Sweets & Baking

Dark chocolate often contains trace milk proteins despite lacking milk ingredients, resulting from cross-contamination in shared facilities. Understanding how milk contamination occurs, what "dairy-free" labeling means, and detection limits reveals…

Honey and sugar both contain fructose and glucose, but in different ratios. Understanding how the body metabolizes fructose versus glucose reveals why honey has no significant metabolic advantage over sugar…

Resistant starch is a form of starch that resists digestion, acting more like fiber than conventional starch. Whole grain bread contains more resistant starch than refined bread, resulting in better…

Allulose is a sugar alcohol that structurally resembles glucose but the body cannot metabolize it for energy. It provides approximately 90% of sugar's sweetness with 10% of the calories, without…

Artificial sweeteners' unpleasant aftertaste results from chemical properties: slower dissolution than sugar, activation of non-sweetness taste receptors, and delayed taste perception. Understanding the chemistry reveals why different sweeteners have different…

Sweeteners vary dramatically in potency—saccharin is approximately 300 times sweeter than sugar by weight. Understanding the sweetness intensity scale and relative potency of different sweeteners explains why tiny amounts of…

"Natural" sweetener marketing leverages consumer perception that natural equals healthy. However, "natural" is a regulatory term, not a health claim. Understanding marketing psychology, regulatory definitions, and scientific evidence reveals why…

Most probiotic bacteria are killed at baking temperatures (160-220°C). Probiotics added to bread dough before baking do not survive as viable cultures. However, emerging strategies (post-baking addition, protected encapsulation) allow…

Flour is fortified to replace nutrients lost during grain refinement and to address public health deficiencies. Understanding what's added, why, bioavailability, and effectiveness reveals that fortification is a nutritional "rescue"…

Sugar contributes multiple functions to baked goods beyond sweetness: bulk, moisture retention, caramelization, browning, texture. Sweeteners only provide sweetness. Understanding sugar's multiple roles reveals why direct substitution fails and why…