How to Bake With Brown Rice Syrup

Father and daughter (2-4) baking in kitchen, side view

Christopher Robbins/DigitalVision/Getty Images

Brown rice syrup is a liquid sweetener made from boiled, fermented brown rice. You can bake with it just as you would other liquid sweeteners, but it isn’t necessarily a one-to-one substitution. The dish's taste and texture will be affected; the final product will have a crisper texture and possibly taste a little different if you are replacing a sweetener with a distinct flavor, such as maple syrup. Still, if you are trying to replace another sweetener in a recipe, brown rice syrup can work. It may take a few tries to find the exact combination you like though, so set aside time to make a few batches of the recipe in question.

Replacing a Liquid Sweetener

Measure out and use the same amount of brown rice syrup that you would have measured with the other sweetener. For example, if a recipe calls for 1/2 cup honey, measure out 1/2 cup brown rice syrup and mix it into the recipe as if you were using honey.

Prepare and bake the rest of the recipe as usual. Sample the finished product and note anything you don’t like regarding the dish's moisture content, taste, texture and overall sweetness.

Prepare additional batches of the recipe featuring minor adjustments based on what you observed in Step 2. If the recipe seems not as sweet as you’d like, add more rice syrup but reduce another liquid by the same amount. If the flavor is affected, add a couple of drops of flavored extract if one is available. If the batch turns out to be too dry, more rice syrup or a combination of more syrup and more of another liquid in the recipe are possibilities, depending on how sweet you want the final product to be.

Replacing a Solid Sweetener

Replace a solid sweetener, like granulated sugar, with brown rice syrup and add an extra 1/4 cup brown rice syrup per 1 cup original sweetener. For example, if you’re replacing 1/2 cup sugar, use 1/2 cup and 1/8 cup brown rice syrup.

Reduce another liquid in the recipe to compensate for the extra liquid from the brown rice syrup. For example, if you added 1/8 cup syrup, reduce another liquid by 1/8 cup.

Add 1/4 to 1/2 tsp. baking soda to the recipe per 1 cup brown rice syrup.

Prepare the rest of the recipe as usual and do a taste test.

Prepare other batches with a little more or a little less syrup or baking soda in order to find the right balance, or adjust the flavors with extracts if necessary.