Sugars and syrups 5.1 Types of crystalline sugars 51.1 Sucrose,‘ sugar Sucrose is a medium sized molecule known as a dissacharide (composed of a unit of dextrose plus a unit of fructose). It is derived from sugar cane or sugar beet which has been refined and crystallised from a concentrated solution. The term sugar is commonly used to efer to sucrose. It is by far the most commonly used type of sugar in the biscuit industry. White sucrose is available in various particle sizes, for example granulated, castor and icing. The smaller the crystal size the more luickly the sugar dissolves either in a dough mix or in the mouth Brown sugars are either partially refined sucrose, so still have syrup over their crystals, or are manufactured from white sugar by adding syrup to it. Commonly used brown sugars are demarara(with large rystal size), muscavado and soft pieces(various names are used and these sugars usually have small crystal size). London demarara is an example of a manufactured brown sugar where syrup has been added to white crystals. All brown sugars are sticky and tend to form hard lumps on storage especially after the bag is opened and exposed to the air 5.1.2 Lower sugars Lower sugars have smaller molecules than sucrose. They are mostly known as monosaccharides(e.g. one unit of dextrose or fructose) with reducing properties in chemical reactions(described later in relation to the maillard reaction in Section 5.4.6). They are normally derived from sucrose or from a starch(which has very large molecules made up of multiple units of dextrose) by a process which splits the molecules into individual units. This process is called hydrolysis The most co er sugar is de5 Sugars and syrups 5.1 Types of crystalline sugars 5.1.1 Sucrose, ‘sugar’ Sucrose is a medium sized molecule, known as a dissacharide (composed of a unit of dextrose plus a unit of fructose). It is derived from sugar cane or sugar beet which has been refined and crystallised from a concentrated solution. The term sugar is commonly used to refer to sucrose. It is by far the most commonly used type of sugar in the biscuit industry. White sucrose is available in various particle sizes, for example granulated, castor and icing. The smaller the crystal size the more quickly the sugar dissolves either in a dough mix or in the mouth. Brown sugars are either partially refined sucrose, so still have syrup over their crystals, or are manufactured from white sugar by adding syrup to it. Commonly used brown sugars are demarara (with large crystal size), muscavado and soft pieces (various names are used and these sugars usually have small crystal size). London demarara is an example of a manufactured brown sugar where syrup has been added to white crystals. All brown sugars are sticky and tend to form hard lumps on storage especially after the bag is opened and exposed to the air. 5.1.2 Lower sugars Lower sugars have smaller molecules than sucrose. They are mostly known as monosaccharides (e.g. one unit of dextrose or fructose) with reducing properties in chemical reactions (described later in relation to the Maillard reaction in Section 5.4.6). They are normally derived from sucrose or from a starch (which has very large molecules made up of multiple units of dextrose) by a process which splits the molecules into individual units. This process is called hydrolysis. The most commonly used lower sugar is dextrose (dextrose 29