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Q&A How much honey do I substitute for granulated sugar in bread?

Based primarily on Wikipedia: Honey has 82g of sugar per 100g of honey. Sugar has (duh) 100g of sugar per 100g of sugar. Almost all the rest in honey is water. There are variations depending on the...

posted 3y ago by manassehkatz‭  ·  edited 3y ago by manassehkatz‭

Answer
#2: Post edited by user avatar manassehkatz‭ · 2021-03-04T17:26:32Z (about 3 years ago)
  • Based primarily on Wikipedia: Honey has 82g of sugar per 100g of honey. Sugar has (duh) 100g of sugar per 100g of sugar. Almost all the rest in honey is water. There are variations depending on the source, and there are other things in honey that affect the flavor. But if we just treat is as "sugar" + "water", then a substitution could be made on that basis.
  • I would definitely **not** substitute based on volume: Sugar has quite a bit of air in it. Professional bakers (as I understand it, and I once wrote software for a donut company, but I digress) measure almost everything by weight for consistency. So one way to look at it is:
  • * Figure out how much sugar the recipe requires.
  • * Since most ordinary cookbooks measure dry ingredients like sugar by volume, convert that to weight. According to a couple of sources, granulated sugar weighs ~ 200 grams per cup.
  • * Calculate how much honey you need to get the same amount of sugar.
  • * Calculate the amount of water in the honey, and *subtract* that amount from the water in the recipe.
  • Simple example: Recipe (first one I found) uses 2 cups of water and 1/2 cup of sugar.
  • * 1/2 cup of sugar = 100g
  • * 100g sugar = 122g of honey = 0.36 cups (according to a couple of sources) - I would round that to 1/3 cup for simplicity's sake.
  • * 122g honey = 22g of water = 0.09 cups - or a little more than 4 teaspoons.
  • In the end, that isn't all that much difference. But it does seem pretty clear that if you substituted honey for sugar by *equal volume*, the result would be too sweet. 1/2 cup honey = 170g honey = 140g of sugar = **40% more than the original recipe**.
  • I would start with the exact (or very close) weight-based measurements/calculations, and then experiment a little the next time - more or less honey, more or less water, etc. IMHO, baking is a *science*, so measurements really do matter. (Cooking is much more of an art.)
  • Based primarily on Wikipedia: Honey has 82g of sugar per 100g of honey. Sugar has (duh) 100g of sugar per 100g of sugar. Almost all the rest in honey is water. There are variations depending on the source, and there are other things in honey that affect the flavor. But if we just treat is as "sugar" + "water", then a substitution could be made on that basis.
  • I would definitely **not** substitute based on volume: Sugar has quite a bit of air in it. Professional bakers (as I understand it, and I once wrote software for a donut company, but I digress) measure almost everything by weight for consistency. So one way to look at it is:
  • * Figure out how much sugar the recipe requires.
  • * Since most ordinary cookbooks measure dry ingredients like sugar by volume, convert that to weight. According to a couple of sources, granulated sugar weighs ~ 200 grams per cup.
  • * Calculate how much honey you need to get the same amount of sugar.
  • * Calculate the amount of water in the honey, and *subtract* that amount from the water in the recipe.
  • Simple example: Recipe (first one I found) uses 2 cups of water and 1/2 cup of sugar.
  • * 1/2 cup of sugar = 100g
  • * 100g sugar = 122g of honey = 0.36 cups (according to a couple of sources) - I would round that to 1/3 cup for simplicity's sake.
  • * 122g honey = 22g of water = 0.09 cups - or a little more than 4 teaspoons.
  • In the end, that isn't all that much difference. But it does seem pretty clear that if you substituted honey for sugar by *equal volume*, the result would be too sweet. 1/2 cup honey = 170g honey = 140g of sugar = **40% more than the original recipe**. Keep in mind that with any recipe involving yeast, the sugar is **not** just for flavor but also affects how fast/how much the yeast rises, so with typical bread recipes, changing the amount of sugar can have major impact on the final product.
  • I would start with the exact (or very close) weight-based measurements/calculations, and then experiment a little the next time - more or less honey, more or less water, etc. IMHO, baking is a *science*, so measurements really do matter. (Cooking is much more of an art.)
#1: Initial revision by user avatar manassehkatz‭ · 2021-03-04T02:40:24Z (about 3 years ago)
Based primarily on Wikipedia: Honey has 82g of sugar per 100g of honey. Sugar has (duh) 100g of sugar per 100g of sugar. Almost all the rest in honey is water. There are variations depending on the source, and there are other things in honey that affect the flavor. But if we just treat is as "sugar" + "water", then a substitution could be made on that basis.

I would definitely **not** substitute based on volume: Sugar has quite a bit of air in it. Professional bakers (as I understand it, and I once wrote software for a donut company, but I digress) measure almost everything by weight for consistency. So one way to look at it is:

* Figure out how much sugar the recipe requires.
* Since most ordinary cookbooks measure dry ingredients like sugar by volume, convert that to weight. According to a couple of sources, granulated sugar weighs ~ 200 grams per cup.
* Calculate how much honey you need to get the same amount of sugar.
* Calculate the amount of water in the honey, and *subtract* that amount from the water in the recipe.

Simple example: Recipe (first one I found) uses 2 cups of water and 1/2 cup of sugar.

* 1/2 cup of sugar = 100g
* 100g sugar = 122g of honey = 0.36 cups (according to a couple of sources) - I would round that to 1/3 cup for simplicity's sake.
* 122g honey = 22g of water = 0.09 cups - or a little more than 4 teaspoons.

In the end, that isn't all that much difference. But it does seem pretty clear that if you substituted honey for sugar by *equal volume*, the result would be too sweet. 1/2 cup honey = 170g honey = 140g of sugar = **40% more than the original recipe**.

I would start with the exact (or very close) weight-based measurements/calculations, and then experiment a little the next time - more or less honey, more or less water, etc. IMHO, baking is a *science*, so measurements really do matter. (Cooking is much more of an art.)