Coconut Sugar – Update!

A month or so ago I talked about coconut sugar.  It’s a natural, traditional sugar made from the sap of the coconut palm flower, has a low glycemic index, and can be used 1:1 in recipes that call for regular conventional sugar.  This weekend I cracked open the jar and used it in a brownie recipe (more on that later), and I loved the results.

I was fortunate enough to have purchased the kind of coconut sugar that is more paste-like than rock-hard, because I don’t have the proper tool to break up a hard rock of sugar.  It was fun to unearth the the sugar by cutting through the thin layer of wax used in what I expect was the canning/preserving process.  Kind of like opening a present!

The sugar itself was delicious – very gentle and not harsh at all, sweet but not too sweet, with a taste of maple syrup or caramelization in the background.  I loved it!  I could see using this in tea or coffee, using it in rice pudding, or in any kind of sweet thing that might benefit from a little bit of a caramelized flavor in amongst the sweetness.  I think it would work well in Thai or Southeast Asian dishes, too, like curries.

I’ve read that coconut sugar isn’t as sweet as conventional sugar, and that was definitely my experience, but I do not consider this a bad thing.  For me, in fact, it’s better – since I’ve drastically reduced my sugar intake, I’ve tasted the natural sweetness in almost everything I eat.  I don’t like things to be too sweet anymore.

I’ll talk a little bit more later in the week about the results I met with replacing conventional granulated sugar with coconut sugar.