Baking&Snack - August 2013 - 64

NATURAL SWEETENERS

be lower than in chemically leavened goods, Mr. Bodner
pointed out. “In addition, the yeast cells secrete invertase, which splits the disaccharide sucrose into the reducing sugar monomers, glucose and fructose. For other
non-yeast-raised products, the impact on browning may
be more dramatic,” he noted.

Measuring value-added
While natural sweeteners enjoy high-profile recognition from consumers, they usually are not the low-cost
choice. “Almost as a rule, the natural sweeteners are
more expensive,” Dr. Morano said. “You can get the
same sweetener functionality more cheaply with refined

What is dry honey?
The viscous nature of regular honey makes its handling
in the bakery rather difficult and its scaling less than fully
accurate. To overcome these problems, honey is offered
to the baker in several physically modified forms in addition to the familiar liquid. Two of the modified products are
plastic in consistency and made by (a) whipping reducedmoisture honey at low temperatures to form a “churned”
honey and (b) plasticizing honey with invert sugar using a
special mixing process. Both products have handling characteristics similar to plastic shortenings.
Early attempts to reduce honeys to free-flowing powders
by vacuum drying met with only partial success, mainly
because the resulting product was highly hygroscopic.
Even brief exposure of the dry crystalline product to the
atmosphere caused rapid moisture absorption and hardening into lumps that resisted dispersion.
The problem was solved by a process in which flour or,
preferably, starch is added to the honey and the slurry then
is dried on a modified double-drum dryer. In this process,
the starch takes up the moisture from the honey to become
partially gelatinized and then releases it to the atmosphere.
The resulting sugar-starch complex consists of 75% sweetener, 23.5% starch and 1.5% moisture. The dry product
remains free-flowing on exposure to the atmosphere.
The honey-starch complex possesses the functional
properties of regular honey solids and of partially gelatinized starch. This combination accounts for its improving
effect on crumb structure, bread yield, flavor and shelf life,
which exceeds that obtained by honey alone or by honey
and starch when added separately. Dehydrated honey can
be used to good advantage in any bakery product in which
regular honey has found application, including bread,
sweet dough products and cookies.
(From “Baking Science & Technology, 4th ed., by E.J.
”
Pyler and L.A. Gorton, Sosland Publishing Co. For more
details about this two-volume book, click on “Store” at
www.bakingbusiness.com/Resources.)

/ Baking & Snack / August 2013

Honey-pepper flatbread takes its flavor and aroma appeal from honey.
National Honey Board

sweeteners, but natural sweeteners provide bakers the
option to ask premium prices for their goods.
“If a company wants consumers to look at its products as natural,” he emphasized, “it has to put in things
the consumer considers natural and leave out the things
consumers consider artificial.”
Mr. Hickenbottom made the same point. “Honey
availability and price currently may deter bakers from
using more of it, even though its attributes are considerable,” he said. “Consumers have good recognition and
acceptance of products using honey. Malt is not as recognizable by the consumer, but many bakers of whole
grain items know that malt produces products with
added eye appeal and salability. Honey and malt will
continue to be the ‘bakers choice’ of sweeteners in many
items for years to come.
“In today’s market, sucrose and corn sweeteners are
priced less than either honey or malt,” he continued.
“This variance is counteracted by being able to use less
honey and malt to achieve the desired flavor and color
yet benefit from enhanced finished products. This difference can be as much as 15% less in both cases.”
The virtues of these natural sweeteners are properly
viewed as value-added advantages. “The National Honey
Board expects the popularity of honey to increase as the
sweetener industry continues to be scrutinized by the
media and medical community,” Ms. Barry said. “Since
honey is produced in Mother Nature by bees, manufacturers that sweeten their products with honey don’t
have to worry about the perception consumers will have
when reading an ingredient listing.”
And that’s a good thing.

•

Editor’s note: For more about honey and malt, subscribe to
Baking & Snack’s weekly Formulations Update e-newsletter. Coming editions will feature exclusive Q&A sessions
with people quoted in this article.

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