Questions tagged [sugar]

Questions about sugar or substitutions for it for culinary purposes.

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2 votes
0 answers
19 views

Sponge cake: how the proportions of the ingredients change the result

The common recipe (at least in Italy) for sponge cake is: total weight of eggs (yolks + whites) = X sugar = flour = 2/3 X I'm aware that the ratio of the ingredients affect the final result. For ...
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2 votes
2 answers
169 views

Does using less sugar fundamentally impact how a cake or pie comes out other than sweetness?

One of my favorite pies is Impossible Pie, named such because you need only mix the ingredients and bake in a greased pan and it will form three layers (bottom crust, middle custard, top crunchy ...
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2 votes
0 answers
54 views

Should substituting about half of the sugar with erythritol make cookies lose all crispness?

There are some chocolate chip cookies I've made a couple of times made of (clarified) butter, sugar, oatmeal plus (white or whole wheat) flour, (a small amount of) egg, chocolate chips, vanilla, salt ...
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0 votes
0 answers
183 views

Can raw scallops be used as a sugar substitute?

Raw scallops contain glycine and alanine, two amino acids that invoke the sensation of sweetness on the tongue. People's sensitivity to these compounds can differ greatly; to me scallops have a very ...
0 votes
0 answers
68 views

Wrong ingredient order for dried cranberries?

I am looking at the nutritional label for Mariani Dried Cranberries. If I'm reading the label correctly, the serving size is 40g, 26g of which are added sugar (yep, 2/3 of this product is sugar!). ...
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0 votes
2 answers
101 views

US food label of organic lemon juice

100% Juice 59 servings 1 tsp per serving (5ml) Ingredients: Organic Lemon Juice Calories zero, everything is zero on the nutrition facts and nothing mentioning sugar. Is only organic maple syrup ...
1 vote
0 answers
107 views

Replacing sugar with maple syrup

I have a cake recipe which, among its ingredients, requires using 300 gr of sugar and 120 gr of water. If I wanted to replace the sugar with maple syrup, would I need to adjust also the amount of ...
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1 vote
2 answers
185 views

Can salt and sugar be used simultaenously to preserve food?

For example, Amla (Indian gooseberries) can be preserved by candying them in sugar, or preserving them in brine and vinegar. However, the candying makes them too sweet and preserving in salt makes ...
  • 113
6 votes
1 answer
416 views

Making jelly using erythritol & monk fruit extract in place of sugar

I'm making jelly. The box of pectin says not to reduce the sugar or it can cause 'set failure'. I want to use 'erythritol w/ monk fruit extract' in place of sugar (purchased from Costco). Will that ...
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0 votes
0 answers
140 views

How do I remove the soapy taste in homemade chili using home canned tomatoe juice?

Used home canned juice and store bought tomatoes to make chili. Added 2 tbls of sugar to the chili to cut down the metal taste. Now my chili has a soapy after taste. Can thus be saved or should I dump ...
25 votes
9 answers
9k views

How to dispose large amount of wet sugar?

I semi- regularly make my own dried, aged meat. As the first step, I keep it for 24-48 hours in sugar. Sugar sucks water out beautifully and when I'm done with it, it's dripping wet. So I have 10kg of ...
  • 1,602
6 votes
3 answers
3k views

Is sugar in syrup necessary?

I regularly make syrup from herbs (mint, lemon leaf, basil, etc.), usually with the following recipe: 1l water, 500g sugar, boil, let it cool to 70°C, add herbs, let it seep a day, strain it, add ...
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4 votes
1 answer
188 views

What is the difference between castor, confectionary and icing sugar?

I see these labels used and was wondering what exactly they mean?
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1 vote
2 answers
182 views

Can you make butter-cream icing with margerine?

I want to make a tipsy carrot cake. One where I make a nice sugar pickle with brandy, treacle sugar, powdered ginger and nutmeg. Grate the carrots and let them marinate overnight in the sugar pickle ...
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1 vote
1 answer
146 views

Why is my cream cheese frosting so soft?

I am using (almost) the CupcakeJemma recipe for cream cheese frosting: 150g soft unsalted butter 240g cream cheese 320g icing sugar (confectioner’s/powdered sugar) The listed recipe says to use 960g ...
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6 votes
3 answers
1k views

What temp is considered “room” temperature? Our home is at 68-69°F. If the butter is very soft and the flour and sugar are warmer does that help?

What is considered room temperature? Should the butter be quiet soft and the flour and sugar warmer than 65-69°F degrees (18--20°C)?
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0 votes
2 answers
88 views

dissolving sugar in chocolate truffels

200g of molten butter, with 1.5 cups of sugar; nearly half an hour of mixing on medium-low heat barely persuaded sugar sand to half-dissolve, with a couple of tablespoons of water poured in. Once 1 ...
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1 vote
1 answer
82 views

Sugar coated pecans without turning amber

I had an old Aunt who used to make the best sugar coated pecans. I have tried to replicate the recipe but where hers were a snowy white colour mine turn out caramel looking. How do I do this and have ...
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1 vote
0 answers
98 views

Digestibility of cocoa/cacao butter in white chocolate

I know that if I were to eat a chunk of cocoa/cacao butter on its own, my body wouldn't really digest it well. Typically, for large amounts of fat, they need to be emulsified to be digested. However, ...
  • 111
4 votes
1 answer
371 views

What happens when custard ingredients are reordered?

In the mathematics book How to Bake Pi by Eugenia Cheng in the chapter titled Sameness she mentions the making of custard. She explains that although custard has only three ingredients the order of ...
  • 141
3 votes
1 answer
973 views

Why can you make hard candy with maple syrup, honey, and corn syrup, but not agave nectar?

Maple syrup is mostly sucrose. Honey is a mixture of glucose and fructose. Corn syrup is glucose. Agave is mostly fructose. I have read that the chemistry of candy involves a disaccharide (sucrose=...
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3 votes
2 answers
176 views

Why Does My Sugar Wax Turn Out Different When Scaling Up The Volume?

I'm in the process of making sugar wax made of heated sugar, lemon juice and water. I have found a ratio that works great when it's heated up to 119 C (246.2 F). It gives me a wax that has the perfect ...
4 votes
2 answers
1k views

Using manual egg beater to cream eggs and sugar

So I don’t have a whisk or an electric whisk and a lot of baking recipes say to cream eggs and sugar and I used to do it with those tools. Can I cream eggs and sugar with a manual egg beater (in ...
2 votes
1 answer
112 views

Sugar content of food

This appears to be the most relevant site to post my question about the sugar content of foods. For the various sugar products that I have come across recently, it appears that typically one teaspoon ...
5 votes
2 answers
283 views

Using osmotolerant yeast in regular bread

After the demise of my sourdough starter, I've decided to switch to instant yeast, and am trying to decide which to buy. Specifically, I'm comparing Saf-Instant Red and Saf-Instant Gold. The former is ...
3 votes
1 answer
184 views

Can I source fat and sugar in a recipe from chocolate?

I've been looking at chocolate flapjack recipes but they seem to contain relatively little chocolate, so I'm wondering if it's possible to replace more fundamental ingredients (butter, sugar) in a ...
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2 votes
3 answers
188 views

Which machine/ product would be best for melting then maintaining sugar mixture at constant temperature?

I use a sugar and glucose syrup mixture and use it to form candies in demonstrations in front of people. When I use it it is between 80 and 90°C. This mixture is prepared ahead and then transferred to ...
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-1 votes
1 answer
418 views

Add sugar to Taco Seasoning?

Do I add sugar? So many people have told me they put sugar in their seasoning and I don't understand why. What does sugar provide to this recipe and how much should I experiment with? This is the ...
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1 vote
1 answer
112 views

Can I use liquid-form sugar to replace powdered-form sugar in meringue or sponge cake?

Borderline diabetes runs in my mom's side of the family so I'm taking some proactive steps to reduce empty carbs as much as I can. Sponge cake is something I make often and I always put less sugar ...
0 votes
1 answer
108 views

Achieving viscosity when making cocoa spread, without butter or coconut oil, with colza oil, without nuts

I've found several recipes to make cocoa spread (meaning without nuts of any kind), but none really satisfy what I'm looking for. I've tested a combination of chocolate, usually 50% cocoa cocoa ...
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1 vote
1 answer
50 views

Altering halvah recipe

Here is basic recipe for Halvah: Ingredients 2 cups honey 1 teaspoon vanilla 1 1/2 cups unsalted pistachios or almonds 2 cups tahini If I were to drop ratio of honey to tahini to 1:2, what would ...
  • 300
1 vote
2 answers
279 views

How long to cook syrup for Baklava?

I want to make Baklava, but I do not know how long to cook the syrup for. Some websites say 4-5 minutes, some say 20 minutes, and I am clueless... I am using an 8x8 pan, 7 oz of white sugar and 7 oz ...
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3 votes
4 answers
420 views

Sticky, tacky texture with less sweetness?

If I want a sticky, tacky surface on food, I typically use some kind of very sweet sauce. As it reduces down and the sugars caramelize during cooking, it leaves a delightful candied layer on the ...
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1 vote
2 answers
143 views

White sugar vs refined sugar

What's the difference between white sugar and (pure) refined sugar and which one is better for baking?
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1 vote
1 answer
207 views

Yellow tail tuna (hamachi) -- is it possible that the sweet taste comes from sugars present in the fish's flesh?

It feels like this might be a stupid question but I can find nothing from googling this and in my experience, anything that tastes sweet tends to have sugar or sugar substitute.
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2 votes
1 answer
337 views

Blackstrap molasses vs regular molasses

I'm aware of how molasses and refined sugar are made from sugar cane and how brown sugar is white sugar with molasses added back to it. But -- how "different" are the three grades of ...
  • 225
0 votes
1 answer
2k views

How to stop erythritol crystallisation?

While making a "sugar" syrup reduction with erythritol, I have noticed that the liquid crystallises upon cooling. Google-fu says two parts of water and one part of erythritol will not ...
3 votes
1 answer
367 views

Is creamed butter stable for mid or long term storage?

I find creaming butter a pretty annoying process. I would like to make lots of it at once and aliquot for later use. Is creamed butter less stable than butter? You wouldn't think so because you are ...
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9 votes
1 answer
347 views

How to adjust for making candy from corn syrup instead of sugar?

I've recently started to experiment with making hard candy from straight corn syrup rather than conventional sugar, and so far it has worked remarkably well. Aside from increased sweetness and ...
7 votes
1 answer
3k views

Would replacing sugar with a sweetener affect bread dough fermentation?

I've been baking Asian style sweet bread rolls using the Tangzhong method with success. However recipe calls for quite a bit of sugar (60g for 2.5 cups of flour). Will substituting a natural sweetener ...
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1 vote
0 answers
68 views

Dextrose Sugar Cubes

I’m trying to make sugar cubes with dextrose sugar. I need the cubes strong enough to handle, but want them to easily break down or really melt when placed in mouth. What is the best ratio dextrose:...
1 vote
1 answer
217 views

Can I substitute granulated sugar for caster sugar in Marzipan?

I'd like to make marzipan, but I don't have caster/superfine sugar, only "regular" white sugar. Will it work, or are there any tricks to make it work without a grinding implement? I just ...
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0 votes
0 answers
157 views

Baking and Tahini Halva: replacing sugar/honey with corn syrup (pure dextrose)?

I just read a recipe for DIY Tahini Halva made using honey and another recipe (sugar free) of Tahini halva made with erythritol. However, Erythritol is not cheap and I don't mind carbs like "...
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1 vote
1 answer
342 views

How to replace sugar with dry fruit in a cake recipe?

How do I replace all the sugar in a cake recipe with dry fruit e.g. dates? should I rehydrate dry fruit and make it into a paste? how much liquid should I add to the dry fruit to make that paste? what ...
0 votes
1 answer
97 views

Swapping sugar for something less calorie dense but keeping the volume

I have a friend who bakes for me. I suggested that we swap sugar for Stevia or something even less calorie dense. She's worried, though, that since the volume of the sugar is different, the banana ...
0 votes
1 answer
122 views

What is a good technique for making a very small amount of caramel?

By caramel I mean caramelised sugar made into a sauce with butter. What is the best way to make a caramel sauce if only a tiny quantity is required? What is the smallest amount of sugar that is ...
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2 votes
1 answer
650 views

Does the sugar used in the curing process of Gravlax add to the caloric value of the final product?

When making Gravlax, a mixture of sugar and salt is used to coat the fish and cure it. After the curing time has passed, the curing mixture is washed off together with any spices used and the excess ...
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1 vote
0 answers
346 views

For the life of me I can't get my nougat to set hard

Recipe: Syrup 1 cup sugar 1/2 cup corn syrup 1/8 cup water (I dont think this does anything) Dash of salt Egg white 1 egg white whipped Dash of cream of tartar to stabilize the egg white 2 tbsp ...
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-1 votes
1 answer
201 views

Remove soap water mixed with granulated sugar

Due to the lockdown amidst COVID-19, I bought granulated sugar online and got it delivered. To take extra precaution, I washed the sealed packet with soap water. Later I found out that the packet ...
5 votes
5 answers
3k views

What is the real temperature to caramelize sugar?

A lot of web pages claim that sugar caramelizes at ~160C. But also a lot of recipes caramelize sugar in a simmering water. The boiling point of water is only 100C. So how can these recipes succeed so ...

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