Sweeteners in Baking
24 Key Takeaways
Key Takeaways
- Sugar comes from a variety of sources. Our primary sugar, sucrose, comes from two sources: sugar cane and sugar beet, but both these sugars are chemically identical.
- As a food item, sugars are classed as carbohydrates, being formed from carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen atoms.
- There are three types of sugar, two of which are most important in their applications for the baker: monosaccharides (simple sugars) and disaccharides (complex sugars).
- Simple sugars comprise glucose (also known as dextrose), levulose, and galactose.
- Complex sugars comprise sucrose (our regular sugar), maltose, and lactose.
- Glucose is the same as dextrose, and fructose is the same as levulose.
- Relative sweetness varies among the different sugar types, from low as in lactose, to high as in levulose.
- Sugar has a wide range of applications in baking.
