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Beet Sugar vs Cane Sugar

Daisy;
Cane and beet sugar are essentially the same (sucrose), both have the same sweetness and fermentability, chemically they are also the same, the only difference is that one comes from sugar cane and the other from sugar beet. As for water, you would need to have an analysis to determine if that was the culprit. The main differences in “potable” water that might influence pizza quality are iron content, sulfur content, dissolved mineral content, and sodium content. If you have a commercial water softening system like Culligan you might ask them to do an analysis on the two water samples just to see how they differ.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor
 
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Tom after switching back to beet sugar and using water from old location which is coming from my apartment next to old location my dough is 100% back to normal. After reading the article in the link above there is a difference with sugar in baking. I believe this after the change in my dough after switching sugar and moving. Now things are back to normal
 
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I would have never considered sugar as a cause, especially in such low percentages as in dough

But, this may just explain the recent failures that I have been seeing with our praline sauce. It was breaking, and crystallizing, so I was questioning my guy who makes the praline sauce here, and watching him like a hawk looking for anything he may be doing differently that was causing this, I increased the amount of cream, hit different finish temps, tried everything to get our praline decent again.

The only variable I found was Sysco branded sugar and Cargill brand sugar, and I also thought “Sugar is Sugar”

Alright, I have both brands of sugar on hand right now (I Buy sugar according to price) We’ll make identical batches from each brand of sugar and see what happens and report back.
 
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I seriously did not think there was any difference either, until I read this article. Im back to using beet sugar and hauling water in from old location, my dough is 100% back to normal. Im still how ever going to still continue to use the krisp it I talked about i my earlier post, it really does make a difference in greasy & watery veggie pizzas
 
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Daisy;
As for water, you would need to have an analysis to determine if that was the culprit. The main differences in “potable” water that might influence pizza quality are iron content, sulfur content, dissolved mineral content, and sodium content. If you have a commercial water softening system like Culligan you might ask them to do an analysis on the two water samples just to see how they differ.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor
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Tom I dont use any commercial filtration systems, the water is coming straight from Detroit for both old & new locations, the only thing I can think is that the old location was about 2-3 miles from the water tower, the new location a totally different water tower is literally in my back yard. Im just happy my dough is back 100% to normal
 
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G.R.;
Be especially aware of the sugar particle size, a larger particle size can fail to completely melt with your specific process, then any sugar still in crystalline form will precipitate crystallization. Also be watchful of any sugar getting into the mixture AFTER it has been fully cooker (even while it is still in the cooking pot) as this too can lead to crystallization.
One thing to remember about sugar, all sugar is not the same, sucrose (cane or beet sugar) can be had in a wide range of particle sizes, and then there is dextrose (corn sugar) while it might look something like fine sucrose, it is vastly different in many aspects of performance, flavor and crust color. From a general aspect, think of sucrose as being available in three different particle sizes: bakery grade (fine granulated), table grade aka table sugar (somewhat larger particle size that bakery grade), bar sugar (a fairly coarse granulation used to rim the edge of glasses) and castor sugar (a very coarse granulation sugar used by bakers as a topping for some pastry products and especially sugar cookies where the large granulation doesn’t melt during baking so we get the sugar on top of the baked product.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor
 
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@Tom Lehmann
I even had my guy try to not agitate the sauce pan until fully cooled, and to make sure there was no crystallization on the edges of the pan by doing a wipe down with a wet spatula so we were not propagating crystals.
the process is similar to fudge making, but not as involved. so I tried a few fudge tricks to get it right again, . It was perfect for years, now these last few months it is breaking on us. We make a bread pudding with cinnamon rolls for our bread pudding, (No Raisins) and do the sauce in a ramekin on the side

This just gave me an idea, I may add cacao powder to a portion of a batch to see what comes out, or a few squares of bakers chocolate YUM! Caramel chocolate stick gooey creamy heaven on a spoon is what I’m thinking . It’ll probably make my teeth wiggle…
 
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G.R.;
If you use cacoa just as it is it may just float around as individual suspended particles of cacoa unless you melt it into some type of fat first, but then you could just add a few squares of the baker’s chocolate as you said (probably a better idea) and save yourself some trouble. Sweet and gooey is really good, but add in chocolate and you have the makin’s for HEAVEN! My wife just brought home a large bag of pecans that we are going to lightly toast and then melt semi-sweet chocolate to which we will add the toasted pecans to make pecan bark, then we’ll do the same with almonds for almond bark…Ain’t the Holidays GREAT, or what??? 🙂
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor
 
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G.R.;
If you use cacoa just as it is it may just float around as individual suspended particles of cacoa unless you melt it into some type of fat first, but then you could just add a few squares of the baker’s chocolate as you said (probably a better idea) and save yourself some trouble. Sweet and gooey is really good, but add in chocolate and you have the makin’s for HEAVEN! My wife just brought home a large bag of pecans that we are going to lightly toast and then melt semi-sweet chocolate to which we will add the toasted pecans to make pecan bark, then we’ll do the same with almonds for almond bark…Ain’t the Holidays GREAT, or what??? 🙂
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor
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I’ve used both beet and cane sugar too and there’s definitely a difference. I much prefer beet sugar in my dough.
 
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Actually, both cane and beet sugar are “sucrose” and are considered to be roughly 99.5% identical, the slight difference is due to the difference in origin (sugar cane v/s sugar beet). There is a much more significant difference between dextrose (corn sugar) and sucrose regardless of its origin, maybe that’s what you are referring to?
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor
 
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AdamHope said:
I’ve used both beet and cane sugar too and there’s definitely a difference. I much prefer beet sugar in my dough.
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I have used beet sugar(MICHIGAN) for 30+ yrs and truly noticed a difference back when I first posted on this.
 
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my finished product with cane sugar was way to soft, beet sugar gives my final crust a more crispy sturdy base
 
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Daisy;
As long as both were “bleached white sugar” they would/will perform equally as well in a yeast leavened dough system, BUT if one was darker “natural” than the other this would be due to the presence of some of the molasses (black strap) from the processing of the sugar. The black strap is very hygroscopic (this is why brown sugar is the first to lump in any kind of humid weather), this can result in a finished crust showing potentially greater affinity for water/moisture resulting in a potentially softer crust, or one that does not retain its crisp as long as anticipated.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor
 
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I know this isn’t why this thread was posted but another interesting difference between beet and can sugar is the best sugar may not be vegan. Some beet sugar is filtered through charcoal made from bones so it may not be considered vegan by some.
 
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Add to your information, remember also that beet sugar is GMO and cane sugar is not. We’ve always used the cane sugar which its getting more and more difficult to locate! WE used to always pick up 25lb bag of C&H at Costco, now its hit or miss if they have it at all. Hope this additional bit of info may be of interested to those reading this thread. I certainly learned a lot more about sugar overall!
 
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