Nothing is quite as sweet as sugar, right? Today we're looking at the differences between the kinds of sugar used in baking and which types work well in bakery products.
Types of Sugar Used in Baking
Sugar is, of course, the very symbol of sweetness: the more you add, the sweeter it gets, and too much can be cloyingly sweet. When most people think of sugar they picture granules or cubes, such as white sugar, brown sugar and icing sugar, but in fact many kinds of sugar are used in baking.
By appearance, sugars fall into two main groups: dry sugar, and liquid sugar or syrup, such as glucose, corn syrup, inverted sugar and even honey, which is also a form of liquid sugar. In terms of chemical structure, sugars are divided into single-molecule sugars (monosaccharides) and double-molecule sugars (disaccharides).
A Closer Look at Baking Sugars
Refined Sugar
Refined white sugar is crystalline sucrose of very high purity. It forms clear white crystals that are extremely clean, with no molasses or other minerals and very little moisture. This is the white sugar sold in ordinary shops and the most popular choice for baking, because it has no colour, no aroma and a neutral sweetness.
Caster Sugar
Caster sugar is refined white sugar with very fine crystals, so it dissolves more easily. It is well suited to baking but costs more than regular refined white sugar.
Brown Sugar
Brown sugar is granulated sugar coated with molasses, and it may also contain minerals, so it is not a pure sugar. Molasses is a very dark liquid with many uses; in food-grade form, brown sugar is popular for making cookies.
Chemically, it is sucrose coated in molasses, and it is the molasses that gives it a different look and properties from refined white sugar:
- Brown sugar has a distinctive aroma (unlike refined white sugar, which has none).
- It gives sweetness more depth and complexity.
- It is darker, usually brown, with the shade depending on how much molasses it contains.
- It has a high moisture content, so it tends to clump.
- It gives baked goods a different texture, making them chewy, especially cookies, thanks to the molasses.
- The molasses is slightly bitter, so brown sugar seems "less sweet" than refined white sugar, but in fact the sweetness is about the same.
Muscovado Sugar
Muscovado is an unrefined or partially refined sugar, so it contains a great deal of molasses and much higher levels of other minerals than white sugar. It looks similar to brown sugar and also comes in light, medium and very dark shades. The real differences are its higher moisture content and its distinctive aroma. Muscovado is very easy to find in some countries, but in others it is considered a fancy, expensive sugar.
Icing Sugar (Powdered Sugar / Confectioner's Sugar)
Icing sugar is refined sugar ground into a very fine powder, most commonly 10X fineness. It contains around 3% cornflour or tapioca starch to prevent clumping. It should not be used in place of granulated sugar, because the same amount is not equally sweet due to the added starch. Even in small amounts, that starch also affects the texture of baked goods. So unless a recipe says so, we recommend not substituting one for the other, as it may affect your results.
And those are the different types of sugar used in baking. We hope you now know your sugars a little better!
