Prune Juice Concentrate: A Natural Sweetener

Prune juice concentrate garnered a mention in this story from Bakingbusiness.com on how food companies use natural sweeteners to drive down total sugar quantities.

“Prune juice concentrate can replace brown sugar or molasses without adding to total sugar because some of the sweetness in prune juice concentrate comes from sorbitol, a sugar alcohol, which the body processes differently,” writes Nico Roesler.

Indeed, the concentrate is sweet, but not all of its sweetness comes from sugar. Let’s break down the sugars in 100 grams of concentrate:

21.58g glucose
14.40g fructose
15.88g sorbitol
0g sucrose

With the consistency and color of molasses but with a mellower sweetness, prune juice concentrate works in a number of baking recipes to boost sweetness and moisture with lower amounts of sugar and fat.

Try these examples:

• Fudgy Brownies
• Large-Chunk Granola
• Reduced Fat Banana Bread