Golden syrup



Golden syrup is a thick, amber-colored form of inverted sugar syrup, made (like molasses) in the process of refining sugar cane juice into sugar, or by treatment of a sugar solution with acid. It can be used in a variety of baking recipes and desserts. Because it looks and tastes similar to honey it is often used as a substitute for people who cannot eat honey, such as vegans. It can also be used as a substitute for corn syrup.

Golden syrup is produced by breaking down disaccharide sucrose so that some, but not all, of the sucrose is broken down into glucose and fructose. This is either done by acid hydrolysis or by adding an enzyme invertase. The syrup is then less likely to crystallize than a pure sucrose syrup. Because it has a high fructose content, it tastes sweeter than ordinary white sugar; when substituting golden syrup for white sugar, about 25 percent less golden syrup should be used for the same level of sweetness.

It is widely available in Britain, but harder to find in North America. Lyle's Golden Syrup is the most well-known brand, made by Tate & Lyle (http://www.tateandlyle.co.uk). The other UK sugar company, British Sugar [1] (http://www.britishsugar.co.uk/index.htm), makes an equivalent product under its Silver Spoon Brand. The Australian sugar company CSR (http://www2.csr.com.au) makes golden syrup as well.

The term invert comes from the method used for measuring sugar syrups. Plane polarised light passed through a a sample of pure sugar (sucrose) solution is rotated (optical rotation). As the solution is converted to a mixture of sucrose, fructose and glucose, the amount of rotation is reduced and appears inverted compared to the sugar solution.