Category: Get to Know Your Food

What Xanthan Gum Really Does to Your Bread

breadEver wonder what xanthan gum really does to your bread? If you’ve done much gluten-free shopping or baking, you’re familiar with xanthan gum. It’s an ever present ingredient in packaged gluten-free foods like bread, doughnuts, muffins, and cookies. It’s included in many gluten-free cake mixes, pancake mixes, and measure-for-measure flour blends. Gluten-free recipes often recommend the addition of xanthan gum.

Sometimes described as a thickener, stabilizer, or binder, xanthan gum is a polymer composed of sugar residues secreted by the microorganism Xanthomonas campestris — the same bacteria that creates black spots on broccoli and cauliflower. It was approved for use as a food additive in the US in 1968.

While it’s generally accepted within the scientific community that it is safe to consume up to 15 grams of xanthan gum per day, you may want to think twice before consuming too much due to its laxative effect. Many people with compromised or sensitive digestive systems report experiencing increased discomfort and bloating after consuming even minor amounts.

Now that you know what it is, let’s look at what it does. I’ve been baking bread — lots of bread. I’m trying to finish up the original recipes that will comprise Volume 1 of Cooking2Thrive’s Breads and Crackers recipe card set. I begin each new recipe by creating a gluten-free flour blend that will give me the mix of protein, starch, and texture needed to create a pleasing crumb and appropriate rise for the particular muffin, biscuit, cheese cracker or bread I’m baking.

After several tests, I baked a delicious sandwich bread with a good rise. My tasters loved it! My only concern was that the slices tended to crumble a bit on the 2nd day. Without too much thought I decided to try the traditional gluten-free solution to this problem. Don’t ask me why. I haven’t used gum in a recipe in the past four years.

Nonetheless, I went out and bought two small packets of xanthan gum and added 2.25 tsp to the bread recipe — slightly less than was recommended for a recipe containing just over 3 cups of flour. I left everything else the same. The dough immediately seemed drier and more gooey, not really more sticky to the hands, just more glommed together. The amount of rise totally changed. And the bread had a slimy texture I couldn’t stand to eat.

You may have read that xanthan gum increases the elasticity of gluten-free dough. That is not my experience. What it seems to do is function more like glue that pulls the flour grains closer together. In the case of bread, that means more density, a lower rise, and a slightly slick texture. 

Rather than abandon the idea of using xanthan gum, I baked a second variation using .25 tsp xanthan gum. The result was better, but still noticeably different from the original recipe containing no gum. Finally, I baked a loaf that included .125 tsp xanthan gum. As you can see in the illustration below, even that tiny amount changed the texture of the bread, but the result tastes good and holds together better than the original as the days go by.
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When the final version of this recipe is published, I may have landed on an even better way to reduce crumbling over time, but you can benefit from my trial and error right away. Now that you can see what xanthan gum is really doing to your bread, you can explore the options of minimizing or eliminating xanthan gum for improved taste and texture.

Where Does Brown Sugar Get Its Tan?

taw sugarI’ve been comparing tans to brown sugar which led me to wonder – where does brown sugar get its tan?

I know that sounds like a weird comparison, but I’m going to a wedding in Santa Barbara this summer so I’ve been focussed on getting some sun on my legs. At some point, I may or may not have been gawking at some tan legs in the grocery store thinking that’s the shade I want. Next thing you know, I’m wondering about the different colors of brown sugar – a leap not that unusual in my world. It happens.

Soft, moist, caramel tasting brown sugar comes in many shades – light brown, dark brown, and even darker pilonchillo. Ever since I was a kid I’ve loved the way it feels to pack it into a measuring cup and then watch it easily break apart again when poured into a bowl of cookie dough. It seems that it’s time to learn more about this delightful ingredient.

The short answer to where does brown sugar get its tan is…molasses. The darkness of the brown is directly related to the percentage of molasses it contains. Light brown sugar contains about 4.5% while dark brown sugar contains about 6.5%.

Brown sugar begins just like white sugar as a syrup most often made from crushing sugar cane to squeeze out juice, then evaporating that cane juice to form a thick syrup. A similar syrup can be derived from sugar beets. The thick syrup is full of molasses. Sometimes the syrup is further evaporated and then spun in a centrifuge to remove the molasses. This is how Turbinado and demerara sugars are made. You may know them as Raw Sugar.

Other natural brown sugars are not refined (put in a centrifuge) and retain a higher degree of molasses. You may know these as panela, rapadura, chancaca, jaggery, or piloncillo. These sugars are commonly boiled in open pans on wood fires until the sugar cane juice is reduced by 70% and begins to form crystals. The sugar is then poured into a mold or is cooled and beaten to produce granulated brown sugar.

In the Philippines, partially centrifuged evaporated and crystallizing cane juice is used to create a mush that’s allowed to drain using gravity creating a natural brown sugar called muscovado. A similar process is used in Japan to produce kokuto.

While natural brown sugars retain molasses from the partially evaporated cane juice, brown sugar can also be made by adding molasses to refined white sugar. This is how commercial brown sugar is commonly made. Adding molasses back to white sugar allows the ratio of molasses to be carefully controlled. It is also a less expensive process.
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For a fun experiment, buy a cone of pilonchillo at your local mercado and a bag of commercially produced brown sugar from your neighborhood market. Wash a small amount of each with water in a bowl. After the water turns brown, pick up a few sugar crystals from the bottom of the bowl with your fingers. Notice how the sugar crystals that remain in the bowl of washed commercial brown sugar are white, but the remaining pilonchillo crystals are darker. That is because there’s molasses within the crystals.

What’s all that pretty brown sugar used for? It sweetens many baked goods and is used as a substitute for maple syrup or maple sugar. It is slightly lower in calories than white sugar. To further reduce calories and carbs in a recipe you may want to consider using coconut crystals.

Now that we’ve gotten to know brown sugar a little better, it’s time for me to get back outside and get some sun on my legs. I don’t want them to be scary white when I hit the beach!