Learning Objective
From this article, you will discover how different kinds of sugar can transform your sweet baking. You will learn about why we use sugar in baking, and how to decide which sweeteners to use.
Total Hours 3
When making sweet sourdough recipes, it is useful to get to grips with the role of sugar in your bakes. As in any sourdough recipe, lactic acid bacteria transform sugars within the flour into acid. However, if you use additional sugar in your recipes, there are other factors to take into account. While the hygroscopic nature of sugar already has a retarding effect on yeast, the propensity of sugar to increase the acidity of the dough triggers the proteolytic enzymes to break down the gluten, which in turn further retards the yeast. With this in mind, we have to adjust the balance of our starters to account for the addition of sugar, as well as eggs and fat, which retard the dough still further. For this reason, we use a sweet starter in many of our sweet sourdough recipes.
Advanced sweet sourdough bakes, such as croissants, panettone and Danishes, require the use of a sweet starter, as the gluten structure is integral to their production. However, when making cakes, a sweet starter is not essential – your regular starter may be used, as the tin will support the delicate gluten structure of the cake while baking.
View all of our sourdough cakes and puddings.
Why use sugar at all?
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Sugar has been demonised in many ways, and there are good reasons behind this. Refined white sugar is known to be inflammatory, so it is important to reduce your consumption of it in order to nourish your body. We’ve built much of our work at the School around controlling blood sugar, and while we certainly don’t avoid sugar altogether, it is rare for us to use refined white sugar in our bakes. We opt for less refined sugars and use them to accentuate natural sweetness (although we are not suggesting that less refined sugars won’t also raise blood sugar levels, or don’t have the same number of calories as refined white sugar). We also make use of lactic acid fermentation in order to transform sugars into acids while retaining minerals and flavour. This transformation is one of the key factors that changes the rate of assimilation of carbohydrates in the body, and it is the magic of sourdough baking! It has been documented in several studies that even increasing acidity naturally by drinking wine or having vinegar with food can slow down the assimilation of carbohydrates, and it is possible to attain the same effect through sourdough cakes, bakes and doughs. There have been students at the School who had previously not been able to tolerate wholegrain cakes and bakes due to issues with digesting wheat, who have found that the long, slow fermentation and the acidity created by the transformation of the sugars enables them to enjoy sweet sourdough recipes.
Combining sugars with an increased intake of fibre and the diverse ingredients found in our Botanical Blends enhances the flavours and natural sweetness in the dough – and with the addition of a little salt or fat, you can create an explosion of flavour. A sweetener like molasses also adds malty, sticky, dark, complex notes to your bakes. This is why we believe sugar does have its place in the world of sourdough.
Layers of sweetness
One of my signature techniques is to layer the different sweeteners within a bake. During fermentation, almost all of the refined carbohydrates are consumed by the bacteria, so it’s really important to use the most flavoursome sugars. As I remove a cake from the oven, I like to take the opportunity to use sugar syrups to add extra sweetness and flavour, and balance out the acidity. I drizzle 2–3 tablespoons of a syrup, such as cherry, blackberry or cardamom and orange, over the warm cake. This small amount makes a huge difference to the overall sensory experience of eating a sweet, long-fermented sourdough cake, and can increase levels of polyphenols. The addition of the drizzle also has an effect on the dough rheology – as it saturates the top of the warm cake with sugar, the hygroscopic nature of the sugar captures moisture, leaving the crumb moist and extending the shelf life of the bake.
The advantage of layering sweeteners in this way is that you can control the overall sweetness of the bake. For anyone cutting down on sugar, you can serve the cake as it is when it comes out of the oven, and then simply pour the sugar syrup over the remainder of the cake for others who may prefer their bakes a little sweeter. When you first start baking sweet sourdough, it can take some time for the palate to adjust to the nuanced flavours of the wholegrains, the Botanical blends, and the fermentation, so you can make changes to the sugar content of your bakes as you progress, depending on your preference and what you want to achieve with your baking.
Honey
We love to use honey at the Sourdough School, especially as I keep bees and plant my garden in a way that feeds the bees throughout the year. One of my favourite ways to use a beautiful unpasteurised runny honey is to drizzle it on top of a freshly baked cake. Honey is, in fact, more hygroscopic than white sugar, so it does a very good job of keeping cakes moist. It also has prebiotic potential, which can lead to an increase in probiotic bacteria Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium in the gut. If you have a sweet tooth, do try to connect with local beekeepers to support them and enjoy their honey on your bakes.
Dates
Dates are a brilliant sweetening agent for cakes and desserts. They contain a good level of fibre (which makes up 6.4–11 per cent of their composition) and polyphenols. These delicious fruits are also popular with your gut microbes, with one study on Ajwa dates demonstrating their effect on broader bacterial diversity in the gut, increased abundance of Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium, and higher levels of short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs). These effects can enhance colon health, deter pathogens, and provide important nutrients for the body’s functions. Another study found that dates can reduce inflammation seen in the brains of those suffering from neurodegenerative conditions.
Which sugars do we recommend for sweet sourdough baking?
These sugars are mostly interchangeable, but offer a variety of flavour profiles:
- Honey
- Date syrup
- Molasses
- Agave syrup
- Palm sugar
- Jaggery
- Pomegranate syrup
- Barley malt syrup
- Fresh dates
- Maple syrup
- Muscovado sugar
- Rapadura sugar
- Demerara sugar
- Soft brown sugar (can be swapped for coconut sugar)
We often use spraymalt as a sugar at the School, as it has the most amazing flavour. It is fine powder dried malt extract, which you can get in light or dark shades. It’s important to store it somewhere where you can keep it dry.
Learning Outcome
You will be able to ascertain which sugars will work in your sweet baking and how you might use them. You will understand how to layer sweetness and what the relative health benefits are of different sugars.