Glucose powder? But I need Syrup!?

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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