Ingredient Spotlight: Turbinado Sugar

I just finished a week-long baking class in San Francisco where we focused on how certain ingredients function in any given recipe. Sugar came up often as more and more people are experimenting with natural sugars instead of white, refined sugar. But I left the class wondering: is brown sugar really better for you? Is Turbinado sugar an even better choice?

When it comes right down to it, brown sugar and Turbinado sugar are both still sugar. But there's a common perception that since they're brown, perhaps they're less processed and better for us. And since Turbinado grains are larger and chunkier, some folks think it's processed even less and is, therefore, even healthier. Let's find out.

First, what are the differences? Brown sugar is really 95% white sugar with a thin layer of added molasses. It's usually removed from processing before it's completely refined, but not early enough to be called unprocessed by any means. And yes, brown sugar does contain trace amounts of minerals from the molasses but not enough to really benefit the body in any measurable way. The amounts are far too low.

What about Turbinado sugar (or raw sugar)? Turbinado sugar is made from the initial pressing of sugar cane. Since it's pulled out before the processing is complete, more of the natural molasses remains in the crystals. If we're strictly talking about calories, brown sugar and Turbinado sugar do rank a little lower than white cane sugar, but this is largely because they carry more moisture not because there's something inherently healthier about them.

So what to do? Can you use brown sugar or Turbinado sugar in your baking recipes instead of white sugar? My advice on this one is to be careful. Since both will contribute more moisture to your recipe and a different color and flavor profile, you want to only make this decision with a forgiving recipe like simple cookies or muffins. I wouldn't do this kind of substitution with delicate cakes, breads, or mousses.

How about just decreasing the amount of sugar in your recipes to make them less sweet in general? Again: be careful. The sweetness that sugar lends to a recipe is only one of its functions. Sugar also encourages the incorporation of air in a batter, aids in coloration, increases shelf life, and softens texture. So feel free to experiment and make adaptations, but start slowly. Do you ever bake with Turbinado sugar or use other alternative sugars? We'd love to hear about your experiences!

Comments (17)

Honestly, if I'm going to be making a batch of cookies then I admit to myself that they are bad for me, and only a treat. The type of sugar I use is dependent upon the recipe... brown for ginger snaps, white for cakes, etc. The trick is to just lower consumption for these things to be healthy :)

Yeah. Reminds me of hippies and all the honey (now agave syrup). It's just SUGAR, folks!

Someone recently told me that she was avoiding "white sugar," and I was appalled. Sugar is sugar is sugar, and I will never understand how people think that a touch of molasses will make it somehow healthy.

Does this mean turbinado sugar can be easily subsituted in when brown sugar isn't available? I always thought there was a distinct difference between the two.

i use turbinado exclusively for everything. it's fine in cakes cookies whatever. when i make cookies and it says 1/2 cup each brown sugar and white sugar i just use 1/2 cup total of the turbinado. never noticed a difference. the only time i use brown sugar is for oatmeal or cobblers or something where you need that extra goo layer but the turbinado is fine and you can use less. it's kinda pricy though ...

I did pick up some turbinado sugar recently that I have yet to experiment with in baking and such. I have bought and used agave nectar, and like to use it in drinks because it dissolves beautifully in warm and cold liquids. Haven't tried that one in baking either.

I've actually used Turbinado sugar to bake a cake - but only becuz the recipe specifically called for it. It's a banana cake from Rose's Heavenly Cakes and I recently made it as a part of a friend's wedding cake. amazing!

Regarding the amounts of sugar in recipes: I find that most recipes have far, far, too much sugar. The amounts seem to go beyond the simple chemistry of baking. Americans have a *very* sweet tooth.

I always decrease the amount of sugar in American recipes by 1/3 to 1/2 without having any problems.

I bake with Agave Nectar all the time and it turns out amazing. And no, I'm not a hippie, but I do enjoy the health benefits of Agave vs. white sugar. Baking with Agave is pretty easy, just 1/2 the amount of sugar to agave. It makes my cookies moist and I make jam and jelly with it as well. I also use Turbinado or Sucanat sugar in baking, as well as white sugar. It depends on the recipes, but there IS something to be said for using something that's even slightly less processed...given the high fructose corn syrup we're all eating every day, it's a good thing to be aware of.

I try my best to avoid cane sugar, which, given where I live, means no white or brown sugar. This isn't do to health reasons, I'm really not comfortable with the industry and it is very difficult to get fair trade sugar where I live. Mostly I use honey and maple sugar with varying degrees of success.

@ our home we eat jaggery. It's a sugar from Asia that is traditionally (non-centrifuge) processed without chemicals. Calorically, it is probably similar to white sugar, but it has more minerals. We avoid almost all white sugars, simply because something like 90% are made from GM beets. Real cane sugar can be a challenge to find, and we're not big fans of how it is processed so I only use it when it's absolutely required (like in candy making, etc.).

I really think you should be wary of cooking with agave syrup in any quantity. It's not good for you and not healthy or natural, or any of these other claims. When ingested too much it can cause serious damage to the body. High Fructose Corn Syrup, much maligned in the world, contains 55% fructose. Agave? 90%.

Do some searching on your own to back this up.

First, the name "turbinado" is completely a marketing thing...it sounds fancy, right? It's still just cane sugar. "Less processed"? Well sort of, but in a very inconsequential way.

Semantics aside, it seems like the crystal size of turbinado sugar is typically bigger than white sugar which would affect a volume measurement for recipes. Something to keep in mind as noted above for delicate baked goods like cakes.

I've cooked and baked with it and I can't tell the difference, flavorwise. It's not any better or worse for you than any other sugar, but if you look hard enough there might be a variety that is less mega-corporation-produced than the mass market stuff which would make it a win in my book. Like most packaged foods, however, you'd have to do some serious digging to find an independent brand that isn't owned by one of the two major producers in the U.S.

And as an aside, sugar cane production is notoriously bad for the environment. OTOH, sugar beets are almost entirely a GMO crop. Both take a huge amount of energy to process. In my book that leaves eating less as the only real solution.

I generally use coconut palm sugar if I am trying to be healthy. But sometimes nothing but white processed sugar will do.

I always cut the sugar in recipes by at least a third, and I've never had any problems. (Of course, I'm talking baked goods, etc, not something like candy or a simple syrup, where sugar is the main ingredient.)

cmcinnyc said "Reminds me of hippies and all the honey (now agave syrup). It's just SUGAR, folks!"

Well, no, it's not 'just' sugar. This is the same line of reasoning that the corn industry is using to market HFCS as "no worse for you" than any other sweetener. Don't confuse "sugar" - the stuff from cane or, in the US, beets, otherwise known as table sugar - with "sugars" - the group of carbohydrates like glucose, sucrose (table sugar), fructose, lactose, dextrose, and maltose. The different forms are processed and used in different ways by the body, and combine and react in different ways with all the other chemicals in our diet.

So maybe you feel clever when you tell hippies their honey and agave syrup/'nectar' are "just sugar, folks," but, well, you're just wrong.

Konar said "Someone recently told me that she was avoiding "white sugar," and I was appalled. Sugar is sugar is sugar, and I will never understand how people think that a touch of molasses will make it somehow healthy."

Perhaps she meant avoiding white sugar in favour of RAW, rather than brown, sugar? This is what I would have assumed, since this is basically something I try to follow as well. If I'm going to cook something that requires sugar, I may as well use the less-processed variation of regular sugar. Brown sugar isn't just a variation of regular sugar since it behaves differently in cooking what with the high moisture content. Isn't it obvious she was referring to raw sugar?

I feel the same as alphaville on this point. The recipes here in the states are way way too sweet. I always cut the sugar in half and have not had any problems. Always use raw sugar or turbinado. It works like a charm.