Sugar is an essential ingredient in baking, but there are many types of sugar in baking. In addition to the familiar granulated sugar and fine sugar, there are many other types, such as white sugar, frosting, and powdered sugar, as mentioned in the title.

These various types of sugar, which look different on the outside, can be substituted for each other in some cases during the actual production process, while in some cases or products a certain type of sugar must be used, and nothing else can be substituted.

Below I will talk to you about each of these "sugars". What's the difference? And what kind of "sugar" is needed in those baked goods?

White Sugar

White Sugar is the most common type of sugar, it is a white crystal, the main component is sucrose, according to the different thickness of the particles, can also be divided into coarse sugar, fine sugar, young sugar, etc.

White Sugar is the most common type of sugar.

The most common type of sugar used in baking is granulated sugar, because its particles are relatively small, so it is easy to stir and melt during the production process. In many baking products will be used in fine sugar, such as we are familiar with the chiffon cake, sponge cake etc., fine sugar in addition to the cake to become "sweet" in addition to the role of stabilizer, so that the whipped egg white or egg white is not easy to deflate. It also has a moisturizing effect that keeps the cake moist during baking.

Egg whites whipped with granulated sugar:

The use of coarse sugar is not as common as fine sugar, because its particles are a bit coarse, and not easy to melt during the whisking process, which tends to form spots on the surface of the cake, and also hinders the foaming of the egg whites to a certain extent. So coarse sugar is often used on the surface of some cookies or shortcakes, as a decoration or to enhance the texture level.

Silver

Silver is a softer sugar than granulated sugar, and contains about 2.5 percent transformed sugar in addition to sucrose, which makes it sweeter and more humid than granulated sugar.

In baking, there's really nothing special about white sugar, except that converted sugar has a role to play in moisturizing and coloring, and the price of white sugar is a bit higher than that of granulated sugar, so it's less likely to be used in baking. However, if you don't have granulated sugar on hand and only have white sugar, you can substitute it in equal amounts.

Frosting and powdered sugar

These two types of "sugar" are put together. In fact, frosting and powdered sugar can refer to the same concept: that is, white sugar ground into a fine powder.

There are two ways to make powdered sugar: one is to grind the sugar directly, and the other is to make a highly concentrated solution of sugar, which is vacuum sprayed and dried. But no matter which way the powdered sugar is made, it is more susceptible to moisture, so commercially available powdered sugar will often add a portion of corn starch to prevent moisture and clumping.

The reason it is necessary to add powdered sugar to make cookies in baking is that the coarser the sugar particles are, the more malleable the butter will be, which is why you can't use fine granulated sugar to make cookies.After the butter becomes more malleable, the cookie dough will be in the oven "spread into a ball" and the pattern disappears. Whereas cookies made with powdered sugar have a clear pattern.

But while frosting and powdered sugar can both refer to "powdered sugar," frosting is more than just powdered sugar; it has another meaning, a decoration often used in pastry called icing.

Baking partners should be more or less heard or contact with the frosting cookies, but also must be in awe of the beauty of the frosting cookies, sugar frosting cookies on the layer of material used to draw the pattern is also called "frosting", it is made of powdered sugar, It is made of powdered sugar, meringue powder, and water (or egg white) whipped together in a certain ratio. By adjusting its consistency, you can make a variety of designs for laminating, spreading, or painting.

It should be noted that the powdered sugar needed to make frosted cookies has requirements for fineness and uniformity, and it is not recommended that you grind your own powdered sugar, the minimum requirement is to use Swire's Red Label (the Blue Label is a little cheaper than the Red Label, but the fineness is a little worse), and better yet, you can opt for the CH.

Powdered sugar there is also a moisture-proof powdered sugar, mostly used in cakes, mousse, cookies and other surface decoration:

Some other sugars in the baking

In addition to these kinds of sugar mentioned in the article,there are also some sugars are also more commonly seen, such as water syrup, maltose, transformed sugar , glucose, brown sugar, honey, and so on. Can you tell the difference between these sugars? Below I also briefly tell you what these sugars are used in what scenes!

Water syrup and maltose these two production process is different, there is a certain difference in color, often used in the production of nougat, toffee, choose colorless maltose can cope with most of the production. Converted sugar is often used in Cantonese mooncakes, saucisson, some French dessert mousse, ganache. If you don't have it, you can replace it with honey. Glucose is most commonly used in French mousse toppings, French hard candies, and soft candies. It has good moisturizing and water-locking properties, and is irreplaceable for maintaining the gloss of French dessert toppings. There are also some "sugar substitutes", such as xylitol, which is not really sugar, but just a sweet taste, if you do not have special requirements (such as diabetics), try not to choose it, because the desserts made from sugar substitutes have a very big difference in taste and appearance with the real sugar out of the dessert. Summarize

The most used in baking is fine granulated sugar, that is, smaller granules of sucrose crystals, which is widely used in all kinds of cakes, cookies, mousses, breads and so on. If not specified, the sugar in these dessert recipes is fine sugar. Mian white sugar can be substituted with fine granulated sugar in equal quantities without much difference in the finished product.