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The secret of all kinds of baking sugar

Fine granulated sugar, coarse granulated sugar, soft white sugar, powdered sugar? People who have just come into contact with baking, not to mention the complicated and colorful dairy products, can make people confused. These kinds of sugars are common in baking. Speaking of sugar, which is an indispensable ingredient in baking, plays a very important role.

While talking about the differences between these sugars, let's talk about the role of sugar in baking. Sugar is not only a sweetener, but also has some magical changes in the baking process, bringing many wonderful results. Don't believe it? Look down:

1、 Sugar has water absorption, adding sugar in baking can not only change the taste, but also strengthen the water retention.

2、 Sugar can enhance the antiseptic effect. The higher the sugar content, the longer the shelf life.

3、 Sugar has a coking effect. The higher the sugar content of the formula, the easier to color when baking.

4、 Sugar can improve the structure of dough and change its extensibility.

Five, sugar can make protein foam more stable. Therefore, when making Qifeng cake, adding enough sugar into the protein can help to make a cake with stable quality.

6、 Sugar is the main target of yeast. Why is sugar not necessarily sweet when added to bread? Because sugar is broken down by yeast during fermentation.

7、 Generally speaking, if the amount of sugar in the formula is reduced, it is possible to increase the baking temperature and prolong the baking time.

White granulated sugar:

Usually we say fine granulated sugar or coarse granulated sugar belongs to white granulated sugar. It's the sugar we're most exposed to. In fact, according to the particle size, white granulated sugar can be divided into many grades, such as coarse granulated sugar, general granulated sugar, fine granulated sugar, extra fine granulated sugar, and young granulated sugar. In baking, when making cakes or biscuits, fine granulated sugar is usually used, which is easier to blend into the dough or paste.

Coarse granulated sugar is usually used to make the crust of cakes and biscuits, such as sugar tea biscuits and butterfly cakes. Coarse particles can increase the texture of the cake. Coarse granulated sugar can also be used to make syrups, such as invert syrups. Coarse granulated sugar is not suitable for making cookies, cakes, bread and other pastries, because it is not easy to dissolve and easy to leave large particles in the products.

fine white sugar:

Soft white sugar, as the name suggests, is very soft white sugar. The reason why it is soft is that it contains a little invert sugar and its moisture content is higher than that of granulated sugar. In supermarkets in the north, soft white sugar is as common as white granulated sugar.

So, what's the position of soft white sugar in baking? To a certain extent, soft white sugar has finer particles and can be used as a substitute for fine granulated sugar. However, because the properties of soft white sugar and white granulated sugar are slightly different, so the characteristics in cakes will also have certain differences. Don't worry, most of the time, using soft white sugar instead of fine granulated sugar will not have much impact on the results.

There have been many people worried about whether it would not be good to use soft white sugar instead of fine granulated sugar. You need to rest assured that the impact on home baking is much smaller than you think.

Sugar powder:

Sugar powder, from the name can be easily seen, refers to powdered white sugar. In order to prevent caking in the process of preservation, about 3% starch will be mixed into the sugar powder on the market. There are many grades of powdered sugar according to the size of the granules. The '10x' sugar powder is the finest. The most commonly used is 6x sugar powder.

Sugar powder is very useful. It can be used to make cookies, cakes, etc., and more often, it can be used to decorate cakes. On the surface of the cake, sift a layer of sugar powder, the appearance will become more beautiful. It is also used to make frosts and creamy fillings, such as the protein icing used in gingerbread houses.

Sugar powder particles are very small, easy to mix with the paste, oil has a good emulsifying effect, can produce very uniform tissue. So when making cookies, using some sugar powder can make the appearance of cookies more beautiful and keep clear patterns. Many people ask: can granulated sugar be used to replace the powdered sugar in the formula? I generally don't recommend this.

Sugar powder can also be ground at home with a food processor. Sugar powder is made by grinding sugar into powder by grinding cup of food processor. The sugar powder grinded by oneself can be used with grinding according to the dosage, without adding starch. However, if you want to keep the ground sugar powder, you need to add 3% corn starch to prevent caking.

Brown sugar:

Brown sugar is sometimes called red granulated sugar. However, except for some varieties (such as Demerara sugar), brown sugar is not as dry as white granulated sugar, but has some moist texture. In addition to sucrose, it also contains a certain amount of molasses, caramel and other impurities, with a special flavor. Different varieties of brown sugar color is not consistent, the darker the color, contains more impurities.

Brown sugar has a special flavor, so it is often used to make cakes with unique flavor. Like oatmeal and grape biscuits.

If 'brown sugar' and 'black sugar' are mentioned in the baking formula, they belong to the category of brown sugar, but the processing method and impurity content are slightly different.

Xylitol:

Finally, by the way, I would like to mention the 'sugar free' snacks that you are most concerned about. Xylitol is the most commonly used sweetener in "sugar free" points. It doesn't cause blood sugar to rise, it doesn't cause dental caries, it's lower in calories than sugar, so it's very popular.

If you want to make 'sugar free' snacks, change the sugar in the recipe to xylitol. The sweetness of xylitol is similar to that of white sugar. It can be replaced by the same amount. For people who don't like it too sweet, it can be reduced.

However, it must be noted that xylitol is not sugar after all, and does not have the general characteristics of sugar. Therefore, with xylitol instead of sugar, the snacks made will certainly have a gap. As for what will be different, we will go back and compare the effects of sugar mentioned at the beginning of my article. We should have a clear idea.

In addition, don't take more than 50 grams of xylitol per day for adults.