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.

 

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Understanding Ingredients for the Canadian Baker by The BC Cook Articulation Committee is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

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