Let's Talk: Better Sugars
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Let's also be honest: the sugars we use for baking and cooking are empty calories. There's no way around it.
That doesn't mean they're not used in fine things. Among the finer in life, to be sure. But as you know, Bruce and I are on a mission to find and eat more real food because it has more flavor per bite and thus leads us to greater satiety without overeating.
What most of us eat has been rendered bland, reduced to neutral flavors, and finally morphed into something that we can down in five seconds flat without the pleasure that real food affords. That's the crux of the matter: processed food is dumbed down so far that it doesn't taste like much and so doesn't give the brain or the body the pleasure that's the proper response to good food. We are beings that run on pleasure. And we're short-circuiting our own biology!
You know this from fats. Those burgers at chain restaurants are loaded with them. We should be in hog heaven from all the pleasure. But instead, most of the fats are tasteless: a big slather of nothing that adds up to lots of calories and very little gut-level satisfaction. We're eating all those calories without getting any brain pings! That's a tragedy.
As you may know from reading REAL FOOD HAS CURVES, those chain-made burgers are also doped with sugars. (It's all about the bolus!) Yet even that added sugar has been refined into nothingness.
Ever tasted corn syrup? Seriously. Ever stuck your finger in the bottle and tried it? It doesn't taste like anything except generic sticky/sweet. There are no complexities, no fine notes. It's just sweet. Enough to make my teeth hurt.
There are better sugars with better flavors. Look at that picture at the top of this post.
On the left, we've got turbinado sugar, so named because of the turbines used to spin out some of the impurities and dry the sugar. It's got quite a bit of the natural molasses and some of the natural nutrients left from the sugar cane. It's also lower in calories that refined white sugar. It has a much more pronounced taste, sweet but a little herbaceous, a few bitter notes like toasted nuts, but also a little sour finish. It will change how you bake. And bring more satisfaction in every bite.
In the middle, there's demerara sugar, named after the Demerara colony in Guyana (although most of it is now made elsewhere in Africa). In general--although there's little standardization--demerara has everything turbinado does, except a bit souped up: spun less in the turbines and thus more of the original cane material and molasses in each grain. It used to be that demerara was a U. K. product and turbinado a U. S. one, but they now show up in most health food stores and high-end supermarkets across the board.
Finally, on the right, that's muscovado sugar (sometimes spelled "muscavado" and sometimes called "Barbados sugar"), the least refined of any, produced without turbines, the molasses and other impurities still in the mix. Muscovado is to other raw sugars as aged rum is to white rum: a deep, powerful flavor. It's still stocked with potassium, mineral salts, phosphorus, iron, and magnesium from the sugar cane. You'll also find little dark balls of pure molasses in it. Muscovado sugar comes in two varieties: light and the mind-blowing dark (which is in the picture).
Use turbinado or demerara as you would any sugar in most cake, cookies, muffin, or quick bread recipes. I wouldn't advise them in foofy pastries because the large crystals might not dissolve properly (as in making a panade for a Paris Brest). Also, because of additional minerals and natural molasses, these are not suitable for candy-making; the melting and balling temperatures can be off, depending on the level of processing (or lack thereof--see, we'll still keep white, refined sugar in our pantry and use it for these treats).
Muscovado sugar is fit for strong, powerful tastes: gingerbread, for example.
So where do you get these sugars? Look online for ordering--like here. Or look at health food stores. Or gourmet markets.
Yes, the cost is higher than refined white sugar. But that's not the worst thing. An empty-calorie treat, as fabulous as it is, should cost you something. Part of the problem in the modern world is that the high-calorie, low-satiety fare is so darn cheap.
And one final thing: some might wonder if these are not just "brown sugar." In fact, brown sugar is made from fully refined white sugar to which the extracted molasses has been added back in proportions to make it light or dark. There's nothing "healthy" about brown sugar. It's not a less-refined product but one that even has an extra step in the refining process--and the molasses added back is itself highly refined.
By contrast, these "real" sugars retain the mineral and nutrient signatures from the cane. You'll also be astounded by the depth and sophistication of the flavors. It's a whole new world--and your food's getting more real, too. I'll be posting some recipes using them in the weeks ahead. More real at every turn, please!
Reader Comments (9)
Thank you for this post!! I keep writing, but in my gut, I'm still a scientist and I love knowing how things WORK. The best part is, the science of cooking is more accessible than the science of biology and it still gives you those kicky thrills to discover and construct and watch science at work. (And maybe, to fund those sugar purchases, I should go back to school to do that vet thing after all. I may have nearly thrown up at that rat in the seventh grade, but after beheading and gutting pregnant smelts yesterday, I feel confident my stomach has strengthened lol.)
Equally, if you can make another post like this justifying my urges to purchase tiny $9.00 packages of sel de mer, you get a complimentary law degree ;)
A couple of weeks ago I made two batches of sugar cookies using the same recipe. The only thing I did differently was use granulated sugar in one recipe and turbinado in the other. I couldn't believe the difference in taste -- the turbinado was definitely superior. This wasn't even an intentional experiment. The first batch was made with the tubinado and when I decided to make the second batch I didn't have enough.
One good thing about using these sugars -- they've expensive enough that you use less!
My husband made chocolate pudding last night (from scratch), and we were wondering how it would have tasted with one of these "real" sugars. Maybe next time!
Sally: Yep, taste. Fantastic. Yep, cost. Ouch. I'll confess: I almost deleted this whole post because of the bad economy. I mean, it's hardly the moment to be talking about spending more money on esoteric if real sugars. That said, I decided it was important--and that people could make up their own minds, so long as those minds are informed. I'm not the boss of everyone. (And as Bruce would say, "And you never will be with that attitude.")
Kori: I'd definitely go with turbinado or demerara for the chocolate pudding experiment, not muscovado. Better yet, use them in brownies and see what happens. It's sort of an easier way into the whole thing. Bruce also reminds me as I write this that the raw sugar crystals can be quite large, depending on the manufacturer. He suggests going by weight, not volume (1 cup granulated sugar = 200 grams--or close enough). So you want a similar WEIGHT of the raw stuff. Also, he sometimes grinds the raw sugar crystals in a food processor fitted with the chopping blade for "finer" dessert applications like puddings and mousses.
M.
Ha! I'm chuckling at "fine" pudding. This pudding recipe is pretty rustic - there are actually undissolved bits of chocolate in there, so I don't think the large sugar crystals would matter much. But the weighing vs. measuring is a good tip. But first, I must overcome my frugality. Maybe I'll grow my own sugar cane... (yes, kidding).
Growing your own cane? We did that when I was a kid in Texas. We'd go out, cut down canes, and gnaw on them all afternoon. (I sound like some kind of pre-diabetic Huck Finn.) The "almost real" sugars are more expensive, no doubt. But check out some of the bulk suppliers on the web. If you go in with others or are willing to store a big bag, you can actually get them down from I'm-empying-my-IRA-for-what? to Boy-I-feel-better-about-what-I'm-buying.
M.
Oh I sooo love this post! Sugar tasting notes? Wonderful stuff, thank you! I'll look out for the sugars - hard to find here, with the exception of demerara, which we adore. I'm yet to find muscadavo sugar anywhere locally, but I know it's available, so I'll keep hunting!
Add to your list Rapadura (sun dried sugar cane juice), Coconut Sugar and Golden Syrup, Treacle, Honey, Maple Syrup. I never use processed sugars in baking anymore, there are so many richer options.
Merrie: Yes, all those, for sure. What a lovely list. In REAL FOOD HAS CURVES, some of those actually make it up into the solidly "real food" category: honey, maple syrup. Many of these less-refined sugars that you and I mentioned would fall into the "almost real food" category--and are still excellent choices. We just want to steer (gently) away from the "barely real foods" and the "not real foods."
M.