Sugar on an ingredient list means sucrose, refined from sugar cane or sugar beet; in Thailand it comes from cane. The cane juice is extracted, purified and boiled until crystals form, which are spun dry and refined into white sugar. Icing sugar and caster sugar are the same substance ground or sieved more finely.
Sweetness is only part of its job. Sugar caramelises and helps doughs brown, makes biscuits crisp and cakes tender, helps creams and fillings set, and binds water so that microbes grow less easily. It is the first ingredient of Euro Choco Pie Brand Chocolate Pie With Chocolate Center (Super choc), and even savoury snacks such as Carada Rice Ball Cuttlefish (Squid) use it to balance salt and chilli.
Sugar is plant-derived and contains no allergens. On the nutrition label it is counted under total sugars, together with the natural sugars from fruit and milk.
