Cookaholics Bulletin Board

I have been hearing and reading more about Brown Rice Syrup being a complex sugar that the body utilizes more efficiently than regular sugar. Does anybody use it and how does it's sweetness compare to regular sugar?

I use it and like it alot. Per my brand (Lundberg Sweet Dreams) 1 1/4 cups BRS equals 1 cup sugar.

I use brown rice syrup or barley malt syrup in multigrain and whole wheat bread when I need a vegan version for dinner group or when I want a flavor variation from honey. I have also used both in granola with good results.

Both have a significant amount of maltose that is less sweet than both honey and granulated sugar. I do not tend to pay much attention to sugar related health claims or substitute syrups for granulated sugar in recipes, but maltose has a distinct an pleasant flavor and I like to keep one or the other of the maltose rich syrups in my cupboard most of the time.

I always have it and regularly sub rice syrup for honey in recipes. I guess we just don't use honey enough, but I find that it is harder to measure and is always crystallized when I want to use it. So I just got in the habit of subbing, plus the folks that make Sweet Dreams are a really nice family (I placed some foster kids with them and go to know their large family) and it is made locally. It is great for granola.

PS, their rice is good too, even when it would smoke down the valley.

Does anyone have any thoughts on agave syrup? I got some when I was perfecting my margarita recipe and really like it. But I have no idea how it relates to the other sweeteners.

I use it in place of corn syrup in most recipes. I've never had a problems doing so in candy or baked goods though some say it will not work as well as corn syrup in frozen foods. I sometimes use it in place of simple syrup when I am feeling lazy and think I can get away with it. I've never tried it in pecan pie since I use maple syrup in that. Off the top of my head, the things I make with it include granola, marshmallows, and fruit salad dressing. I'm totally going to try it in margaritas now, of course.

Agave Nectar very nearly shares the sugar profile of High Fructose Corn Syrup and honey with 55% [or more] fructose. I am not sure if claims of it being either more natural or healthier than HFCS are accurate.

Wouldn't "more efficient utilization of sugar" be a bad thing? Maybe you meant something else...

Nutrition Action had a chart a while back showing the % of fructose in common sweeteners, and all were 50%, plus or minus 2%, and the usual HFCS at 55%. But agave syrup had a whopping 88%! Yet they try to pass that off as the best sweetener for a diabetic to use, which is utter nonsense. It has a low glycemic index, but that is only one factor to consider. And rice syrup is almost all maltose, so we don't get any fructose when it is digested. But then, there may be arsenic...

One thing I found out recently on a bread baking forum was how the different sugars affect the different sourdough components - the wild yeasts and the lactobacilli - and that the fructose is what seems to feed the sour producing varieties of the lactobacilli. I figured this might explain Peter Reinhart's frequent use of agave syrup in his recipes, even though he never goes into detail about it. Either that, or he has stock in the companies.

Brown Rice Syrup is supposed to metabolize more slowly and the body uses it for energy instead of metabolizing quickly like sugar and being stored as fat. To me metabolizing slowly would be a more efficient use for the syrup.