What is liquid glucose?

Question

Two days ago, I was making ganache as a topping for cupcakes. I needed, as expected, cream and chocolate. But '1 teaspoon of liquid glucose' was also on the list of ingredients (for 12 cupcakes). I didn't think I had that, so I used 'fondant sugar' (powder sugar with a bit of water, described here as poured fondant).

Is liquid glucose something specific you can buy in stores, or is it a collection name for all kinds of sweet, liquid stuff (honey, syrup, fondant etc.)?

If it's something specific, can you make it at home as well?

And yet another question: if I would have added (powdered) sugar to my cream, would I have accomplished ganache as well (after being poured over chocolate), since I think the sugar would dissolve in the cream?

(Just to be complete: my ganache was fine.)

Answer 1

First of all- glucose is a different sugar than table sugar. Corn syrup in the US is similar but has a few extra compounds. As far as I can tell it is used for similar reasons as liquid glucose in the EU. http://www.ochef.com/784.htm

It is used for a couple reasons:

1. it is thicker than sugar syrups.
2. when making candy a little corn syrup can be added to the sugar solution to prevent crystallization.
3. in the US at least, it is much cheaper than cane sugar.

You can buy it in stores here- I can't say whether you can in Belgium.

I have, on occasion, been forced to use a very thick sugar syrup in place of corn syrup. The recipe used the syrup for reason #1 above and turned out well. If it had been in there for reason #2 it would have been less successful.

In general, if you can find it, it is probably better to buy than to make a substitute because of reason #3.

Answer 2

Liquid glucose is also commonly known as glucose syrup.

It's half as sweet as cane sugar, and does not crystallize easily. This makes it popular among pastry chefs.

Glucose syrup is almost always made from corn, but it can also come from potatoes, wheat, barley, rice, or cassava. When it is derived from corn it is commonly known in the USA as corn syrup. Be aware that this is distinctly different from high-fructose corn syrup which has been processed to be much sweeter.

Answer 3

I live in South America, and the product "Jarabe de Goma" lists the ingredients as water, glucosa, and goma arabiga*, so it looks like this is Liquid Glucose in South America at least.

*I'm not sure what this ingredient is, as it translates to Arabic gum!

Answer 4

Liquid Glucose, CAS# 8027-56-3, is an important form of glucose commercially available, available as Thick transparent liquid. Liquid Glucose is also know as glucose syrup, widely used as sweetener in food, beverage and confectionary. Glucose is also available in solid form as Dextrose Anhydrous and Dextrose Monohydrate.