Corn syrup is an ingredient with many uses in the bakers kitchen. Its made by breaking down corn starch into individual glucose molecules, and so its basically 100 percent glucose, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Corn syrup helps prevent other sugars from crystallizing, which is one reason its often added to candy and frosting. Another reason its sometimes added to frosting is to thin the consistency slightly, making the frosting more spreadable.
But if youre making cookies, cakes or cupcakes from scratch and dont have any corn syrup on hand, there are other corn syrup substitutes for icing you can use.
Golden syrup is a sweetener thats popular in Britain and the Caribbean. Its often referred to in English cookbooks as “light treacle” to differentiate it from molasses, which is “dark treacle.” It is a sugar syrup with a pleasant but neutral flavor.
Golden syrup is slightly thicker and more viscous than clear corn syrup. They can be used interchangeably in frosting, but golden syrup will give a faintly golden color to white frosting.
Glucose is very thick and sticky and wont pour very readily. Its usually spooned from its container. Aside from industrial sweets, glucose is mainly used by home candy makers and cake decorators for its ability to prevent sugar from crystallizing.
To use it in frosting, thin the glucose with a small amount of boiling water until it reaches a consistency similar to corn syrup.
Honey is the only major form of invert sugar that occurs naturally. It resists crystallization in its natural state right from the hive, and when it eventually does crystallize it can be liquefied by heating it for a few minutes until it melts.
Honey can be used in frosting either to prevent crystallization or to thin it for easy spreading. You can substitute honey for corn syrup in a 1:1 ratio, but note that honey is slightly sweeter than corn syrup. Like golden syrup, it will color the frosting slightly, and it also adds its distinctive flavor.
Its possible to make a simple sugar syrup at home that can be used in place of light corn syrup or the other liquid sweeteners mentioned above.
Simmer 3 cups of sugar in 1 cup of water along with 1 tablespoon of lemon juice. The sugar will dissolve completely after about 10 minutes of simmering, forming a thick syrup. The combination of heat and acidity will change the sugars molecular structure, turning it into an invert sugar like corn syrup. Let the syrup cool before you add it to your icing, or it will melt the butter and ruin the texture.
Along with the milk, the corn syrup adds moisture to help dissolve the sugar. Corn syrup also makes the icing more glossy and luscious. You can leave the corn syrup out if you don’t have it on hand.
Of the three ingredients, corn syrup is arguably the sweetest and most flavorful. It is also quite sticky, yet still pours and spreads quite easily, making it useful for adhering lightweight items to cookies too! Glucose, by contrast, is a lot thicker than corn syrup, and stickier too. It will not easily run off a spoon and is hard to paint or spread. It is also the heaviest of the three products, weighing 20 grams per tablespoon. In the US, glucose is sometimes referred to as “corn syrup”, and “corn syrup” is typically listed as the sole ingredient in glucose, as you can see on the Wilton product packaging, above. This nomenclature is used because glucose is almost always derived from corn starch in the US. (In other parts of the world, glucose can be derived from rice, wheat, cassava, corn husks, or sago.) However, “corn syrup” is comprised of sugars other than glucose (namely maltose), so, strictly speaking, the two are not exactly the same. [Source: Wikipedia.] And because glucose is so thick, corn syrup and glucose cant be used interchangeably in all applications, at least not without adding water to glucose first.
Thank you so much, Liesbet, for taking the time to test and share corn syrup with us. I only use it to glue items on my cookies. But I like to read about the different ingredients and their use in cookies. I have been learning a lot since I follow this blog feature.
Corn syrup is made from corn starch, and, in the case of the Karo light corn syrup that Julia gave me, it also contains salt and vanilla extract. Corn syrup is used in foods as a humectant (moistening agent) and to soften or smooth texture, prevent crystallization of sugar, and enhance flavor. It is a sweet, thick syrup and can be “light” (clear in color) or “dark” when molasses or refiners syrup, a type of molasses, has been added. [Source: Karo website, Wikipedia.]
OK, with the help of my good pal Google I was able to find out that GMO-products are not forbidden in the EU in general (and the regulations even vary from country to country!). Karo seems to be among those products that are allowed, even in Germany. But there is a lot of paper work do be done to import it, which probably doesnt make sense when you only buy a couple of bottles per year. Additionally the acceptance of GMO-foods is very low here (me included, I admit 
), thats why most companies, especially small stores, just dont do them anymore.
Another substitute for corn syrup, at least when it comes to pliability, is piping gel. Which is, as far as I understand, mainly glucose with some stabilizers added. It doesnt give any extra shine, as far as I have noticed, but makes things a bit easier when piping string work (the lines are more stable and tend to break less, both while piping and after they have dried).
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EASY Sugar Cookie Icing Recipe
FAQ
Why do you put corn syrup in icing?
What does adding corn syrup to royal icing do?
What is a good substitute for corn syrup in frosting?
Why add corn syrup to glaze?
What is the difference between high fructose corn syrup and sugar?
Glucose syrup, also known as high fructose corn syrup, is transformed into fructose through industrial processes and is obtained from corn starch. In the United States, this ingredient is very common and is part of the diet of a large part of the population. Fructose syrup considered 1. 5 times sweeter than sucrose comes from sugar cane from a sucrose reaction.
What does corn syrup do in baking?
Corn syrup from the baking aisle is an invert sugar, meaning it’s liquid at room temperature. It does a couple of specific things in baking. In a cookie recipe, it creates a texture that’s both bendy and chewy, as opposed to crisp. If you bake your cookies just until the edges start to brown, this is the texture you’ll get:
Is corn syrup a bad ingredient?
Corn syrup is not quite the evil ingredient people think it is. They confuse the corn syrup we use for baking with a very specific commercial variant: high fructose corn syrup, which is found lurking in all kinds of processed foods. Corn syrup from the baking aisle is an invert sugar, meaning it’s liquid at room temperature.