Many pastry chefs have a not-so-secret affinity for corn syrup. This powerhouse ingredient does much more than just sweeten. The secret to hot fudge’s thick, drippy texture? Corn syrup. The glossy sheen on those sweet buns? That’s corn syrup too. This liquid sweetener keeps caramel from crystallizing, adds gooey body to pecan pie filling, and keeps cookies soft and chewy.
Even so, corn syrup gets a lot of hate. But like many pastry pros before me, I am a fierce corn syrup advocate. In most recipes, swapping corn syrup for popular substitutes—like maple syrup, honey, agave, or any other sweetener—simply won’t produce the same results. Here’s all you need to know about this unjustly maligned pantry staple.
What is corn syrup?
Corn syrup is a sweet, viscous syrup derived from cornstarch (yes, the same type you have in the pantry). It’s made by combining cornstarch with water, then introducing enzymes that convert the starches to sugars, like glucose. The more the syrup is refined, the sweeter and more viscous it becomes.
That’s what differentiates the corn syrup you’d use at home from high-fructose corn syrup, a sweetener used in mass-produced snack foods and soft drinks. To make high-fructose corn syrup, producers further refine corn syrup to convert some of the glucose molecules to fructose, resulting in a sweeter syrup. Though it’s derived from the same source as standard corn syrup, high-fructose corn syrup is almost exclusively used commercially.
But back to the regular corn syrup called for in recipes: Once it’s been refined, flavors are added—vanilla to make light corn syrup, or molasses to make dark corn syrup—and it’s shipped off to the grocery store. Light corn syrup is transparent in color and milder in flavor, whereas dark corn syrup has a rich caramel color and deeper flavor from the added molasses. You can find both in the baking aisle of the supermarket—Karo is a popular brand, but plenty of grocers (like Target and Walmart) produce house labels as well.
What can corn syrup do?
Corn syrup keeps sugar from crystallizing, a.k.a. hard sugar lumps forming in your otherwise smooth syrup, which is why you’ll often see it in homemade candy or caramel recipes. Whether you’re making brittle or butterscotch, adding corn syrup along with the sugar results in smooth, never-grainy caramel. It serves a similar role in recipes for meringue or marshmallows, preventing the hot sugar syrup from going clumpy, and gives the topping on this sweet potato-pecan pie a glossy sheen.
Since corn syrup remains fluid and soft, even when chilled or frozen, it’s able to keep the chocolate layer in this peanut butter pie from setting completely, which would make it near-impossible to slice through. It performs a similar function in hot fudge, keeping the sauce viscous.
Ever wondered how Little Debbie makes its oatmeal cream pie cookies so soft and tender? Corn syrup. If you love chewy cookies, supplementing the sugar with a teaspoon of corn syrup will make a softer dough.
Still want to substitute corn syrup?
There are some cases where you can substitute corn syrup to no great consequence. In baked goods, where corn syrup merely enhances the texture, substituting another sweetener—such as maple syrup, honey, agave, or sorghum syrup—is no big deal. Cookbook author Rick Martinez’s recipe for Marranitos Enfiestados can be made with light agave syrup, honey, or light corn syrup.
If you’re making candy or caramel, though, swapping in another sweetener isn’t so simple. Alternatives like glucose syrup (a more refined type of invert sugar favored by pastry chefs) can’t be found at your average grocery store, and the popular sweeteners detailed above won’t prevent crystallization. In this case, corn syrup is simply irreplaceable.
A-maize-ing:
This easy recipe for sweet potato pecan pie uses a frozen deep-dish pie shell and a food processor to make the mashed sweet potato pie filling.
