Alternative Carbohydrate Sweeteners

Historically, honey and maple syrup have been used to replace sugar.

Pure cornstarch is by far the biggest source of the other carbohydrate sweeteners used by today’s food manufacturers. Cornstarch is split into a variety of smaller fragments (called dextrins) with acid or enzymes. The smaller fragments are then converted into the various cornstarch sweeteners used by today’s food manufacturers.

Hydrolysis is the term used to describe the overall process where starch is converted into various sweeteners.

Sweetener products made by cornstarch hydrolysis include dextrose, corn syrup, corn syrup solids, maltodextrin, high fructose corn syrup, and crystalline fructose.

A juice concentrate is the syrup produced after water, fiber and nutrients are removed from the original fruit juice.

A newer class of alternative carbohydrate sweeteners is the sugar alcohols. While sugar alcohols are neither sugars nor alcohols, they are so-named because they are manufactured from traditional carbohydrates. Sugar alcohols bear a close resemblance to the sugars from which their names are derived.

What is honey?
Honey is the mixture of sugars that bees produce from plant nectar. On average, honey is nearly 20% water, and contains about 40% fructose, 30% glucose and 1% sucrose. The remainder is a mixture of other sugars and minute traces of naturally present acids, vitamins, minerals and enzymes. Honey’s flavor depends on the source (clover, orange blossom, sage, etc) of nectar.

What is maple syrup?
Maple syrup is the mixture of sugars formed when the sap of sugar maple trees is boiled down to a thick syrup. Maple sugar contains about 33% water and 60% sucrose. The remainder is a mixture of glucose, other sugars and minute traces of naturally present acids, minerals and some B-vitamins.

What is dextrose?
Dextrose is the commercial name used for the crystalline glucose produced from starch. If the crystallized dextrose (glucose) contains no water, it is listed as “dextrose anhydrous” or “anhydrous dextrose” in an ingredient statement. If the crystallized dextrose contains one molecule of water, it will be listed as “dextrose” or “dextrose monohydrate” in an ingredient statement. The majority of the dextrose listed in food ingredient statements began as cornstarch.
Food manufacturers may list dextrose produced from cornstarch as “corn sugar” in an ingredient statement. If the dextrose comes from another source like rice or wheat, the ingredient list would read “rice sugar” or “wheat sugar,” respectively.
Dextrose is used in many baking products like cake mixes and frostings, snack foods like cookies, crackers and pretzels, and desserts like custards and sherbets. Dextrose is also used as a filler in the single-serve, table-top packets of the common artificial sweeteners.


What is corn syrup?
The singular term “corn syrup” is somewhat of a misnomer because it is used to identify a group of sweeteners that differ from one another simply by the amount of dextrose (glucose) present in the commercial syrup. Since only a single type of corn syrup is generally used in a food product, the term “corn syrup” is permitted in an ingredient statement. However, consumers have no idea how much glucose is contained in the particular “corn syrup” listed in an ingredient statement. A commercial “corn syrup” may contain between 20% and 98% dextrose (glucose).
“Corn syrup” may also be called “glucose syrup” in an ingredient list.
Corn syrups are used in many of today’s salad dressings, tomato sauces, powdered drink mixes, fruit drinks and juices, and frozen desserts like pudding and ice milk.

What are corn syrup solids?
When a corn syrup has been concentrated to contain less than 10% water, it can be listed as “corn syrup solids” in an ingredient statement. To qualify as “corn syrup solids,” the glucose (dextrose) content must be at least 88% of the weight of the concentrated syrup. This product can be called “dried glucose syrup” or “glucose syrup solids” in an ingredient list.
Corn syrup solids are used in the same types of foods as dextrose and corn syrups.

What is maltodextrin?
A maltodextrin is a short chain of molecularly linked dextrose (glucose) molecules, and is manufactured by regulating the hydrolysis of starch. Typical commercial maltodextrins contain as few as three and as many as nineteen linked dextrose units.
While the singular term “maltodextrin” is permitted in an ingredient statement, the term “maltodextrin” can be applied to any starch hydrolysis product that contains fewer than 20 dextrose (glucose) units linked together. This means that the term “maltodextrin” stands for a family of products, not a single distinct ingredient.
Additionally, today’s commercially important maltodextrin products are produced from corn, potato or rice. Unlike the other starch sweeteners, the undefined term “maltodextrin” can be used in an ingredient list no matter the original source of starch.
Maltodextrins are used in a wide array of foods, from canned fruits to snacks. Maltodextrins may also be an ingredient in the single-serve, table-top packet of some artificial sweeteners.

What is high fructose corn syrup?
Corn syrups enriched with fructose are manufactured from syrups that have been treated to contain as much dextrose (glucose) as possible. Nearly all the glucose in these dextrose-rich corn syrups is transformed into fructose with enzymes. The fructose-enriched syrups are then blended with dextrose syrups. After blending, commercial fructose corn syrups contain either 42% or 55% fructose by weight.
It is becoming more common to further process fructose-enriched corn syrups to increase fructose content. These enhanced fructose corn syrups contain at least 95% fructose by weight.
Like ingredient terms permitted for other sweeteners manufactured from starch, the descriptor “high fructose corn syrup” denotes more than one product. The generic term “high fructose corn syrup” or its acronym “HFCS” is used in food and beverage ingredient statements. Thus, the term “high fructose corn syrup” or “HFCS” represents a family of three fundamentally different products, not a unique single ingredient.
The vast majority of the high fructose corn syrup containing 55% fructose is used to sweeten carbonated soft drinks and other flavored beverages. Minor amounts are used in frozen dairy products. Essentially all foods listing “high fructose corn syrup” as an ingredient contain the syrup with 42% fructose. The 95% fructose corn syrup is becoming more common in beverages, canned fruits, confectionery products and dessert syrups.

What is crystalline fructose?
Crystalline fructose is produced by allowing the fructose to crystallize from a fructose-enriched corn syrup. The term “crystalline fructose” is listed in the ingredient statements of foods and beverages using this corn sweetener. It is important to understand that the “crystalline fructose” listed as an ingredient comes from cornstarch, not fruit.
Crystalline fructose can be used in the same foods as the high fructose corn syrups, or in any food that contains sugar.

What are juice concentrates?
Juice concentrates may be used to directly replace sugar. These syrups are made by first heating fruit juices to remove water, and then treating with enzymes and filtering to strip all characteristic color and natural flavor from the original juice. Because of their bland initial color and flavor, grapes and pears are the primary sources of the juice concentrates used as sugar replacers. Juice concentrates that replace sugar contain traces of sucrose, and variable amounts of fructose and glucose.

If a pear juice concentrate is used, the phrase “pear juice concentrate,” or a variation, would appear in the ingredient list.
Juice concentrates are used in any foods where corn syrups have replaced sugar. They are particularly prominent in baked goods, jams and jellies, and frozen confections.

history of bread

Wheat has been cultivated by man since before recorded history. It is conjectured by anthropologists that hungry hunter/gatherers first stockpiled the grain as a storable food source. When it got wet, it sprouted, and people found that if the grain was planted it yielded yet more seeds.

History of Bread

Grown in Mesopotamia and Egypt, wheat was likely first merely chewed. Later it was discovered that it could be pulverized and made into a paste. Set over a fire, the paste hardened into a flat bread that kept for several days. It did not take much of a leap to discover leavened (raised) bread when yeast was accidentally introduced to the paste.

Instead of waiting for fortuitous circumstances to leaven their bread, people found that they could save a piece of dough from a batch of bread to put into the next day's dough. This was the origin of sour-dough, a process still used today.

In Egypt, around 1000 BC, inquiring minds isolated yeast and were able to introduce the culture directly to their breads. Also a new strain of wheat was developed that allowed for refined white bread. This was the first truly modern bread. Up to thirty varieties of bread may have been popular in ancient Egypt.
It was also during this time that bread beer was developed. The bread was soaked in water and sweetened and the foamy liquor run off. Beer was as popular in ancient Egypt as it is in America today.

The Greeks picked up the technology for making bread from the Egyptians; from Greece the practice spread over the rest of Europe. Bread and wheat were especially important in Rome where it was thought more vital than meat. Soldiers felt slighted if they were not given their allotment. The Roman welfare state was based on the distribution of grain to people living in Rome. Later the government even baked the bread.
Through much of history, a person's social station could be discerned by the color of bread they consumed.

The darker the bread, the lower the social station. This was because whiter flours were more expensive and harder for millers to adulterate with other products. Today, we have seen a reversal of this trend when darker breads are more expensive and highly prized for their taste as well as their nutritional value.
In the middle ages bread was commonly baked in the ovens of the lord of the manor for a price. It was one of the few foods that sustained the poor through the dark age.

Bread continued to be important through history as bread riots during the French Revolution attest. The famous quotation attributed to Marie Antoinette that if the poor could not get bread for their table then "let them eat cake," became a famous illustration of how royalty had become ignorant of the plight of the lower classes. Actually, Marie Antoinette never said this and was merely being slandered by her detractors.
Still thought of as the "staff of life", for centuries bread has been used in religious ceremonies. Even the lord's prayer requests of God to "Give us this day our daily bread" - meaning not merely loaves, but moral sustenance.

Today, even with the competition of a growing variety of foods, bread remains important to our diet and our psyche. It has a prominent place in at the local market, in our cupboards, and even in our language. The word "bread" is commonly used as a slang term for money. It connotes importance as when we say that some aspect of our work is "our bread and butter". In many households bread is still served with every meal.

Bread has a long history for a reason. It is a healthy and nutritious food that fills the stomach as well as the soul.


description of most kinds of flours

All-purpose Flour
All purpose flour has a medium protein content that makes it suitable for most baking uses. Store all-purpose flour in an airtight container for up to 1 year. US all-purpose flour and UK plain-flour can be substituted for one another without adjustment.

Arrowroot Flour
This flour is made from the fleshy root stock of the tropical arrowroot plant. Its white, fine, and powdery texture is very similar to cornstarch but it has no flavor at all. It is typically used as a thickener for puddings, sauces and other cooked foods.

Barley Flour
Barley flour is made from barley ground very finely. It si rich in protein, clacium, phosphorus, potassium, iron, and B vitamins.

Bean/Legume Flours
Made easily by grinding all types of beans, this flour can be used to enhance the flavor and health benefits of your breads, and they also make easy soups and dips.

Bread Flour
The best flour for bread making, it is ground from hard wheat. It has a high protein (gluten) and low starch content.

Brown Rice Flour
Ground from brown rice, this flour has a slightly sweet flavor. It is used alone or combined with wheat flour in breads and batters.

Buckwheat Flour
Buckwheat flour is ground from the seeds of a plant originating in Asia, has an earthy, slightly sour flavor that is usually tempered in commercial products by the addition of a little wheat flour.

Chestnut Flour
Chestnut flour is made from dried, ground chestnuts and usually sold in ethnic markets.

Corn Flour
A yellow, finely ground version of cornmeal, corn flour is used to add a mild corn taste and a pleasing texture to baked goods.

Flour
is a term that commonly refers to all-purpose flour, a blend of hard and soft wheats. Natural, pale yellow unbleached flour yields more crisp results; bleached white flour yields more tender results.

Gluten Flour
Gluten flour is made from hard wheat, and contains a high percentage of gluten, the protein in wheat flour that gives dough an elastic quality and helps it rise. It is often used in combination with low-gluten flours.

Millet Flour
Made from a small round grain resembling mustard seed, this flour has a slight nutty flavor.

Oat Flour
Oat flour is a fine flour ground from dried oats, has a characteristic nutlike flavor. It is used in combination with wheat flour.

Pastry and Cake Flours
Pastry flour is lighter and has a lower protein level of ~9-10% as opposed to ~ 12-13% found in bread flour. The soft, flakiness of pie crust is attributable to the softer flour. Cake flour is lighter than all purpose flour. It is not used much anymore, but if it does come up, you can substitute all-purpose/plain flour by removing three tablespoons per cup of flour and replacing it with corn starch or potato flour.

Potato Flour
This is a gluten-free flour made from cooked, dried and ground potatoes. It is mostly used as a thickener. It is also known as potato starch
.
Rice Flour
This very fine powdery flour is made from pulverized long-grain or glutinous rice, used to thicken cakes and puddings as well as to make noodles and very fluffy breads.

Rye Flour
Rye flour is a fine flour ground from grains of rye grass, a close relative of wheat. It has a slightly sweet-sour flavor.

Self Rising Flour
Self-rising flour contains 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder and 1/2 teaspoon salt for each cup of flour. US whole wheat flour is interchangeable with UK wholemeal flour.

Semolina Flour
Semolina flour is made from the finely ground endosperm of Durum wheat. Usually used in pasta making, it is a tasty, high protein addition to breads.

Seven-grain (or nine-grain) Flour
Seven-grain flour is a commercial blend commonly made up of millet, rye, corn, wheat, barley, oats, and flax or triticale. It is found in health-food stores and well-stocked markets. A more coarsely ground cereal blend is also available. Store seven-grain flour in a cool, dry place for up to 5 months.

Soy Flour
Soy flour is high in protein and is usually mixed in with whole grain flours in recipes.

Spelt Flour
This flour is lighter in protein and more easily digested than regular wheat flours. This flour is sometimes known as Farro.

Triticale Flour
Triticale is a hybrid cross of durum wheat and rye grains. It is high in protein, and is excellent for making bread. It may take longer to rise than regular wheat breads.

Vegetable Flour
Made from diried vegetables, use these flours to flavor breads and soups.

Whole Wheat Flour
Whole wheat four is made from milling the entire wheat berry. it is brownish in color.

sachertorte

Sachertorte is a chocolate cake, invented by Franz Sacher in 1832 for Klemens Wenzel von Metternich in Vienna, Austria.[2] It is one of the most famous Viennese culinary specialties. The Original Sachertorte is only made in Vienna and Salzburg, and is shipped from both locations.
The cake consists of two layers of dense, not overly sweet chocolate cake (traditionally a sponge cake) with a thin layer of apricot jam in the middle and dark chocolate icing on the top and sides. It is traditionally served with whipped cream without any sugar in it (Standard German: Schlagsahne, Austrian Standard German: Schlagobers), as most Viennese consider the Sachertorte too "dry" to be eaten on its own.

This torte has become the symbol of Viennese confectionery worldwide. Unfortunately, it has had many imitators. Karl Schuhmacher has a simple solution to the problem—he relies on the best ingredients and professional methods, as he explains:
Sachertorte is a timeless composition of the most important and finest ingredients from the confectioner's kitchen with no additives: pure chocolate, butter, eggs, sugar, flour, and apricot jam. What makes them into a Sachertorte is the quality of the individual ingredients and the way they harmonize perfectly with each other. Anything else is just an ordinary chocolate torte with ordinary chocolate icing and often looks nothing like the real thing. It is important to remember that, above all, the Sachertorte must be served correctly. It must be served fresh with freshly beaten, lightly sweetened cream, which the Austrians call "Schlagobers." without this cool, smooth, elegant finishing touch, the pleasure is incomplete. It would be a sin, a crime even, if the waiter did not recommend it. The sweet velvety coating is a cooked chocolate icing.
Makes one 9-inch torte
For 1 Sachertorte base:
4 oz couverture1/2 cup soft butter1/4 cup + 2 teaspoons confectioners' sugar6 eggs, separated1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons sugar1 cup flour, sifted
For the icing:
2 cups sugar3/4 cup water13 oz couverture, chopped
You will also need:
9-inch springform panParchment paperAbout 3/4 cup apricot jam for filling and spreading
Preheat the oven to 350F. To make the batter, melt the couverture in a double boiler over hot water. Cream the soft butter and confectioners' sugar with the couverture tempered at 89F. Stir in the egg yolks one at a time. In a clean bowl, whip the egg whites and sugar until stiff. Combine the two mixtures and fold in the sifted flour. Line the base of a springform pan with parchment paper. Spoon in the batter and smooth the top. Bake for 55 minutes. Allow to cool. Invert the pan onto parchment paper dusted lightly with sugar. Use a small knife to ease the torte from the sides, and remove from the pan. Cut the base in half horizontally. Heat and strain the jam, and use half to sandwich the two layers together. Place the torte on a piece of cardboard cut to the same size. Coat the torte thinly with the remainder of the hot jam. Gently emphasize the rounded edges of the top. The apricot masking is a base for the icing. It also helps to keep the cake moist and the chocolate glossy.
The recipe for the chocolate icing is generous enough for two tortes. To get a really smooth surface, the icing has to be poured over the torte as shown in the pictures opposite. A certain amount always sticks to the pan, strainer, and table top. It can be scraped up and used again after reheating. Place the iced torte immediately on a firm base and set aside. When the icing has set hard, use a small knife to trim the sides where it has run. Carefully slip a clean damp palette knife under the torte to release it and place on a cake plate.
A big copper pan is still used in the Hotel Sacher to melt the couverture. Master confectioner Friedrich Pfliegler can test the temperature of couverture between his finger and thumb as accurately as a thermometer. with his experience, there is no question of a mistake.
Couverture icing
photos on left
Place the sugar and water in a large saucepan, and bring to a boil.
Stir the couverture, which has been cut into pieces or melted, into the sugar solution.
Boil to the thick thread stage (230F). Use a damp brush to keep washing down the edges of the pan so that crystals do not form.
photos on right
Strain the icing into a smaller pan to avoid crystals forming on the sides and building up into lumps.
Pour part of the icing onto a marble slab, while continuing to stir the contents of the pot to prevent a skin forming.
Work the couverture continuously with a palette knife. When it begins to firm up and look somewhat lighter in color, return it to the pot, stir well, pour onto the table, and work again. Return it to the pot once more.
Place the torte on a wire rack over a baking sheet and pour the chocolate directly from the pot onto the top of the torte.
Spread the icing over the top with one or two strokes of the palette knife and then spread evenly around the sides.