Many people are looking for alternatives to refined sugars these days, and this can be especially sticky around holidays and special occasions when everyone wants to make and eat special sweets or traditional family desserts. For most of us, the holidays are one of the few times of year that we can take the time to enjoy baking, so it makes sense to use the highest quality natural sweeteners available. There are many varieties of natural sweeteners, some more refined than others, and a little knowledge about these sweeteners and their best uses can help make your holiday celebrations even sweeter.
Once a luxury for the rich, sugar is now plentiful, inexpensive, and comes in numerous forms—the most common of which are granulated white, brown, and confectioner. Sugar not only adds obvious sweetness but also tenderness and stability to doughs and mixes and a golden-brown color to baked goods. The main sources of commercial sugar are sugar cane and sugar beets. There are several different varieties available:
Keep these types of sugars tightly sealed in a cool, dry place and they’ll keep indefinitely. Always store brown sugar in a thick plastic bag or glass jar; if it hardens, place an apple wedge in with the sugar and wait a few days; the sugar will soften and you can take out the apple.
Molasses is a thick, dark, full-flavored syrup that is 65% as sweet as sugar. It is produced during the refining of sugar; the syrup remains after the available sucrose has been crystallized from the cane juice. Light molasses is from the first boiling of the cane, dark molasses is from the second, and blackstrap, the third. Blackstrap molasses is strong flavored and less sweet, but contains higher quantities of minerals, like iron and calcium, than other sweeteners. Molasses can be sulfured or unsulfured. Sulfured molasses is the by-product of the conventional sugar making process where fumes used in manufacturing sugar are retained as sulfur in the molasses—we prefer unsulfured molasses. Molasses is usually used only in baking. Gingerbread and spice cookies without molasses just wouldn’t be the same!
This pure, natural sweetener was collected in the Northeastern United States and Canada long before the arrival of the Europeans. Maple syrup is simply the boiled down tree sap of the sugar maple. It has an aromatic flavor, a result of the boiling process, and consists of 62% sucrose—about 60% as sweet as sugar.
Maple sugar is made by boiling the sap until the liquid has evaporated. Since it is more concentrated, maple sugar is twice as sweet as white sugar. Both maple syrup and maple sugar are among the least refined sweeteners, since the production process solely involves the boiling of tree sap.
Pure maple syrup is graded according to color and flavor, the highest being AA. The higher the grade, the lighter and more delicate the syrup. If you’re aiming to substitute for sugar, the A or AA works best. If, on the other hand, you want something very “maple-y,” try a Grade B. You can replace honey with maple syrup in any recipe very successfully, using the same measurement.
The oldest-known unrefined sweetener and the subject of much myth, poetry, and legend, honey is a sweet substance concentrated by bees from flower nectar. Evidence of its consumption dates back to ancient times. It has been used as a sweetener, condiment, an ingredient in sweet and savory dishes, a component of religious ceremonies and, when fermented, an alcoholic beverage. Since it is collected by bees from flowers in the wild, the composition of honey is variable but is typically 25–50% sweeter than sugar, consisting of equal parts sucrose and fructose, as well as trace amounts of minerals, pollen and numerous flavor components. Like maple syrup, honey is one of the least refined sweeteners available.
The flavor and color of honey depend upon the particular flower nectar collected by the bees as well as the time of year collected, and accounts for the wide range of honeys available around the world. Dark honeys generally have a stronger flavor than lighter ones. The highest quality honeys are unprocessed, unfiltered and unrefined with their natural enzymes intact-choose these types of honey when using honey raw, as a spread for breads or on oatmeal. (Note: raw honey should never be given to children under one year old.) When baking with honey, it is not necessary to use the highest quality honey, since it will be heated during cooking.
Grains have a very gentle sweetness that can be coaxed out with special processing. Made from soaked and sprouted barley, which is then dried and cooked down to a thick syrup, barley malt is a sweetener that is slowly digested and, as a result, is more gentle on blood sugar levels than other sweeteners. Rice syrup is made in almost the same way, and it is usually a combination of rice and barley. Some of the best Chai teas are sweetened with rice syrup-with a deep and earthy flavor. Both sweeteners contain significant quantities of the sugar maltose which causes a slower rising of blood sugar levels.
Agave syrup is a multipurpose sweetener obtained from the core of the Mexican Agave cactus, also known as maguey. The plant’s sap is famous as a source of tequila, but it’s been used as a natural sweetener only since the 1990’s. Agave syrup is about 25% sweeter than sugar and consists of 10% sucrose and 90% fructose along with trace amounts of minerals such as iron, calcium, potassium and magnesium. The high natural fructose content of Agave syrup gives it a low glycemic index score (40 - 45), which means it affects blood sugar levels less dramatically than ordinary sugar.
Agave resembles honey but is slightly less viscous and dissolves easier in liquids. Most agave products are unrefined and many qualify as raw, having been processed at temperatures lower the 118°F. Its color also resembles honey, ranging from pale to dark amber with the darker colors exhibiting a more robust flavor that contains a pleasant hint of molasses.
If you’d like to substitute another kind of sweetener for granulated sugar in baked goods, use this guide:
| Sweetener | Substitution Ratio | Reduce Liquid? |
|---|---|---|
Confectioners’ Sugar |
1 3/4 cup to 1 cup sugar |
No |
Brown Sugar |
1 cup firmly packed to 1 cup sugar |
No |
Turbinado sugar |
1 cup to 1 cup sugar |
No |
Maple syrup |
3/4 cup to 1 cup sugar |
Reduce by 3 tablespoons |
Honey |
3/4 cup to 1 cup sugar |
Reduce by 1/4 cup |
Barley malt & rice syrup |
3/4 cup to 1 cup sugar |
Reduce by 1/4 cup |
Molasses |
1 1/4 cup to 1 cup sugar |
Reduce by 5 tablespoons for each cup used |
Agave |
2/3 to 3/4 cup to 1 cup sugar |
Reduce by 1/4 to 1/3 cup Reduce oven temperature by 25 degrees and increase baking time slightly |
Sugar cane is a tropical plant and a member of the grass family. First domesticated in New Guinea and used in India and China since the 4th century BC, sugar cane was widely unknown in the West until the 700s AD, when the only sweet foods were honey and fruits. Sugar cane and its products were new foods to Europeans at the time, and as such were initially a luxury for the rich or a “medicine” used in apothecaries. After sugar cane was brought to the new world, production and processing increased, and sugar became more widely available. The processing of sugar from sugar beets was perfected in the 1800’s. At that point, sugar production was no longer confined to tropical areas, and the availability of sugar increased even further. Sugar is now a ubiquitous part of the human diet, the most common ingredient added to processed foods today, of which consumption is steadily increasing.
During the first step of sugar production, sucrose, which comprises about 14% of sugar cane, is extracted by crushing the cane, resulting in a cane juice. The cane juice is clarified, concentrated by heating and evaporation, and then separated from the remaining syrup by centrifuge. The syrup that is separated from the raw sugar crystals is called molasses, and is a separate product. The sugar may go through this process again before it continues on to the step of refining where all of the remaining impurities are removed in a process that may involve the use of various chemicals. A decolorizing agent is added, a final crystallization step is performed, and the end result is granulated white sugar, which is essentially pure sucrose.
An unrefined cane sugar is produced from raw sugar and has not been subject to the same removal of nutrients, flavor and color as has refined sugar. Maple syrup, raw honey, barley malt, and rice syrup are also considered unrefined sweeteners, since they undergo minimal processing during production. Unrefined sweeteners generally contain more flavor and undergo more natural processing techniques than refined sugars. Small amounts of minerals may be present in these unrefined sweeteners, however, the amount they offer is just a trace, not enough to make a significant nutritional difference. Although a better choice than refined sugars, unrefined sweeteners are still concentrated sweeteners that should only be consumed in moderation on a regular basis.
