Sweeteners

Natural Sweeteners: Tapioca Syrup, Blackstrap Molasses, Maple Syrup, Raw Agave Nectar, Creamed Honey

When I was living in Costa Rica, I visited a sugarcane and coffee plantation.  Standing in the 100-degree sun surrounded by bamboo-like sugarcane and bright red coffeeberries was an amazing experience…and so was tasting a piece of raw sugarcane that one of the workers snapped off and handed to me.  Now I know what sugar is supposed to taste like.  Now I can appreciate sucanat (“sugar cane natural”) even more over its refined white cousin, which has been stripped of its nutritious properties and reduced to nothing but flavorless, empty carbs.  Because unprocessed sugars (including honey, agave, etc.) still possess their nutritional content and character, they’re much better to use when cooking and baking.  Here are a few you might wish to try:

• Agave nectar is made from the agave cactus, the same plant that is used to make tequila.  The nectar is similar to honey, but with a lighter, more flowery taste, and the consistency is a bit thinner.  Try it drizzled on fruit and oatmeal for breakfast!
• Molasses is a syrup that results from the sugar-making process (the sugarcane juice is boiled to make the sugar solids crystallize).  There is light molasses and blackstrap.  The blackstrap has a more pronounced flavor and is a good source of iron, calcium, magnesium, and potassium.  It’s wonderful in dark breads (such as pumperknickel and pumpkin) and in chewy, flavorful cookies like gingersnap.
• Honey comes in many different forms:  raw, comb, and the syrupy liquid form that we generally see.  The comb is best spread on toast, but the raw and liquid forms work well in recipes.  Honey has strong antibacterial properties and will not go rancid; if it crystallizes, just heat it to make it liquid again.  Caution:  don’t feed it to very young children, and be aware that some people have honey allergies.  Also, if you’re going to substitute it for white sugar, bear in mind that honey is the sweetest of the sweeteners–you might want to decrease the amount.
• Maple syrup is the sap from maple trees.  It has a wonderfully unique flavor and works well as both a sweetener and an addition to savory dishes such as barbequed ribs and maple-glazed chicken.  Grade B is darker, has a more pronounced flavor, and has more nutrients than Grade A, which has been filtered and is a lighter color.
• Brown rice syrup and tapioca syrup are far less sweet than sugar and have intriguing flavors.  Brown rice syrup works well in spiced/dark baked goods (such as gingerbread, pumpkin bread, brownies, etc.) while tapioca is interesting to try in hot chocolate–it has a malty, full flavor.  When baking, consult the labels before using these to find out how the other ingredients will be affected.  (Since brown rice syrup is less sweet than sugar, for example, you’ll typically increase the amount of sweetener called for by 1/4 cup and then decrease the amount of liquid in the recipe by 1/4 cup.)
• Sucanat is the less-refined cousin to white sugar.  Good-quality sucanat–especially organic–has a taste similar to that of light molasses.  I much prefer the flavor of sucanat over white sugar, and I always substitute it 1:1 in recipes.  (Like molasses, sucanat still contains high levels of minerals such as iron and potassium.)  The only time I would resort to white sugar would be if someone begged me to make angel food cake–the heavier sucanat would weigh down the cake and make it much less delicate and airy.  Also, icings work better with powdered sugar; any other type would be too grainy.  But then again, I’d rather have an earthy, dense cake bursting with flavor than a pallid angel food cake any day.

Tags: agave nectar, brown rice syrup, honey, maple syrup, molasses, natural sweeteners, sucanat, tapioca syrup