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| ROLE
OF SUGAR IN COOKING
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Role
of Sugar in Bakery Items
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First
and foremost, lets list the essential ingredients
of bakery goods. These are- flour, shortening,
eggs, water/ milk, leavening agents, and sugar.
Truly speaking, the quantity and quality of these
ingredients determines the structural and sensory
attributes of the baked item- whether it is a
cake, cookie, or bread. All baked goods require
sugar for flavor, color, tenderness, and
uniformity of grain, gluten development, moisture
retention, improved shelf life, and yeast
fermentation. |
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| During
the mixing process, sugar acts as a tenderizing
agent by absorbing water and slowing gluten
development. Sugar competes with these
gluten-forming proteins for water in the batter
and prevents full hydration of the proteins during
mixing. If too much gluten develops, the dough or
batter becomes rigid and tough. Thus, by retarding
the gluten development, sugar renders the final
baked product, a tender crumb texture and a good
volume. |
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Sugar
hastens the leavening process as it increases
the efficacy of yeast by providing a direct,
more functional source of food. Yeast breads
require sugar initially to speed the yeast in
producing carbon dioxide for the leavening of
dough. During processing, the yeast cells break
down sugar, and carbon dioxide gas is released
at a rate faster than what it would have been if only the flour
carbohydrates were present. As a consequence,
dough rises faster and more consistently.
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Not only this, sugar acts as a whipping-aid and
props up lightness by incorporating air into the
shortening during the creaming process. Air is
trapped on the face of sugar's irregular
crystals. Thus, sugar helps produce fine crumb
texture and good volume during mixing and
baking.
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Sugar also acts as a stabilizer since it interacts
with egg proteins to stabilize the whipped foam
structure. Interestingly, sugar accounts for the
delayed coagulation of egg proteins during
baking. During heating while baking, egg
proteins tend to coagulate i.e. start forming
bonds among each other. The sugar molecules
raise the temperature at which bonds form
between these egg proteins by surrounding the
egg proteins and interfering with bond
formations.
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