The Struggle
Glucose is a sugar that is also known as “grape sugar”. To make it confusing, that doesn’t mean the sugar is always from grapes. Glucose is found in many different fruits, vegetables, and starches but the name “grape sugar” is still commonly used. In today’s pantry glucose is most commonly derived from corn. Glucose comes in two basic forms, either powdered or in a syrup solution. A question that comes across my desk (AKA my prep table) regularly is about glucose powder. While some recipes call for glucose powder, an equal amount if not more recipes call for glucose syrup. So what is the answer to the question:
“How do I use glucose powder when my recipe calls for glucose syrup?”
The solution is to make a solution…
Most glucose syrups have a glucose content of 70-91% so the best possible answer is to make a solution of powdered glucose and water. Now for a simple example let’s say a recipe calls for 100g of glucose syrup. The correct ratio of powdered glucose to water will be 70g glucose powder and 30g of water. Now when you mix together these two ingredients it will make a thick paste, but rest assured that it will melt into a liquid when it is heated. Once the liquid comes to a boil, remove it from the heat and allow it to cool before using the syrup.
A simpler solution
A lot of the time a recipe will call for mixing sugar, water, and glucose syrup, then heating to a certain temperature. The easiest way to go about this is, calculate what 70% of the glucose syrup is by weight, then measure out that amount in glucose powder. At this point you can mix the glucose powder into the sugar and water then go about the recipe as normal.
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8 Comments.
Is there a way to go about making a substitute for a glucose powder with a specific dextrose equivalent (DE)? For example, I want a glucose powder that is DE 21 (for making ice creams and sorbets). Since I have found no supplier online that sells a reasonably-priced powder in this range, can I substitute something else for it?
There isn’t really a way we know of to substitute one DE value for another.
You might be able to use a refractometer to measure the specific brix level of your homemade dextrose syrups and dial it in from there.
[…] second way is to replace the sugars in a bread with liquid sugars. Glucose syrup, honey, or agave work great. Glucose syurp and these other liquid sugars are known as invert […]
what’s the effect of mixing powder glucose in cold water before drinking it?
I’m not sure why you would want to drink glucose syrup? We don’t do these types of tests since we focus on recipes and cooking applications.
Which syrup mixture is the best for making ice cream?
DE42 syrup is the best for this!
https://modernistpantry.com/products/glucose-de-42-powder.html?_ga=2.32949246.1584456194.1629923229-974264818.1627477901