This was published 9 years ago
Five of a kind taste tests sweeteners
Looking to expand your sweet horizon? Try some of these healthier sugar alternatives.
By Simone Egger
Called names like "dietary crack" and "sweet poison", sugar has topped the Most Unwanted list of many health-conscious people. The sugar debate has brought to light a whole range of sugar types – each with its own flavour and unique chemical composition, which causes it to react differently when cooked.
RAPADURA (PANELA)
Rapadura (also called panela) is a soft, brown sugar that's less processed than common white sugar. Basically, organic sugar-cane juice is filtered, then evaporated; it retains natural molasses (brown colour) and some vitamins and minerals. Brands vary in the degree of moisture and crystal size, but, generally, rapadura is less sweet than refined white sugar.
PALM SUGAR (JAGGERY)
Most sugar in Australia is derived from sugar cane, in Europe from beets, and in south-east Asia from the sugar palm. This rich, dark sugar (also called jaggery and gula melaka) has a malty, toffee flavour and is often found in solid block form – use a sharp knife to shave off thin slivers. Its super-fine texture melts easily, often into curries or desserts. To make palm sugar, sap is extracted from sugar-palm flower buds or from a tap in the trunk. The sap is boiled down to a syrup or crystallised. Sweetness varies from batch to batch, so use taste to test the desired level of sweetness.
COCONUT SUGAR
The labels "coconut sugar" and "palm sugar" are sometimes used interchangeably, but there are differences. Coconut sugar comes from the coconut palm (not the sugar palm), and is generally lighter in colour and flavour – more caramelly. Where palm sugar comes to us in a block, coconut sugar is more often in free-flowing, granulated form. The extraction process is the same as for palm sugar: the water content of the extracted sap is boiled off in big woks, and the boiling time determines the sugar's final form, which can be crystals, a paste or a block.
RICE MALT SYRUP
More a sugar alternative than a sugar, rice malt syrup is used in recipes by whole-foodists (from Judith Blereau to Gwyneth Paltrow), and even those who have sworn off sugar entirely. Produced from fermenting brown rice, it is fructose-free. (Cane sugar is one-part glucose, and one-part fructose.) In isolation, fructose is a nutritionally empty and addictive sugar. Rice malt syrup is one of the least sweet and most whole sweeteners, according to Blereau. It's sticky (and can be tricky to use), and it retains a syrupy consistency when cooked.
AMAZAKE
So, it looks more like porridge than sugar, but this naturally sweet, fermented rice product is similar to rice malt syrup but less processed, a state that makes it more wholesome. According to the manufacturer, it contains vitamins, amino acids and glucose, and aids digestion. It can be used as a natural sweetener in baking, imbuing a rich, warming sweetness to dishes; you will need to adjust the other fluids in the recipe to allow for its wet consistency. In Japan, amazake ("sweet sake") is diluted with water – the original rice milk.