Baking – What Can Substitute Blonde Cane Sugar in Macaroons?

The following are sugar substitutes that are not considered "artificial sweetners." The links provide interesting information that should be pondered before using any of them.

• Agave nectar
• Stevia
• Honey
• Maple syrup

For actual unrefined cane syrup or sugar (considered healthier than sugar by those who consider less refined to equal more healthy), look to

• Rapadura
• Sucanat

For artificial sweeteners, you could consider:

• Splenda (you can get this in quantities suitable for baking at most grocery stores)

If you're looking to lower your sugar, before going to artificial sweeteners don't discount just teaching yourself a lower sugar diet by eating smaller portions of sweets and making your own sweets with a lower sugar content.

White beet sugar and white cane sugar are virtually identical in composition, but there may be very small differences (~0.05%) which some cooks find affects caramelization. Reportedly, cane sugar will caramelize better than beet sugar in many cases.

The bigger difference is when you look at brown sugars. In beet sugar, molasses is added after refining to make the brown sugar, as the molasses that comes from beet sugar is not fit for human consumption. Cane sugar is simply a less-refined product where the molasses has been left in the product. So when baking with beet brown sugar, often the molasses hasn't fully penetrated the sugar granules and "rubs off".