What is sweeteners??? types of sweeteners?

 What is sweeteners???

Sweetness are the soul of all deserts when we talk about deserts they have to be sweet. Sugar is one of the most important ingredient used in confectioneries and it is uses in not only limited to provide sweetness but it has various others uses such as altering the texture of products giving colour to the baked goods etc.

Sugar also delay the coagulation of protein in eggs and promote the aeration in product etc. It is available in various forms such as grain sugar icing sugar breakfast sugar and this categorisations is basically done on the shape and size of the sugar crystal.


Types of sweeteners used in cooking and baking

Let us discuss types of sweeteners commonly used in baking and cooking in food production 

Granulated sugar 

- Sugar crystals usually obtained from sugarcane. This is the regular white sugar which is used in homes. Usage of this sugar will find its place in any preparation which has sufficient liquid to dissolve it. For example, whipping eggs, making sugar syrups, cooking sabayon over double boilers, etc.

Castor sugar / breakfast sugar 

- It is commonly used in breakfast, for tea and coffee. It is a small evenly graded sugar crystal which dissolves quickly and is easier to dissolve in the creaming methods. It is more expensive and hence should not be substituted for grain sugar.

Icing sugar 

- Granulated sugar is crushed into fine powder and has a small percentage of com starch added to keep it smooth and free flowing. Icing sugar is used for creaming methods where it would be used as icing for cakes and pastries. Icing sugar can also be sifted on top of dry baked sweet products as a garnish

Brown sugar

 - This is a granulated sugar which is available in variety of shades of brown. The darker brown sugar is also known as 'demerara sugar and darker the colour, more pronounced is the flavour. Brown sugar is the residual sugar obtained during the process of refining sugar.

 Many people mix the granulated sugar with caramelized black sugar syrup to colour the sugar, but the flavour is not the same.

Golden syrup 

- It is a thick amber coloured liquid obtained from sugar during the refining process It is treated with acid to cut down on the sharp taste. It looks similar to honey and is used in making confectionery products.

Corn syrup

 - It is chemically refined syrup made from corn kernels. This is usually obtained as a clear liquid and the coloured com syrup is artificially coloured. It is very sweet and contains high amount of fructose. It is a common ingredient in processed foods and beverages.

Maple syrup

 - It is natural sweetener and is a sap of maple tree. It is boiled down to thick syrup. Pure maple syrup is very expensive, as to obtain 1 litre of maple one has to boil down at

least 40 litres of maple sap, The commercial maple syrups are corn syrup with

percentage of maple syrup added to them. It could be added in the range of 2-6 per

The percentage of the maple is always mentioned on the bottle and this decides price of the product.

Treacle 

- When the sugarcane juice undergoes refining, it undergoes many stages. In the first stage the white sugar or the raw sugar is removed. The remaining sugar syrup is used to make treacle which is stronger than golden syrup but less than molasses.

Honey

 - Honey is a natural sugar obtained from bee hives. The colour and flavour of honey will vary with its source. Some commercial honey farms allow bees to suck the nectar from only one particular flower to produce the honey of that flavour. One can use honey in most of the baked products but care has to be taken as honey can caramelised even at lower temperatures.

Date sugar

 - It is obtained from drying and pulverizing dates. It is very sweet and although it does not dissolve very well, it is used in many baked products.

Palm sugar

 - Paim sugar is traditionally made from the sap of palmyra palm or the date palm. It is extensively used in Asian cooking, especially Thai. Nowadays sugar from sago and coconut is also made and sold as coconut sugar and sago sugar.

Jaggery 

- Jaggery is a product made in India, Africa, and South America. It is produced from

sugarcane and is healthy and nutritious as the whole sugarcane juice is cooked with molasses. The colour of the jaggery or gur, as commonly known in India, can be light o dark depending upon the degree of cooking.


Molasses 

- Molasses is the by-product of sugar from sugarcane. There are three stages of refining of sugar and with every stage a residual sweetener is left behind which is known as molasses. As the stages increase, the colour and the flavour of the molasses become more strong and darker.

Invert sugar 

- These are sucrose-based syrups that are treated with acids or chemicals. The acid breaks the sucrose molecule into glucose and fructose. Since there are now two molecules of sugar it will be sweeter than sucrose. Com syrup is a type of invert sugar and this property of inverting sugar does not let the sugar to crystallize easily and hence the product stays moist.

Liquid glucose 

- Liquid glucose is obtained by treating the corn slurry by acid-a process known as hydrolysis. This is chemically made and results in a thick viscous liquid that is used to produce candies by not allowing the sugar to crystallize and also acts as a preservative Liquid glucose contains the dextrin gum which retards the crystallization of sugar. When added to products, it makes them pliable and hence very commonly used to prepare garnishes and decoration pieces with sugar.

Isomalt 

- It is a natural sugar substitute and in reality it is a sugar alcohol. It is available in crystalline forms and is used for preparing sugar garnishes as it is more stable than sugar and does not caramelize thereby giving an appearance of thin glass sheets.

Sugar substitutes

 - These are chemically produced and have no nutrition value at all. Saccharin and cydamates are best known and more commonly used in food items, especially for people who are diabetic. It is slightly bitter in taste and is used as a sweetener in low calorie or diet soft drinks.

This is the sweeteners used in cooking for hotel management students and in food production department.

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