Date sugar is a type ofsugar found most commonly innatural food stores since it is less processed than more conventional sugars. It is made fromdried dates and adds a rich sweetness to recipes, although it will not dissolve when added to drinks. It also does not melt likegranulated sugar which can limit its use. It is sometimes promoted as a healthier alternative tobrown sugar, although it can be quite expensive.Date sugar is derived from the whole date fruit; therefore can be called a whole food. The sugar content of a date consists of equal parts fructose and glucose (two commonmonosaccharides), with the remainder made up ofsucrose.[1]
Date sugar should not be confused with date palm sugar, also calledpalm sugar, as this is made from the sap of the sugar palm tree, including date trees.[2][3][4]Date sugar is made from thedate palm plant, date sugar is a less refined sugar than typical white sugar. Date sugar can be substituted in many foods and beverages.[5][6]
Date powder is made by first making a paste from raw dates. Then, the paste is mixed with a substance calledmaltodextrin (a commonfood additive). This mixture is oven dried and ground into granules. The proportion of maltodextrin to date paste determines the properties of the sugar.[5] There are many recipes for making date sugar at home, but it can also be purchased. There are many methods looking to automate the process of date sugar production.
Dates have a few stages of development: khalaal, rutab, and tamr. The best dates to make into date sugar are tamr dates, as they have a very low moisture content (about 30%) and are very sweet.[7] Studies are currently in progress on how best to determine sugar content of a date. This could help identify the best dates to use for date sugar.
Sugar as food commodity | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chemistry | |||||||||
| Sources | |||||||||
| Products |
| ||||||||
| Industry |
| ||||||||
| History |
| ||||||||
| Culture | |||||||||
| Related | |||||||||
| Research | |||||||||
 | This foodingredient article is astub. You can help Wikipedia byexpanding it. |
