Ingredient investigation: sugar

We don’t usually eat much refined sugar, and as we don’t add it to tea or coffee there’s no sugar bowl on the table. But since it’s been full steam ahead with baking for the Twilight Christmas Fayre, sugar has been a regular addition to the shopping list. There doesn’t seem to be quite the range of sugars available in France in comparison to the UK. Many of my cake recipe call for different types of brown sugar – demerara, muscovado, light brown and unrefined caster sugar. Most French serve sugar for sweetening drinks as ‘sugar lumps’ – sucre en morceaux. In fact, it’s a cultural requirement for guests – fortunately we rarely have any of these, and those who do want sugar are usually offered whatever baking sugar is in stock. Incidentally, Bèghin Say ‘La Perruche’ is supposed to be the best cubed sugar, as it’s unrefined cane sugar.

 

The standard white Bien Vu sucre en poudre is quite finely ground, much finer than English granulated sugar and I’ve found it works well in any recipe calling for white caster sugar. There’s not so much choice when it comes to brown sugar, but I’ve been successfully using sucre cassonade, which is unrefined cane sugar. It’s supposed to be available in cuivrée (light) and ambrée (dark) although I;ve only found the lighter version locally. I’ve been steering well clear of Vergoise brune, which is a type of brown beet sugar sprayed with a caramel coating so that it looks like brown sugar. I  don’t like the idea of adding an artificial colouring to the sugar.

Icing sugar is common, it’s called sucre glace, and the little 7g packets of vanilla sugar are also great for making a flavoured buttercream or madeira cake. Two other sugars are the little round ‘perles de sucre’ which are used for sprinkling on the top of cakes and pastries before cooking, and sucre special de confiture which is jam-making sugar with added pectin.

Golden syrup is only seen in the ‘English aisle’ of our local supermarkets, at a suitably exorbitant price, but substitution with clear runny honey usually works just as well. Due to its location in the drinks aisle, I decided that ‘sirop de sucre de canne’ was some type of alcoholic beverage and not the golden syrup I’d been searching for. Black treacle is another thing that’s very tricky to track down, although the French have their own version of molasses – mélasse noire de sucre de canne. Fortunately, I had a friend making a shopping trip to the UK so I’ve been able to procure both golden syrup and black treacle for a batch of malt loaf. I don’t usually hold with buying from the UK and try to source ingredients here in France, but as my culinary demands increase exponentially in line with the exchange rate this is becoming more difficult.

Sugar resumé