work well I use this in a lot of my own recipes when I need to you can buy in chemists and supermarkets.

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I made modelling chocolate by substituting corn syrup with honey and it was great!

85g honey (I used a bark honey, which isn't as sweet as flower honey) 225g chocolate (I was using white chocolate)

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1.25c (296ml) sugar dissolved in 0.25c (59ml) hot water is equivalent to Light Corn Syrup.

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    Unfortunately, that is not totally correct. If you just need a liquid sweetener, your method works, but chemically speaking corn syrup is mostly fructose while ordinary sugar is saccharose, i.e. half fructose, half glucose in joint meolcules. For candy-making thebahviour is quite different. Welcome to the site, btw.!
    – Stephie ♦
    Commented Mar 8, 2015 at 16:27
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Golden syrup should work just fine as it has a similar texture.

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    There's already an answer saying this, with a little more detail. You'll probably find your posts better received if you have something new to add.
    – Cascabel ♦
    Commented Jun 29, 2015 at 23:58

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