Some recipes are just too sweet for me, but they are from reliable bakers, and the recipes are good ones. How much sugar can safely be left out of a recipe to make it less sweet? I'm talking a general percentage, like 1/3, 1/4 the total amount. Mainly for cakes and cookies. Thanks!
Reducing Sugar in Baked Goods: How Much is Safe?
- Thread starter MrsM
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If you bake by metric weight, you will know the ratio (percentage) of sugar to flour.
Flour is always 100%.
A drop cookie such as a chocolate chip normally has 100% - 110% sugar to flour.
So if the chocolate chip cookie has 320 g flour, then it will have between 320 g - 352 g of sugar.
Most cakes (butter, pound, genoise, biscuit) contain 100% sugar to flour.
Foam-based sponge cake (not shortened cakes mislabeled as a sponge) normally has 155% sugar to flour. Chiffon cake is around 135%; angel food cake has a whopping 250% sugar to flour.
If you know the ratio of sugar to flour, you can easily reduce the sugar. I routinely reduce the sugar in baked goods. For example, I prefer a chocolate chip cookie with about 95% sugar to flour. 320 g flour, I just multiply that by 95% for sugar.
320 flour x .95 = 304 g sugar.
Sugar isn’t just a flavor agent, but a tenderizer and moisturizer; flavor agent. So keep in mind that reducing sugar significantly will make your baked goods less tender and a drier.
You have to experiment with the ratio of sugar to flour in any given recipe to find the right balance of flavor, tenderness, and moisture. Start with a 5% reduction; for additional reductions, reduce in smaller increments of about 2%.
I knew I could count on Norcal Baker for an answer, thank you! I am an old lady, LOL, metric is not my friend, but I can convert either way on my computer, so that is not a problem. This is very helpful, will print out and also save on the computer. Happily, nothing lasts long enough here to worry about dryness, LOL. I will certainly experiment with the amounts to get the recipes to my liking. Most chocolate chip cookie recipes are too sweet for me, I found one that Nick Malgieri published that is wonderful, it uses 168g flour to 100g sugar. Cake recipes that I like are pretty much 1:1 sugar/flour. Now I am going to use your calculations to check all my recipes, LOL. Thank you again.
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Converting to metric seems daunting at first. But after you get the hang of using metric weight in baking, you won’t want to use volume measurement again.
Just keep in mind, there are no absolute standards for volume to metric conversion in baking. Recipe developers use different weights for flour per cup.
Some guidelines for volume/weight conversion
AP Flour 120 g - 145 g/cup depending on the recipe developer's method for filling a volume up.
Spoon and Level is approx 120 g/cup (King Arthur Flour; most modern recipes developed after the 1990s in the US)
Scoop and Level 145 g/cup (America’s Test Kitchen; most Serious Eats; some Stella Parks; Milk Street; Cook’s Country; Ina Garten; vintage recipes as this was the standard method until the 1990s)
Dorie Greenspan's recipes are about 136g/cup. Anna Olsen is a whopping 150g/cup for most recipes.
Cake flour (bleached flour) 113 g/cup
Baking powder 5g/teaspoon
Baking soda 6g/teaspoon
Granulated and brown sugar 200 g/cup
Vanilla extract 5 g/teaspoon
Cocoa powder 85 g/cup
Salt weight varies by brand. This is due to grain size and shape. Diamond Crystal kosher salt is the preferred salt for pastry chefs. Many pastry chefs will state Diamond Crystal in their recipe, noting if another brand is used, the baker should reduce the salt by half.
Diamond Crystal is 0.5833% lighter in weight than Morton Kosher.
According to the box label Diamond Crystal is 0.7 g per 1/4 tsp. So 2.8 g per tsp
Morton Kosher is 1.2 g per 1/4 tsp. So 4.8 g per tsp.
Diamond crystal kosher 2.8 g/teaspoon
Morton kosher 4.8 g/ teaspoon
Morton Table salt 7 g/teaspoon
Eggs
Eggs must meet a MINIMUM size to be included in a grade side. So any egg in the US between 56.7g - 63.7g is graded as a large egg.
| United States | ||
| Size | Minimum mass per egg | |
| Jumbo | 70.9 g | 2.5 oz |
| Extra-Large (XL) | 63.8 g | 2.25 oz. |
| Large (L) | 56.7 g | 2 oz. |
| Medium (M) | 49.6 g | 1.75 oz. |
| Small (S) | 42.5 g | 1.5 oz. |
| Peewee | 35.4 g | 1.25 oz. |
| Canada | ||
| Size | Minimum mass per egg | |
| Jumbo | 70 g | |
| Extra Large | 63 g | |
| Large | 56 g | |
| Medium | 49 g | |
| Europe | ||
| Size | Minimum mass per egg | |
| Extra large (XL) | 73 g | |
| Large (L) | 63 g | |
| Medium (M) | 53 g | |
| Small (S) | Less than 53 g |
Measurement difference between US and UK
US 1 Tablespoons = 14.78 mL
- closest to 100mL in US TBSP is 6 3/4 TBSP (99.76 mL)
- 7 TBSP (103.46 mL) and 8 TBSP (118.2 mL) are over 100 mL
US 1 oz = 29.57 mL
UK 1 oz = 28.41 mL
US N/A
UK 1 gill = 5 oz = 142.07mL
Fluid measurements
US 1 cup = 8 fl oz = 236 mL
UK 1 cup = 250 mL
US 1 pint = 16 oz = 473.18mL
UK 1 pint = 20 oz = 568.28mL
US 1 quart = 32 oz = 946.36mL
UK 1 quart = 40 oz = 1.137L
US 1 gallon = 128 oz = 3.785L
UK 1 gallon = 160 oz = 4.546L
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If you have used a recipe multiple times with success, then fill measuring cup/spoon as you normally do, then note the weight of each ingredient.
Once you have a list of the weights, divide the weight of each ingredient by the weight of the flour. That will give you a close estimate of the ratios.
For example, if a chocolate chip cookie recipe had the following weights:
Flour 2 2/3 cup weighed 320 g
Flour is always 100%
Divide the weight of each ingredient into weight of flour to calculate ratio of the ingredient to flour.
Butter 2 sticks weighed 224 g
224 ÷ 320 = 0.7 (70%)
Diamond Crystal Salt 6.4 g
6.4 ÷ 320 = 0.02
Baking soda scant 1 tsp weighed 5 g
5 ÷ 320 = 0.056 (1.56%
Total Sugars 321 g
321 ÷320 = 1.03 (100.3%)
- Brown sugar 1 cup weighed 218.4 (65% of total sugar)
- Granulated sugar 1/2 cup weighed 102.6 (35%.)
114 ÷ 320 = 35.8%.
Vanilla extract 12 g
12 ÷ 320 = 0.0375 (3.75%)
Chocolate 340 g
340 ÷ 320 = 1.0625 (1.6%)
And making the conversion in this way, you have the ratios, which is the baker’s percentages.
Once you have the baker’s percentages, you can revise as desired; scale up/down.
Thank you again. Many cookbook authors are wising up now and putting in ounces/grams in their recipes along with cups. I knew ATK was much higher in weight than most. I had been using 4.5 ounces as my 'standard,' but I agree, you have to know what the recipe author uses as their standard.