Glucose as a sugar alternative, and vanilla biscuits.

Well for goodness sake. It is so simple really. What does sugar contain? Fructose and glucose. What is bad for us? Fructose? What is good for us? Glucose. What should we not be eating? Fructose. What should we be eating? Glucose. What should we be baking with? GLUCOSE.

Vanilla biscuit with glucose by Reuben

I don't know if this was going to be obvious to you, or whether you even knew powdered glucose existed. But I grew up with a container of it in our pantry. My Dad would give me a teaspoon of it stirred in to milk before I went to gymnastics competitions. A 1980s energy drink. The milk drink was yummy and the powder itself wasn't too bad either - I distinctly remember dipping my finger in (licking it first of course to make it stick) for a taste (or many). It is a very fine powder and dissolves quickly on the tongue, and it almost has a slightly minty taste, though I have said this about xylitol and it's not nearly as strong as that. It's not as sweet as sugar, in fact Robert Lustig shows this in Sugar: The Bitter Truth, with a chart rating the sweetness of different food items. Where sugar rates 100 on the sweetness scale, glucose is at 74.


I have mentioned that I recently came across the blog Craving Fresh, where I discovered that Emma is also looking in to reducing and replacing sugar. She had a recipe up for brownies using glucose (and all kinds of other things) and it was a lightbulb moment for me. Of course! Glucose! I have also read an interview with David Gillespie, author of Sweet Poison, who advocates baking with glucose.

So I have been doing a whole lot of experimenting. And here's the deal: it works really well, though it's not quite as sweet. I've used it in vanilla biscuits, chocolate pudding, chocolate cupcakes and chocolate butter cream icing (I halved Dana's Chocolate Cake recipe to make cupcakes, and was reminded once again what a fantastic recipe this is).

The vanilla biscuits were OK, but noticeably less sweet. The second time I made them I added a teaspoon of Sweet Freedom which was a small improvement. The chocolate pudding was great. I do find it a little uninteresting as is, and like the addition of square of chocolate in the centre (which introduces sugar back in to the mix, though not much) but using glucose instead of sugar was very successful. The cupcakes were outrageously good - that recipe really is stunning - and that was the moment when I thought, yes, glucose really is working for me. I was keen to make cupcakes partly as an excuse to try icing with glucose, and wanted to do this before I reported back to you. I made buttercream icing and the glucose was an easy substitute for icing sugar. I could tell the difference in the taste here, that slightly minty/dissolvy taste/feeling was present, but it certainly wasn't unpleasant and I was mostly just so excited at what a great sugar substitute this is.

If you find glucose doesn't make things sweet enough, my suggestion would be to go half-half glucose and xylitol. Xylitol is still a top favourite option for me, my biggest problem being how expensive it is. In my experimenting so far, it is only the vanilla biscuits that really were lacking the sweetness. Another option with these is to try adding something else to get some interesting flavour in (cocoa, cinnamon...). I don't know if I've really sold you on these biscuits, but I originally did them just with sugar, and they were really very good. Nice and buttery and great for decorating. I think if you want something that looks pretty at a kid's party they're a good option - add a little colour and excitement on top, and you still have a very low sugar option if you've baked the biscuit with glucose.

Two more things you should know:
Glucose is also known as dextrose. It's exactly the same thing. Pak N Save have it as glucose and New World have it as dextrose.
Glucose has a very high GI rating.

The recipe below is from Donna Hay's 2010 Kids' Magazine. I find that the biscuits are ready at 10 minutes, and that their bottoms get fairly dark so I raise the oven rack up one slot. I tend to halve this recipe, especially when experimenting!

Vanilla Biscuits

250g softened butter

3/4 cups sugar or glucose (or a combination)*

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 egg yolk

2 1/4 cups flour

Beat butter and sugar until pale and creamy. Add the vanilla and egg yolk and beat until well combined. Add the flour and beat until a smooth dough forms.

Roll in to large teaspoons size balls and place on to a greased tray. Press down slightly with the back of a spoon (and decorate as you wish). 

Bake for 10 - 15 minutes at 180 degrees.

 * I don't recommend using xylitol in biscuits as it dries them out and they lose their crunch.
If using all glucose you may like to make it a generous measure to add to the sweetness.  

 

As always I've updated my sugar alternatives page with the new info about glucose, including cost (it's reasonable!)

I have actually tried glucose in one more thing, but it was so much fun to make and to eat and to photograph, that it's going to get a post of its own. Coming soon.