Using agave syrup in place of corn syrup?

[ChocoNM]

Hello Everyone - I'm new to eGullet - this is my first post. I've been making chocolates for a couple of years at home and have just launched a new business - Choco Canyon Artisan Chocolate. I'm in Albuquerque, NM (elevation 5,000 ft) where its never humid but pretty warm in the summer. I've been lurking around here for a couple of months and have already gleaned a lot of useful information - thanks to all of you for sharing all your experience.

My first question is about substituting agave syrup for corn syrup in making ganaches for truffles, dipped chocolates and molded chocolates. I want to get away from using corn syrup due to all the negative publicity about "high fructose corn syrup" and also to make a more "natural" product to appeal to the local Food Coop and also Whole Foods (who plans to phase out corn syrup as an acceptable ingerdient before too long). Also, I can get "local" agave syrup (from southern Colorado)and want to incorporate local ingredients as much as possible in my products. I realize that conventional "corn syrup" and "high fructose corn syrup" are not identical, but the general public tends to not make such distinctions. I've tried substituting agave syrup at equal amount to the corn syrup in my recipies, and so far its worked very well, with no noticable difference, but I'm curious about longer term "keeping' qualities - nothing I've made with the agave syrup has been around longer than 2 weeks before being eaten, so I don't know how it will hold up. Greweling doesn't list it as a "doctor" to promote smoothness and avoid crystalization, and I don't see much reference to it anywhere.

So after this rather long-winded introduction, my question is - Does anyone have experience using "light" agave syrup in place of corn syrup in ganaches?

Steve Whitman

Choco Canyon Artisan Chocolate

[ChocoNM]

OK, so Idid some research and found that agave nectar is primarily fructose and glucose, but generally much higher in fructose. So that rephrases the question a bit - Does substituting fructose for glucose work for ganaches? What about caramels? I've never had any confectionary education (just teaching it to myself from books), so I'm ignorant as to how the different types of "sugar" work.

[paulraphael]

Agave syrup is some combination of fructose and glucose. It can vary a lot, but my impression is that it is generally higher in fructose than most corn syrups or table sugar, and so will be sweeter.

This variablility makes it a wild card.

100% of the negative publicity concerning corn syrup is sham science. There isn't a single shred of scientific evidence supporting any of it. All we know is that too much sugar is bad for you. The type of sugar makes very little difference (there is some evidence that fructose can cause problems that glucose does not, but this does not say anything about table sugar vs. corn syrup, and could suggest that agave is worse).

I don't know the degree to which the fructose / glucose ratio will influence success with ganache. My inclination would be to stick with known quantities unless you want to experiement. There will be no advantages to agave besides marketing hype.