"muscovado" news and stories

I have been on a wild sugar kick the past couple of months. It started with demerara sugar. I used this sugar instead of ordinary white sugar or brown sugar, and I was shocked at the difference. The flavor was extraordinarily sweet and syrupy in a way I had never been used to in past culinary endeavors. What makes different sugars unique is how they're processed. For instance, demerara sugar is unrefined sugar coming from pressed sugar cane that's steamed .

Now, I'm on to the next sugar: muscovado. Muscovado is also unrefined but, compared to demerara, it has a more pronounced molasses flavor. Unlike brown sugar which is refined white sugar with molasses added to it, muscovado's brown color and flavor come directly from sugarcane juice. Recently, I have been using muscovado as a replacement for brown sugar. Its exquisite long lingering flavor makes it perfect for other rich flavors when baking ginger bread cookies, chocolate cakes, fudges, and much more.

Below are 8 ways to add muscovado sugar to a recipe next time your baking:

1. Martha Stewart's muscovado soy biscuits
2. Muscovado and hazelnut tart with yoghurt sorbet
3. Butterscotch Pots de Crème
4. Gingerbread cookies - Substitute the brown sugar with muscovado
5. Muscovado sugar cookies
   
6. Christmas Pudding - I highly recommend making this decadent fruity pudding this holiday season.
7. Caramelized Nectarines
8. Pigs' ears - These delicious confections are in the shape of pigs' ears.

I first learned that there was a world of sugar beyond white, brown and confectioners when I started watching Nigella Bites in the winter of 2002. She was always suggesting that you use a thing called demerara, which, when said in her delicious British accent, sounded particularly appealing. The closest I could get in the small city market near my apartment was a bag of turbinado sugar (aka Sugar in the Raw). I loved the turbinado for sweetening tea and to sprinkle on top of baked goods (I tend to sprinkle it on unbaked scones so that I don't have to create a glaze or frosting). I try to always have it on hand these days.

A few years ago a friend introduced me to Sucanant, (it stands for Sugar Cane Natural) and it's a less processed sugar that retains much of its molasses (and a few nutrients). It's become my go-to sugar for most baking projects, mostly because I like to believe that it is in someway slightly more virtuous than refined sugar.

This little rumination on sugar was inspired by Nicole (a Slashfood alum) at Baking Bites post on demerara, turbinado and muscovado sugars earlier today. For more information and details about those sugars, go check out her post.

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