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Questions tagged [sugar]

Questions about sugar or substitutions for it for culinary purposes.

This tag covers all sorts of sugar (granulated, powdered, brown, cane, beet, etc) and substitutions for it (aspartame, saccharin, honey, etc); basically all kinds of sweeteners that can be used for preparing food.

Questions with this tag could be about the components (what is sugar made of), the chemistry (how does it react with which temperature), the proper usage, or differences between types of sugars and/or sweeteners.

Questions with this tag should not be about health-related issues like nutritional value nor location-related issues (why is brown sugar more expensive in Europe than in the US).

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How to make "honeycomb" less sticky?

I made "honeycomb" (otherwise known as hokey-pokey, not real honeycomb) using this recipe: http://www.nigella.com/recipes/view/hokey-pokey-36 It tastes delicious but it is supposed to be crunchy / cripsy (like the inside of a Cadburys Crunchie bar)…
Vicky
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Is lemonade better when made with simple syrup?

On a hot summer day and with a basketful of lemons I often want a nice cold glass of lemonade. A lot of recipes suggest making lemonade with simple syrup, which requires cooking, whereas other recipes just have stirred-in sugar. What exactly are the…
nohat
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hard crack candy coming out too sticky

I've made a few batches of hard crack candy, but so far every batch i've made has come out stickier than I'd like. by too sticky, i mean that the candies will stick to the parchment paper i store them in so hard that the two become inseparable. this…
Chicken Pie
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Light vs Dark Brown Sugar

Is there a practical difference between light and dark brown sugar? I ask because I've seen many recipes specify one or the other. Do they really behave differently in some way?
JustRightMenus
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How can I extract palm sugar from a container?

I have a plastic tub with a screwtop lid, full of palm sugar. It's a 500g tub, about 10cm high and about 10cm diameter. Usually I buy the individual cubes of palm sugar and this time I thought I'd cut down on packaging and buy the bigger size, but…
KimbaF
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Why is there cornstarch in powdered sugar?

I was looking up how to make my own powdered/confectioner/icing sugar. Some 'recipes' say that you should add a bit of cornstarch while others just leave this out. So what is the role of cornstarch? Does it act like a filler (since it's cheaper than…
Mien
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When baking what works well as a sugar substitute?

I'm curious about what I can use for a sugar substitute while baking. I'm not interested in artificial sweetners, really. For instance, I've found that apple juice works well in some muffins. Are there any substitutes that work particularly well…
Jonathon Watney
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Preventing white sugar from clumping in the canister

We store sugar in a ceramic canister, and we get some clumping. Restaurants in humid areas that will often add grains of a rice to a salt shaker to stop clumping. (The rice acts as a desiccant and absorbs moisture, keeping it away from the salt; I…
Goodbye Stack Exchange
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What's the purpose of sugar in a pickling solution?

This might seem like a dumb question, but I am going to make a pickled pepper relish of sorts that is really just chopped carrot, onion, and habanero pepper cooked briefly in a pickling solution and jarred. In reviewing several recipes for pickled…
Cold Oatmeal
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Why add baking powder when creaming sugar and butter?

A friend recently provided me with a family recipe for cookies which instructed me to cream together sugar and butter - so far so good. However, the thing that took me back was that the recipe called for adding baking powder along with the sugar…
zephyr
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Why do some recipes call for sugar in a brine?

In making a brine for my chicken, I came across a lot of recipes that call for sugar in the brine. I understand the general idea behind brining, but don't understand what benefit the sugar provides. In this answer, @papin links to a PDF that…
stephennmcdonald
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If cookies are made with enough sugar, will they just be chewy caramel?

If one increases the ratio of sugar to flour in the dough of, say, chocolate chip cookies, at what point (if any) will it no longer make chocolate chip cookies and instead be chocolate chips embedded in chewy caramel? In other words: At what point…
Asker
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Dissolving sugar in a beverage

I have a hard time getting sugar to fully dissolve when I'm stirring a cocktail (for example, an old fashioned). I'm using granulated sugar (https://www.dominosugar.com/sugar/granulated-sugar) and I tend to stir a small amount in a shaker with 100+…
tarun713
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Keeping a sugar solution in the fridge

Based on a the coffee questions I've seen, it seems that hot beverage questions are in scope, so here goes mine: We like keeping iced coffee in the fridge, particularly in the summer. It's easiest to add sugar to the entire batch, but we both like…
Goodbye Stack Exchange
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How do I control the temperature of burnt sugar?

I made a burnt sugar caramel sauce tonight that turned out beautiful. It is just what it sounds like; you make a normal caramel sauce but cook the sugar until it is past amber and getting almost black. Making this is such a high-wire act though,…
Michael Natkin
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