Glucose Corn Syrup

Glucose is the most common of the simple sugars (monosaccharides). In syrup form, it is an important bakeshop ingredient. Glucose is usually manufactured from cornstarch. Starch, consists of long chains of simple sugars bound together in large molecules. The manufacturing process breaks these starches into glucose molecules.

Not all the starch is broken into simple sugars during the process. In low-conversion syrups, only one-fourth to one-third of the starch is converted to glucose. As a result, these syrups are only slightly sweet. They are also very thick, because there are many larger molecules in the solution. Low-conversion syrups are less likely to burn or caramelize. They are useful for icings, candies, and sugar pieces, such as pulled sugar.