Isomalt

Isomalt

What it is

Isomalt was built in the 1960s at a German sugar company, by rearranging sucrose into isomaltulose and then hydrogenating it, and was sold first as a tooth-kind sweetener. Pastry took it over for an unintended property: it absorbs almost no moisture, so a sugar showpiece stops weeping.

In the kitchen

Cook it dry to about 170 °C — it needs neither glucose nor acid, and it can be remelted again and again without yellowing. Keep iced water on the bench: at that temperature it sticks to skin and goes on burning.

Goes with

Dark chocolate Raspberry Vanilla Pistachio Blood orange Mint

Same species

Beetroot Chioggia beetroot Crapaudine beetroot Sea beet Swiss chard Vergeoise

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