Brown Rice Syrup Is the Liquid Sweetener Your Pantry Needs

Brown Rice Syrup Is the Liquid Sweetener Your Pantry Needs

Brown Rice Syrup Is the Liquid Sweetener Your Pantry Needs

brown rice syrup where to buy

The thing about sugar (and believe me, I love sugar) is that it doesn’t taste like anything. The box of Domino in your pantry isn’t bringing much to the table flavor-wise, which is kind of the point: standard sugar’s sweetness enhances and balances other ingredients without masking or overpowering them. But looking beyond the white granulated stuff means opening up your home cooking to all kinds of sweetness—alternatives that boast their own distinct flavors and therefore add a little something extra.

I love liquid sweeteners for this reason; deep and warm maple syrup, floral and earthy honey, and clean and slightly savory agave provide a bit of interest to a baked good or salad dressing, beyond what straight-up sugar could muster. Finding the right applications for each means playing to their strengths and making the most of their unique flavors. When the moment calls for something toasty, complex, and versatile, the sweetener I reach for is brown rice syrup.

Brown rice syrup is thick and very sticky, closer to molasses than maple syrup in consistency but the color of pale honey. Made by breaking down brown rice’s natural starches into sugars and concentrating the resulting liquid into syrup, BRS (we’re using acronyms now) produces a stringy, sticky pull when spooned from a jar, reminiscent of caramel candy or spun sugar. It’s not overly sweet and surprisingly nutty and roasted in flavor, which distinguishes it from the other liquid sweeteners you might have in your rotation. I had to try a spoonful before I was convinced that I needed another drizzly sugar alternative myself, but one taste was all it took; the round, homey quality of cooked grains comes through in a way that my partner describes as “Rice Chex cereal milk without the milk.” I knew I’d find plenty of ways to incorporate it into my cooking.

Using brown rice syrup is really an exercise in substitution. Any time you’d use a different liquid sweetener, you can swap in brown rice syrup instead for a bit of nuttiness and mild sweetness. In place of honey, maple syrup, or agave, BRS shines in dressings and sauces, glazes for protein and roasted vegetables, or as a simple syrup base in cocktails. Bake it into cakes or cookies or toss it in granola for a slight toasty flavor. Use BRS as a substitute for corn syrup to make marshmallows or candy (it prevents crystallization the same way corn syrup does, making it a handy 1-to-1 swap). Or—and this was the reason I bought my first jar of BRS to begin with—substitute the subtle sticky stuff in for golden syrup, a tough-to-find sweetener called for in many moon cake and treacle tart recipes. Because of this flexibility, it’s become a staple in my kitchen.

My favorite BRS comes from the brand Lundberg, which also makes my go-to snacking rice cakes. Lundberg’s brown rice syrup is called Sweet Dreams, for, it seems, no reason at all, but I can get down with the choice; every time I pull it off the shelf, which is often, I get to hum a little Annie Lennox to myself. Even when I don’t plan to use it in a baking project or savory sauce, I find myself craving BRS’s muted sweetness and comforting nuttiness; stirring a spoonful into a cup of hot roasty tea like genmaicha—which is already studded with toasted brown rice—makes for an ideal way to get my fix.

This post was last modified on December 6, 2024 9:48 am