Sweet victory over sugar shortage A chef offers tips for home bakers navigating the sugar shortage By: Eva Wasney Posted: 2:00 PM CST Friday, Dec. 8, 2023

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The white stuff — both sugar and snow — has been hard to find in Winnipeg this holiday season.

While chef Richard Warren, a professional baking instructor at Red River College Polytechnic, can’t control the weather, he does have some tips for home bakers navigating the local sugar shortage amid the ongoing strike at the Rogers Sugar refinery in British Columbia.

If you have sugar in the pantry, scaling down the amount used in a recipe is an effective way to stretch your existing supply.

“Quite simply, you could just reduce the sugar by 10 per cent,” Warren says. “You can’t take so much out because it would upset the formula; everything’s a chemical reaction in baking.”

Sugar plays an important role in the process beyond just adding sweetness, which can make some substitutions slightly more complicated. As an ingredient, it helps preserve and add softness to baked goods.

“The fancy word we like to use is hydroscopic — that just means it likes to pull moisture out of the air,” he says.

“Which is why, when your brown sugar gets super hard, adding slices of apple or bread or even a piece of terracotta soaked (in water)… can soften it up. The sugar draws the moisture out of the bread or the apple.”

“With a shortbread or a sugar cookie, where it’s just flour, butter and sugar, it’s hard to use a substitute… because you would really have that aftertaste.”–Chef Richard Warren

On the topic of brown sugar, Warren says it can be made at home by combining 15 ml (1 tbsp) of molasses with 250 ml (1 cup) of white sugar and running the mixture through a food processor. Adjusting the amount of molasses will result in a lighter or darker product.

If you’re completely out of the standard sugar varieties, you can swap in most granulated alternatives with a few considerations, including adjusting your holiday baking menu.

Sugar made from natural sources, such as dates or palm, often come with a more complex flavour profile than white sugar, making them suitable only for certain kinds of baked goods.

“It depends how you’re going to be using it,” Warren says. “With a shortbread or a sugar cookie, where it’s just flour, butter and sugar, it’s hard to use a substitute… because you would really have that aftertaste.”

The same goes for engineered sweeteners, such as xylitol, sucralose or stevia.

If using any of the aforementioned products, Warren recommends cutting it with half regular sugar to soften the aftertaste. It’s also a good idea to make substitutions by volume instead of weight.

“Most things we do in baking is by weight because it’s more accurate,” he says. “With 200 grams of granulated sugar compared to 200 grams of Splenda or stevia, you’d have a like bucketful, because it’s so light.”

When asked for a holiday recipe sans regular sugar, Warren opted for a festive brownie made with coconut palm sugar (a sweet alternative made from palm-tree sap). The result is a fluffy, minty chocolate treat without a hint of substitution.

“Coco palm sugar has a really strong scent and it’s kind of minerally,” he says. “For some that might be an off-putting flavour, but here it gets disguised because of the cocoa powder.”

He also tested a batch made with half date sugar and half puréed banana, but found the end product too dense.

When using a liquid sweetener, such as banana or applesauce, it’s important to find the right balance to avoid upsetting the recipe’s dry-to-wet ratio. Baking powder can help add lift to a heavier batter.

Day 7: Candy Cane Brownie

While this kind of fiddling is easy to do in the college’s pastry lab, Warren recognizes it’s likely not suitable for home bakers with a looming December deadline.

“Who’s got the time to experiment?” he says. “And also the budget?”

If you’re feeling bogged down by the wide world of alt-sweetners, Warren suggests bringing your sugar search closer to home.

“That’s where you can rely on friends and neighbours in the community to help out,” he says.

“Even if it’s only a cup (of sugar) … that can help get you through.”

eva.wasney@winnipegfreepress.com

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Eva Wasney
Reporter

Eva Wasney has been a reporter with the Free Press Arts & Life department since 2019. Read more about Eva.

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