Corn Syrup

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Robert Shea on March 6, 2009 at 10:44am

I sometimes use corn syrup, but typically not. It is a quick and easy way to boost shelf-life by reducing water activity without reducing actualy moisture content.

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Permalink Reply by Andre Costa on March 6, 2009 at 11:24am

So basically if a recipe asks for corn syrup, I can simply disregard the ingredient? Or should I replace it with something else - it does add sweetness, correct?

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Permalink Reply by John DePaula on March 6, 2009 at 6:11pm

Oh my gosh, you certainly don't want to omit it. Doing so would drastically alter the balance of the recipe and reduce the shelf-life as well.

Typically, you can substitute glucose roughly 1:1. You can try substituting other sweeteners, but you'll have to rebalance the level of sweetness. Honey, for example, can be used but it shifts the flavor profile in a direction that may not be desirable since honey is not very neutral.

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Permalink Reply by Andre Costa on March 6, 2009 at 10:56pm

I guess my major concern is whether corn syrup can be bad for one's health. I hear different things from different people.

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Permalink Reply by Clay Gordon on March 7, 2009 at 12:35pm

Water is bad for your health if you drink too much of it.

The amount of corn syrup you're talking about in a single piece is fractions of a gram. In that amount is it better or worse (considered solely from a health perspective) than refined white sugar?

Probably not.

You're over thinking this. There are far more important things to worry about when it comes to chocolate.

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Permalink Reply by Andre Costa on March 8, 2009 at 9:50pm

Clay,

I agree with 100% with you. I believe that anything in excess is bad for you.
My point is, if you look at almost any product made in the USA, you are bound to find corn syrup in it.
So, even though I expect people to eat chocolate (or anything else, for that matter) in moderation, I was wondering if I can get the same results in my chocolate-making without being another product manufacturer that includes corn syrup in my products. So, if there is an alternative, I would love to know what it is and to experiment with it.

I believe that's a very reasonable question.

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Permalink Reply by Ernesto B. Pantua Jr. on March 20, 2009 at 4:51pm

Hi Clay,

Have you tried concentrated coconut nectar? Its almost like a honey but a lot better it has a low GI and healthier than a lot of sweetener. It is 100% coconut nectar. However it is expensive. Here in the Philippines it is being retailed at 8 usd per kg.

Jun

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Permalink Reply by Robert Shea on March 20, 2009 at 5:33pm

Low GI is a fancy way of saying that your body cannot process it efficiently, which in turn is a simple way of saying that it takes more parts and involves more bottlenecks... effectivly putting more miles on your liver, kidneys, what have you and typically leads to insulin resistence.

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Permalink Reply by John DePaula on March 7, 2009 at 12:35pm

Well I'm no doctor but I don't subscribe to the notion that corn syrup is bad for you. Unless you put it in just about every single item on the grocery shelves, which is exactly what we do in the U.S. :-(

For the average person, the key to good health is to have lots of variety in your diet and conscientiously stay away from processed foods as much as possible. Moderation in all things.

What does Michael Pollan say? "Eat Food. Not Too Much. Mostly Plants."

There's a place for chocolate bonbons in ones' diet but it shouldn't be a major food group.

Just my opinion. :-)

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Permalink Reply by Lana on March 8, 2009 at 10:19pm

The culprit these days is High Fructose Corn Syrup. Regular Corn Syrup is pure glucose and is not as sweet as sucrose (regular sugar). They then figured out how to turn some of the glucose into fructose (up to 80% fructose) making it as sweet as sucrose. The reason this was such a big deal is because it is so much cheaper to process than regular sugar and so it could be used without hesitation! You will notice in most of the big boy chocolate recipe books (Wybauw, Greweling etc.), the recipes call for glucose. Glucose is usually derived from either wheat or corn. I like to use a glucose derived from corn so it's not an issue for celiacs. You can purchase glucose syrup from most baking ingredient suppliers. If you purchase corn syrup from the supermarket, check the ingredients. These most often contain some high fructose corn syrup as well as regular corn syrup.

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Permalink Reply by Andre Costa on March 9, 2009 at 11:06am

Hi Lana.

Thank you for the explanation. That's quite helpful.

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Permalink Reply by Robert Shea on March 9, 2009 at 4:16pm

Aye... the real issue is the way the body processes the two sugar types. Every cell in the body processes glucose, but only your liver can dealwith fructose. This has been shown to create a bottleneck with more sugars spilling over into the GI track that may lead to obesity, metabolic syndrom, kidney disease, and wheat intolerance.

There was a study done feeding mice glucose, fructose, or sucrose. The glucose feed mice had no ill effects, the sucrose ones had metabolic issues and obesity, the frustose fed mice... all the males died in childhood and all the females were obese, sterile, and had much shorter life-spans.

That said, make sure the corn syrup you use isn't cut with HFCS as Lana said (Karo recently released Karo "Original" that lacks HFCS)

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