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Couple of subbing questions ~natural sweeteners

18 years ago

Hey Grainlady~(I know you'll peek in.) but really anyone...

I just printed off some recipes using coconut flour and Virgin Coconut Oil (which I happen to have because I make lotion bars with it)..anyway..

some of the recipes call for Brown Rice Syrup and whole sugar.

Can I sub the Agave for the Brown Rice, or should I use Karo?

And I have C&H Raw sugar..is that whole sugar?

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Comments (4)

Terri_PacNW
Original Author
18 years ago
googled it myself...

Looks like molasses or maple syrup at lesser quantities for the brown rice syrup.

Hmmm and the only thing I could find on whole sugar subbing is date sugar.

Guess I'll just have to figure this out on my own.
dancinglemons
18 years ago
You can use cane syrup for the brown rice syrup. Just a personal opinion but I no longer use Karo because they now put as much as 50% High Fructose Corn Syrup in it. It used to be 100% natural corn syrup until a few years ago. I have started substituting cane syrup for all recipes that call for corn syrup. For raw sugar I use either regular white sugar or the granulated brown sugar (not the wet brown sugar).

DL
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grainlady_ks
18 years ago
Brown Rice Syrup - is half as sweet as sugar, so equal amounts of agave nectar would be way too sweet, but 1/3 or 1/2 that amount would probably work.

Brown rice syrup is also much thicker than agave nectar, so you may have a hydration difference you'll need to correct in the dough/batter.

A 50/50 mix of agave nectar and molasses or 100% cane syrup would work. The mild-flavored agave nectar would help cut the taste of molasses or cane syrup which are very strong to be using in large amounts. Especially compared to mild-tasting brown rice syrup.

I'd be inclined to use Golden Syrup (Lyle's Golden Syrup is one brand). It's another cane sugar syrup and is thicker than honey/agave nectar/maple syrup and has a mild flavor like brown rice syrup, but will be a little sweeter than brown rice syrup.

Dancinglemons suggestion to use 100% Pure Cane Syrup is a good one (I use Steen's brand), but it adds a lot more flavor than you find in brown rice syrup.

Personally, I just plain disliked the flavor of brown rice syrup.

* Raw Sugar - is refined to produce pure sucrose (which is still plain old sugar). Turbinado or your C&H Raw Sugar will work well as a substitute. Sucanat would also work. Sugar is sugar (sucrose). The size of the granules is what you'll find different in this case, plus a little of the natural color and minerals. If you find the more "natural" forms of sugar aren't dissolving well, you can give it a quick zip in a blender or small food processor and it will become "powdered" sugar and will dissolve better.

Raw date sugar isn't a good substitute in my opinion, since it doesn't "act" like sugar in cooking and baking. It's okay to add to a topping, such as a crumb topping, but the chemistry of sugar just isn't there for baked goods. It doesn't dissolve readily (you usually need to dissolve date sugar in water before use and it still leaves a large amount of solids that never dissolves), it will ALSO add a great deal of date flavor, and it burns VERY easily.

I'm with dancinglemons, I also avoid high fructose syrup and wouldn't use Karo (and haven't for many years now). From past experience using brown rice syrup, Karo would also be much sweeter. White Karo would have the least flavor, but more sweetness than brown rice syrup.

-Grainlady
Terri_PacNW
Original Author
18 years ago
THANK YOU BOTH! I so appreciate the opinions and fact..
I'm printing this page off to keep in my cookbook as a reference!

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