Baking&Snack - May 2013 - 65

FORMULATION

Why Swap
Honey for Sugar

Ingredient App

Mother Nature’s most natural of all sweeteners can upgrade
product image and flavor when cutting sugar in baked foods.
by Laurie Gorton

Consumers face a difficult choice
when trying to cut added sugars
from their diets. Foods formulated
to be low in sugar — even those
made with high-intensity non-caloric or alternative nutritive sweeteners
— tend to lack a certain roundness
of flavor. That’s why many such
products employ masking agents
and flavor enhancer additives.
But when consumers will accept
modest calorie counts in return
for the reward of pleasing flavor,
there’s a sweetener that seems to be
designed exactly for them: honey.
“How sweeteners are manufactured and their perceived naturalness have received intense media
scrutiny,” said Catherine Barry, director of marketing, National Honey
Board, Firestone, CO. “Since honey
is produced in nature by bees, manufacturers who sweeten their products with it need not worry about
the perception consumers will have
when reading an ingredient listing.”
Strictly speaking, honey qualifies as sugar, but among consumers,
it enjoys an advantage that other
sweeteners lack. Because honey is
simply labeled “honey,” it is easy
for shoppers to find on product
labels. When the National Honey
Board surveyed consumers in 2011,
it learned that 96% of participants
readily identified honey as an allnatural sweetener.
“Today’s consumer is more aware
than ever about the ingredients in
the foods they eat,” Ms. Barry said.
“Honey plays an important role in
sweetening bakery foods, giving

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bakers the opportunity to sweeten
their products with an ingredient
with exceptional familiarity and
trust with consumers. This is very
important to a growing segment of
consumers who intensely read labels
and crave natural, clean products.
“Honey is such a great ingredient for the baking industry because
it performs many roles beyond just
sweetening,” she added.
Because of its high fructose
content, honey is sweeter than sugar.
This allows bakers to cut back on
total sweeteners yet still achieve the
desired sweetness. “Honey’s sugar
profile does change slightly between
floral sources,” Ms. Barry observed.
Its fructose content can range from
30.91 to 44.26%, with glucose varying from 22.89 to 40.75%.
Honey not only sweetens but also
adds humectant effects through its
hygroscopicity. “Products that contain honey dry out more slowly and
have a lesser tendency to crack,” Ms.
Barry reported. Its fructose content
fosters greater uniformity in baking and promotes evenly browned
crusts at lower baking temperatures.
It naturally coats, binds and thickens products, improving body and
mouthfeel. A water-soluble liquid,
honey can be pumped or extruded
during bakery processing.
And then there’s flavor and aroma, qualities long valued by bakers
and consumers alike. Even at small
percentages, up to 6% flour weight
basis, honey improves the aroma
of sweet cakes, biscuits, breads and
similar products. Its naturally high

Honey is sweeter than sugar, and its
flavor can mask bitterness in whole
wheat and whole grain breads.
National Honey Board

acidity, averaging a pH of 3.91, helps
inhibit mold growth.
“When substituting honey for
sugar in formulas, begin by substituting honey for up to half of the
sugar,” Ms. Barry said. Other tips:
Reduce oven temperature by 25 F°
to prevent over-browning, and for
each part of honey used, cut liquids
by 25% and add 1% baking soda.
Honey actually exerts a flavormasking effect in whole grain and
whole wheat products. Ms. Barry reported that Auntie Anne’s, a national
chain of pretzel shops, chose honey
to sweeten its new Honey Whole
Grain Pretzel made with whole
grain flour.
“Other bakeries in the gluten-free
market also are turning to honey to
provide flavor and moisture in these
bakery foods,” Ms. Barry added.
“Honey is naturally free of gluten,
containing no wheat, barley, rye or
oats or their byproducts. In glutenfree formulas, where texture and flavor often suffer, honey offers bakers
distinct flavor, color and textural enhancement by retaining moisture.”
For assistance and teaching videos,
visit www.bakingwithhoney.com.

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May 2013 / Baking & Snack / 65

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