All my whole wheat bread recipes use honey, but i want to use sugar. What is the ratio of sugar-to-honey when adding sugar instead of honey in whole wheat bread recipe?
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1This question is similar to: Substituting honey for sugar in bread. If you believe it’s different, please edit the question, make it clear how it’s different and/or how the answers on that question are not helpful for your problem.user3486184– user34861842025-09-20 10:20:16 +00:00Commented Sep 20 at 10:20
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@user3486184 this question is about using sugar instead of honey, your link is about using honey instead of sugar.Gyro Gearloose– Gyro Gearloose2025-09-20 20:59:34 +00:00Commented Sep 20 at 20:59
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A good approach. In ancient times, refined sugar was not known or at least expensive, so honey was used instead. What a waste of flavor! Use sugar for cooking and baking and spare the honey for better use.Gyro Gearloose– Gyro Gearloose2025-09-20 21:08:16 +00:00Commented Sep 20 at 21:08
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why would you put honey or sugar in bread?njzk2– njzk22025-09-21 11:30:27 +00:00Commented Sep 21 at 11:30
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@njzk2 "why would you put honey or sugar in bread?" For gingerbread?Gyro Gearloose– Gyro Gearloose2025-09-21 17:45:28 +00:00Commented Sep 21 at 17:45
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3 Answers
When replacing honey with sugar, the common ratio is 4:5, so slightly more sugar than honey.
But this is much more relevant when sugar/honey is a significant element, e.g. in cakes. A few other adjustments are then needed, accounting for the difference in water content and effect on browning.
However, most bread recipes use very little sugar, and we do have an older Q/A with the substitution in the other direction and two users report that they successfully do a 1:1 substitution with good results.
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Why would you use more sugar than honey if the honey contains a few other ingredients apart from sugar? If honey is something like 80% sugar plus water and traces of other things I would expect to use less sugar than honey, not more.quarague– quarague2025-09-20 16:34:55 +00:00Commented Sep 20 at 16:34
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2@quarague "Honey is between one and one-and-a-half times sweeter than sucrose (table sugar)." Honey, usually, has a higher than 50/50 split of fructose to glucose (i.e., more fructose than glucose), where table sugar (sucrose) is exactly 50/50. Fructose is substantially sweeter than glucose, which is notably less sweet than sucrose. This results in honey being sweeter than table sugar (sucrose). Sweetness for these is: fructose > sucrose > glucose. Given there's also water in honey, that, also, needs to be accounted for when substituting.Makyen– Makyen2025-09-20 17:35:52 +00:00Commented Sep 20 at 17:35
Honey, like table sugar, is composed mostly of fructose and glucose, in monosaccharide form. Honey has somewhat more fructose than glucose. Table sugar is almost pure sucrose, a disaccharide of fructose and glucose, so it has equal amounts of fructose and glucose. When dissolved in water, sucrose does not break down into monosaccharides.
Since fructose is sweeter than glucose, honey is sweeter per calorie than sugar. Given the simplicity of their structure, monosaccharides are also more bioavailable to the taste buds than disaccharides.
This question implies a comparison between two different materials: a highly saturated solution and a granulated solid.
If we compare sweetening power by weight instead of volume, honey weighs about 340 grams/cup, 1,030 calories/cup. Table sugar comes in around 200 grams per cup, 774 calories/cup. So 1 cup of sugar = 200/340 = 0.59 cups honey (605 calories). Since honey has greater sweetening power, 1 gram sugar = 0.8 to 0.9 grams honey. So for 1 cup of sugar, the equivalent honey is 0.59 cups * 0.85 = 0.5 cups (515 calories).
So for the same sweetening power, using honey means adding 1/2 of the volume and 2/3rds of the calories of sugar.
You can use honey in bread, but not as a straight 1:1 substitute for granulated sugar without adjustments. Honey behaves differently and can throw off fermentation, moisture, and browning.
