Allulose - an alternative sugar

Allulose can be used to make....well, it isn't a sugar free chocolate....Allulose can be used to make a chocolate with a Glycemic Index of 0.

Given that it is a sugar you can't call it a sugar free chocolate, but that is the effect.  The industry is calling it a low-calorie sugar.

That is terribly exciting to me.  Allulose is naturally present in many fruits.  This allulose is corn derived.

 Some details:

  • 70% as sweet as Sucrose
  • No aftertaste
  • No gastric upset
  • GI of 0

It is similar to Fructose in flavor.  That is to be expected as it is an epimer of Fructose. I know most of you don't know what that means.  Look at the photo to the left.  One "OH" is flipped in the other direction.  That's it.

The end result is that our taste buds react to it the same way but in the same way some people don't have the enzyme to digest lactose, humans don't have the enzyme to digest allulose.  Luckily though it doesn't show any of the similar effects.

How do you use it?  Just like granulated sugar but you need to use a little more.  The literature says it is closer to 80% sweet as sucrose (table sugar) but I found in testing that it actually took more to taste similar. 

I'd recommend you start with multiplying by 1.40 and seeing what you thing.  If for instance your recipe calls for 20 oz of sugar, you would use 28 oz of allulose.  And don't forget that you may need to add a little more cocoa butter since you are adding more solids.

One final note. In the melanger I found the chocolate seemed to have a minor cooling effect but it completely went away in the tempered chocolate.