February 22, 2005
2005 Independant Food Festival: Baking Sugar with the Most Personality
Today is the 1st annual edition of the Independant Food Festival and Awards and I am honored to be a member of the jury. The truly original and exciting idea of these awards, brought to us by TasteEverything.org, is that each of the 30 jury members created one award (as focused and specific as s/he wished) and determined who should receive it. This results in a delightfully eclectic collection of awards, each of them a reflection of one food enthusiast's individual taste, passion and/or obsession. As a whole, they draw a fascinating and mouth-watering landscape of today's world of excellent food and drink.
Armed with my own personal award, I chose to recognize the Baking Sugar with the Most Personality, and I am happy to announce that the winner of this award is Destination Sucre - Brut de Canne Roux Clair, as selected and sold by the Centre de Caféologie, a company based in Bordeaux, France.
This is a light brown cane sugar (the literal meaning of roux is red-haired and clair means light), organic (grown without chemicals and manually harvested) and unrefined (the juice extracted from the sugar cane is minimally processed so the natural flavor and nutrient components stay right where they are), and purchased from an azucaria in Paraguay, according to the rules of fair trade and under the Max Havelaar certification.
So. A sugar with morals. I like that. But more importantly, this is far and away my favorite sugar for baking: its delicate golden crystals give out not just their elegant sweetness, but also their complex toasted aroma -- caramel and resin and exactly what you think gold should taste like -- and the perfect dose of tooth-teasing crunch.
Everything I've ever baked with it has magically taken on a new flavor dimension, one that elevates a baked good from "this is nice" to "ohmygodthisisincrediblyamazinglyandastoundinglygood". And everytime, I have taken no credit for the success of my rapidly vanishing production and humbly replied, "it's all in the sugar".
I am not sure anyone ever believed me though, which is why I am particularly keen today to publicly aknowledge Destination Sucre Brut de Canne Roux Clair as my most faithful and deserving baking companion.
Congratulations sweetie, and thanks for everything!
Note: I buy this sugar from my trusted organic grocery store Naturalia, located at 54 rue Lamartine in the 9th (01 49 70 07 47), for about 4€/kg. The price of sublime.
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Comments (10)
Permalink | Posted by clotilde in Events
Hi Clotilde,
I, too, like the idea of "sugar with morals" but the sugar does look beautiful and sure, really a "sweet" thing. I hope I can try that out one time!
Posted by chika on February 22, 2005 4:44 PMClotilde, do you use this sugar instead of white sugar in any and all baked goods? Are there some where you wouldn't use it, preferring granulated white sugar? Thanks...
Posted by Julie on February 23, 2005 12:02 AMi also take care of "sugar with morals" ! that's why i'm always looking for new products from the "commerce équitable" : sugar, coffe, fruit juice (excellent !), candies... my favorite sugar is a complete cane sugar from Perou trade mark: Ethiquable
Posted by fallenangel on February 23, 2005 10:39 AMJulie - When I use this sugar, I replace all of the white sugar in the recipe. But I think you could replace just half, it would still make a difference. So far I have used it in cookies, crumbles, cakes and tart dough, and the results have always wowed me. I don't always use it though, simply because it's rather pricey. But if I could I would!
Posted by clotilde on February 23, 2005 11:18 AMi totally agree... i usually use brown castor sugar or sometimes even 'raw' cane sugar... because i feel it makes the baking products taste a lot better... =C)
Posted by may on February 23, 2005 12:05 PMI sometimes use "Demara Sugar" (I think that is how you spell it) . Is this a similar sugar to the above?
Posted by Anthony on February 23, 2005 1:25 PMDoes anyone know?
Anthony - From what I understand, Demerera (alternate spelling Demerara) sugar is one type of unrefined sugar, originally from Guyana (it is named after a river that runs through it). Other kinds include Turbinado, Muscovado or the rarer Sucanat.
Posted by clotilde on February 23, 2005 3:29 PMThanks, Clotilde, for your response. I ask because while it's not likely that I'll be able to source your beautiful Brut de Canne Roux Clair here in New York, I have found a particularly lovely large-crystal demerara sugar by a small producer, tucked away in the corner of a Latin grocer in my neighborhood, and was thinking to try it for baking, in the way you suggest...
Posted by Julie on February 23, 2005 4:00 PMFor me the most interesting point of this sugar is not the color but the origin. Like coffee, sugar can taste differently from place to place. Why haven't we considered this before? It's always been brown - light brown - demarara - white. I return to the analogy with coffee. This could be the beginning of something very big about sugar.
Posted by Penny on February 24, 2005 9:18 PMIs it possible that an unrefined sugar can be good for a person's health? I have recently given up using sugar, and I don't really trust the artificial sweeteners, but I used them anyway, and they taste pretty bad. But I've been thinking that maybe unrefined sugars can't be so bad, can they?
Posted by Gladys on November 19, 2005 6:56 AM