Let’s start at the beginning: carbohydrates

Let’s bring in some chemistry to start with.

Chances are, you’ve heard the term carbohydrates before. You might have been told whether or not to eat carbohydrates, whether they’re good or bad for you. But, all of that aside, do you know what carbohydrates truly are? And what crucial role they play in a lot of foods?

Carbohydrate is the name for a group of molecules that show a lot of similarities. Carbohydrates are made up of three types of elements: carbon (C), oxygen (O), and hydrogen (H). In most carbohydrates, there are twice as many oxygen atoms as there are hydrogen atoms. Aside from that characteristic, carbohydrates are made up of a group of repeating structures.

Carbohydrates are Saccharides

To help understand some of these basic structures, let’s look at another definition. Scientists may also refer to carbohydrates as saccharides. This term refers to the exact same thing, it’s just used in different scenarios.

Saccharides can be split into a few different groups. We do so based on their size. Let’s have a look at each.

Monosaccharides are sugars

The smallest saccharides, and thus carbohydrates are the monosaccharides. Monosaccharides are the building blocks for all other carbohydrates. Every carbohydrate is made up of at least 1 monosaccharide.

You might well be familiar with the most relevant monosaccharides in food:

• Glucose
  • Also called dextrose
• Fructose
• Galactose

There are several more, and there are several molecules that are closely related to these monosaccharides. However, for candy making these are the most important ones, so we’ll stick with those.

Disaccharides – slightly larger sugars

You can then use these monosaccharides to build bigger and bigger carbohydrates.

The next group: disaccharides. These are made up of TWO monosaccharides. The two monosaccharides react together, and form a new molecule. For our purposes here, the three most relevant disaccharides are:

• Sucrose = glucose + fructose
  • ‘Regular’ sugar is made of sucrose
• Lactose = galactose + glucose
  • The sugar in cow’s milk
• Maltose = glucose + glucose

Disaccharides are also referred to as sugars. They also taste sweet and dissolve very well in water.

Oligosaccharides

Next up: oligosaccharides. These carbohydrates are again a little larger. They are made up of 3-10 monosaccharides. You wouldn’t call these sugars anymore.

For candy making oligosaccharides are slightly less important.

Polysaccharides – the biggest of all

Last, but not least, polysaccharides. These are the biggest molecules of the bunch. They are made up of more than 10 monosaccharides, but often many many more.

One of the most important polysaccharides for candy makers is starch. Starch is made up of a very long chain of glucose molecules. A lot of plants contain starch. The starch serves as energy storage. Glucose is used by the plant as a source of energy. By linking them together in one big molecule, plants can store the molecules until they need it.

Corn, potato, wheat, they all contain plenty of starch.

Candy science = Sugar science

So why is it important to know this when making candy? Well, a big part of making candy is controlling sugars. Sugars give flavor, but they all provide texture and structure to your candy.

Now that we know what sugars are from a chemist’s perspective, we can have a closer look at the sugars we use when making candy.