Sugar Substitutes

Wardy

Since looking on this board, I've started to do a lot of home baking rather than buy cakes, choc etc which my hubby seems to eat all the time. I need a bit of help though as I'm trying to save money at the same time and find that buying muscovado or demarera sugar is more expensive than buying the shops own dark or light brown sugar.

Is there much difference, and what should I substitute for what?

Magentasue

I think generally the more expensive, the less processing. I buy the expensive stuff but use sparingly. For most things (even when it says caster) I use cheap, white granulated. It has to be demerera for sprinkling on porridge, bread and butter pud and crumble, muscavado for some biscuits and cakes, but rarely.

I would think you can substitute the light and dark brown sugars if they say 'soft' (as in light soft brown sugar) for muscavado. Demerera has that crunch.

Chipps

I would agree with Magentasue. But in practice I mostly use ordinary granulated for everything except icing sugar. Although muscovado/soft brown does taste much better. On the other hand, I have been known to eat it - in small quantities admittedly - straight from the packet. And there's no way I would do that with granulated sugar - yuck!

ps. muscovado/soft dark brown sugar sandwiches are nice, with or without mashed banana
pps. muscovado/soft dark brown sugar, thickly sprinkled on bread, then toasted! Yum!
pps. anyone wonder why I have fillings in my teeth?

black-saturn

I never use any of those sugars which cost loads of money. I just buy granulated sugar and substitute that for them in recipes. It tastes just the same.

Curry_Queen

black-saturn wrote:

I just buy granulated sugar and substitute that for them in recipes. It tastes just the same.

I'd have to disagree with you there as you certainly can taste the difference where different sugars are used, but that doesn't mean you can't substitute one for another if you don't mind a different taste, or even texture in some cases

I find I can get away with using Tesco's own brand soft brown sugars for most things like fruit cakes, gingerbread/parkin, flapjacks etc and isn't much more expensive than granulated.

You can also whizz down granulated sugar to make caster, and even icing sugar, to cut the costs

angelatgraceland

I always substitute caster for granulated and tend to use it for anything at all if Im stuck. Where possible I use the right kind of sugar but use tescos own brand if its cheaper.
I love muscavado on porriidge-cant beat that. My son hates it though, only likes granulated. If Im out of muscovado Ive put is some treacle in the past as both have a similar rich taste. How about using honey or golden syrup also? Im experimenting with using half granulated sweetener in my recipes also, especialy in custard-complements tesco sugarfree jelly.

hermit-crab

angelatgraceland wrote:

I always substitute caster for granulated and tend to use it for anything at all if Im stuck.

Usually it is the other way around. Granulated sugar ( ie ordinary white sugar) can be used in place of castor sugar. If I only have granulated sugar in the cupboard my daughter in law has assured me it is the same once I give it a quick whizz in the food processor to make it finer. If it really is granulated sugar that you want, then buy it rather than castor sugar because it is usually much cheaper.

black-saturn

Glanulated sugar makes the cake have more texture which is nice.

Curry_Queen

I suppose that depends which cakes you make!

I prefer to use caster sugar for sponges as it creams up much easier with the butter and produces a much lighter "spongier" cake in my opinion

raeble

If you have a blender with a grinding attachment you can always grind down your granulated sugar to caster sugar or icing sugar. I do this with my braun hand blender. I also use a large spoon of black treacle with my granulated if I don't have any dark sugar.

Curry_Queen

According to the BE-RO website ...

[font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica]SUGAR - caster sugar dissolves easily and is most suitable for cake making, being finer it is more easily creamed than granulated sugar, which is better used in rubbed-in cakes.[/font] [font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica]Demerara and other brown sugars are often used in rich fruit cakes and gingerbreads to improve the flavour and colour. Icing sugar should be sieved if at all lumpy. [/font] [font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica]Golden syrup, treacle or honey often replace some or all of the sugar in a recipe, giving a rich flavour and colour.



Which is kinda what I was trying to say earlier but my brian is still half asleep as I'm only on my first :coffee: of the day :rotfl:
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