Using dextrose instead of sugar in ganaches & meringues

[Jonathon]

For various reasons, but largely to avoid avoid fructose, I've been playing around with dextrose as the main sweetener in my cooking.

I've had no real problems using it in ganaches, I tend to use 85% green & blacks, which is sweet enough for me, (and tops out my fructose intake) but for others I add some glucose to the cream and it's fine, especially when coated.

But when making French meringues, it's proving very difficult to get a crust. This is a well documented problem, when cooking with dextrose, so at least I know it's not just me, but I'm really keen to find a solution to getting a crispy crust on a meringue, without using sugar (sucrose).

Is there perhaps some kind of drying agent I can add, to get the meringue to dry out?

Thanks

Jonathon

[Mjx]

Is glucose more hygrosopic than sucrose? If it is, I don't know whether you're going to be able to get around that, although using the convection setting fo your oven might help.

[paulraphael]

If this is for health reasons you're shooting yourself in the foot. Dextrose is only 70-75% as sweet as sucrose, so to get the equivalent flavor, you'll have to use 33 to 42% more of it.

Dextrose is sugar. It's no less sugar than sucrose.

Dextrose is indeed more hygroscopic than sucrose. For this reason a lot of pastry chefs add some, either dry or in syrup form to cakes and ganaches and confections. It's to keep things moist and to retard crystalization. But it's usually around 10%, never 100%.

Glucose also tastes different from sucrose. I don't know anyone who prefers it. The taste is fine in small proportions but not large.

Edited June 27, 2013 by paulraphael (log)

[Jonathon]

If this is for health reasons you're shooting yourself in the foot. Dextrose is only 70-75% as sweet as sucrose, so to get the equivalent flavor, you'll have to use 33 to 42% more of it.

Dextrose is sugar. It's no less sugar than sucrose.

Dextrose is indeed more hygroscopic than sucrose. For this reason a lot of pastry chefs add some, either dry or in syrup form to cakes and ganaches and confections. It's to keep things moist and to retard crystalization. But it's usually around 10%, never 100%.

Glucose also tastes different from sucrose. I don't know anyone who prefers it. The taste is fine in small proportions but not large.

Thanks, I agree it's the hygroscopic nature of dextrose that's causing the problem with meringues. Ideally there would be some kind of agent I could add to change the hygroscopic nature and allow it to dry out?

As for the health reasons, you're correct that you'd need to use more to get the same sweetness as sucrose, but when I vastly reduced fructose from my diet a couple of years ago I reduced by taste for sweetness considerably.

Glucose certainly isn't a valid 1:1 substitute for sucrose for those with a normal western palate, but it's becoming very important for those who want to remove fructose from their diet and avoid sugar alcohols or artificial sweeteners.

Cheers

Jonathon