Sugar - Rapadura? Muscovado? Sucanat?

[Chelsea (Thermie Groupie)]

Hi All,

I am wanting to buy some rapadura sugar online to try in my baking.  I noticed that several websites use the names rapadura, muscovado and sucanat sugar interchangably and am getting confused.  I then noticed that Billingtons sell light and dark muscovado sugar and am even more confused.  I seem to remember the Billingtons is very strong and wondered if it would be suitable for general baking anyway.  Can anyone shed any light on the subject?

Chelsea 

[Thermomixer]

I am not sure - Dani at The Kitchen Playground may be able to help you.  A table link from her site:
http://www.seleneriverpress.com/journal/articles.php?issue=2&volume=2&cid=101

[Chelsea (Thermie Groupie)]

I am not sure - Dani at The Kitchen Playground may be able to help you.  A table link from her site:
http://www.seleneriverpress.com/journal/articles.php?issue=2&volume=2&cid=101

That makes me feel better.  If Thermomixer doesn't know then I am definitely justified in feeling puzzled!!!
Chelsea 

[quirkycooking]

Hi Chelsea -

Rapadura is evaporated cane juice - it's also known as Sucanat. It is just the juice extracted from the cane, which has then been evaporated, not boiled, so it is not 'crystalised' - it is a grainy texture, and can be ground in the TMX to a fine powder to help it dissolve better.  (But it won't dissolve as well as refined sugars.)

Muscavado and Turbinado and Demarara and 'organic raw sugar' are all refined, though not as much as white sugar.  They are the product of heating the cane juice until crystals form, then spinning it in a centrifuge so the crystals are separated from the syrupy juice, but still having some juice coating them (which is molasses, and still contains lots of goodness).  So 'raw' sugar is not really raw, as it has been cooked, and a lot of the minerals and vitamins are gone.  Still, it's better than refined sugar.

Rapadura is the best sugar to use, as it is not heated, so it is still a whole food, and has retained its' vitamins and minerals and the natural balance of sucrose, glucose, and fructose.  It also contains components essential for its' digestion and is metabolized more slowly than white sugar, so will not affect your blood sugar levels very much at all.  Crystallised sugars will raise blood sugar levels, and the more refined the sugar, the more it affects blood sugar.

This is what they do to refined sugar...the raw sugar is centrifuged again, then the crystals are dissolved, boiled, and crystallized again into white sugar. All other sugars--confectioner's (also called powdered), castor, superfine, etc--are all refined sugar of different sizes. Granulated refined sugars are pure sucrose and contain no nutrients beyond calories. They are a "pure" industrial product.

Brown sugar is just white sugar mixed with molasses.

Some sugar is sold as 'organic' raw sugar, and people think this means it's unrefined - all it really means is that it's grown with organic agricultural methods, then refined as usual... the juice (molasses) has been removed, and there's not really any goodness in it.

Hope this is helpful!  For more info on natural sweetners, see www.sweetsavvy.com.  Debra has lots of great recipes on her site.  I also use natural sweeteners - www.quirkycooking.blogspot.com.

Jo

[Chelsea (Thermie Groupie)]

Thank you so much Jo!!!!  You have got me all organised.  I just need to source some rapadura sugar now.  My local organic distributor could only get me a bulk lot (very bulk - 1.2 tonne).  I didn't even ask how much it would cost!!!
Chelsea 

[Thermomixer]

Thanks Jo - great work 

[faffa_70]

WOW Thanks Jo, you are a natural teacher - practice from home-schooling the kids I guess, now I really understand the sugar process and have decided to change all my sugar to rapadura after reading your post. Thought I was doing really well with the organic raw sugar. Have now decided that if I am going to the effort, I may as well make the effort worth while.  Thanks again

[Chelsea (Thermie Groupie)]

WOW Thanks Jo, you are a natural teacher - practice from home-schooling the kids I guess, now I really understand the sugar process and have decided to change all my sugar to rapadura after reading your post. Thought I was doing really well with the organic raw sugar. Have now decided that if I am going to the effort, I may as well make the effort worth while.  Thanks again

I hope you have better luck than I do Kathryn at finding it locally.  So far my best option is Kombu Online (10kg rapadura sugar for about $100 including freight).  I'm starting to wish I lived in a bigger centre - a one stop organic shop would be heavenly about now!!!
Chelsea 

[faffa_70]

Hmm I am just south of Perth so hopefully I will have better luck than you have had Chelsea...Considering the amount that we go through with all the baking etc I don't want to be buying it in a lot of little packets 

[quirkycooking]

WOW Thanks Jo, you are a natural teacher - practice from home-schooling the kids I guess, now I really understand the sugar process and have decided to change all my sugar to rapadura after reading your post. Thought I was doing really well with the organic raw sugar. Have now decided that if I am going to the effort, I may as well make the effort worth while.  Thanks again

I hope you have better luck than I do Kathryn at finding it locally.  So far my best option is Kombu Online (10kg rapadura sugar for about $100 including freight).  I'm starting to wish I lived in a bigger centre - a one stop organic shop would be heavenly about now!!!
Chelsea 

Thanks! I guess I'm used to researching things.  I buy my Rapadura in 12.5kg bags from Demeter Farm Mill (through a bulk co-op) - I pay about $73 for that, incl. freight.  If you want to contact them, the email address is info@demeterfarmmill.com.au.  They are in NSW.  (We live in NQ, so that's a long way for freight - apparantly they'll do freight free to Brisbane if you have over $1000 order, and probably to other places too - so get some friends together and start a co-op!)  Kombu Online is a good place if you want small orders.  More expensive of course.  We can also get it from our local health food shop - they buy it bulk from Demeter and repack it into kilo bags for about $9/kg.  If you have a health food shop locally, try and get them interested in getting it in!

Jo

[brazen20au]

how far do you think you can go with reducing sugar in cakes etc before it affects the end product in terms of texture?

i go through a lot of sugar baking and i'd love to reduce the total sugar intake for us all, but i do want to keep baking.

oh and is rapadura high in salicylates?

[quirkycooking]

how far do you think you can go with reducing sugar in cakes etc before it affects the end product in terms of texture?

i go through a lot of sugar baking and i'd love to reduce the total sugar intake for us all, but i do want to keep baking.

oh and is rapadura high in salicylates?

I never use more than 100g of Rapadura in a cake - if the recipe calls for more, I add a pinch of stevia powder, or some honey, or some crushed dates... depending on type of cake.  And sometimes I cut it down to 50g with a pinch of stevia.  I just taste the batter and see if it's sweet enough, and add more stevia/honey if needed.  It doesn't usually affect the texture, although brownies work better with their full quota of Rapadura, unfortunately.  But there are recipes out there for naturally sweetened brownies - using apple sauce, dates, etc.

With biscuits (cookies) I find a mixture of Rapadura and rice malt syrup works well if you want 'crunchy', or Rapadura and honey if you want 'soft and chewy'.

By the way, to substitute honey for sugar, just halve the amount used (eg. 50g honey = 100g sugar) and lower the temp you cook at by about 25%.

That's how I lower the sugar intake, and save money too.  (I buy it all bulk, except the stevia, which though expensive does last for ages because you use hardly any.)

I'm not sure about the salicylate content in Rapadura - I'll have to look into it.

Jo. 

[brazen20au]

oh brilliant, thanks jo!!! i do have stevia drops but because there's so many different forms of stevia it's hard to know how much to use lol

[quirkycooking]

oh brilliant, thanks jo!!! i do have stevia drops but because there's so many different forms of stevia it's hard to know how much to use lol

I usually use just about a quarter of a tsp of the powder, or a few drops of the liquid, for maybe 50g - but that's not exact... I just check the sweetness and add more if needed. 

[vivacity]

Talking of sugar... Has anyone tried replacing sugar in baking with Xylosweet? I saw a recipe using it on Amazon.com:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?docId=1000386281

Apparently, it's a healthier alternative to normal sugar.