Sugar, spice and everything nice…

During the Middle Ages, Sugar was considered a rare, expensive spice, rather than an everyday condiment.

Sugar is a sweet-flavoured ingredient, used in a variety of food and drinks around the world since ancient times. This sweetener has become a favourite in almost every household. It’s hard to find someone who isn’t a fan–we know we are! 

Sugar is derived from crystallized sucrose, which is extracted from sugar beets or sugar cane. The juice is extracted and boiled, allowing the excess water to evaporate. Raw sugar is spun in a centrifuge at high speeds to remove the sticky brown syrup that coats sugar crystals, known as molasses. The colour of Sugar is primarily determined by the amount of molasses remaining on or added to the crystals, offering pleasurable flavours, and altering moisture. By simply adding heat, white sugar turns into a sweet, brown, delicious caramel flavour that can be used for yummy desserts.

Types of Sugars:

White Sugar

Commonly referred to as granulated, regular or table sugar is a sweetener used in all types of foods, including baked goods, sweetened beverages, and savoury dishes. It helps with important chemical reactions that occur during baking and cooking.

Brown Sugar

It is a sucrose sugar product with a distinctive brown colour because of its presence of molasses. The moisture in the molasses makes brown sugar softer than white sugar. Light brown gives your chocolate chip cookies a chewier consistency and a deeper, more complex sweetness. Dark brown sugar contains more molasses. It is darker, stickier, and has a stronger molasses flavour. It is used in baking to produce a more complex caramel and toffee flavour, this rich aroma is just right for gingerbread cookies.

Castor Sugar

It is a superfine sugar and is processed almost exactly as per white table sugar, except it is finer in size and texture. Desserts such as meringue, mousse, and other desserts often call for superfine sugar. Castor has an incredible ability to dissolve quickly and is used to sweeten cold drinks like iced tea or lemonade.

Icing Sugar

Commonly referred to as powdered sugar and confectioners’ sugar, is a finely ground white sugar powder mixed with a small amount of corn starch (to prevent caking). Powdered sugar is smooth and has stabilizing properties. It is often used in whipped cream, frosting, icing, and creamy desserts because it dissolves rapidly. Bragan Ingredients also offers white and brown icing sugar.

Bragan carries all the listed types of sugars in this blog. Products come in 25kg bags, which carry food, kosher and halaal/halal certification contact us for more information at enquiries@braganingredients.co.za

Written by: Ashika Sewlall.