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Kitchen Counselor: Deciding how much sugar to cut depends on preference

18.05.12

Question : You recently wrote about the overly sweet taste of baked goods here in the States. I concede. When I was in Poland in 2000, I found that their baked goods are not as sweet as ours are here.

But I wonder whether the amount of sugar can be easily cut from a recipe for cakes or cookies. Isn’t baking a science that depends on precise measurements to get the proper product? Or can you easily cut 1/4 to 1/2 of the sugar and still get the same results that are less sweet? – Jane S., West Palm Ground

Answer: You are absolutely right about baking being a science, and it does depend on exact measurements, especially when you are creating something so delicate and ephemeral as the structure of a cake. But then science suddenly becomes art – and rather subjective – when you say “the proper product.”

What an American considers sweet and delicious, Europeans may find rather cloying. Sugar is just one quotient of the baking equation. When you increase it in a cake recipe without increasing the other components, you will get a particular result – sweeter, moister, slightly denser crumbs that a born American may consider more tender and melt-in-the-mouth.

Source: Palm Beach Post