Dextrin is a fire that provides filling without contributing taste or viscosity. That makes it a perfect candidate for sugar reduction. On top of that, its stable, robust and easy to work with. This is an ingredient worth trying out. Sugar reduction is exciting but complex work. It is not easy to explain what dextrin really is, as it is a catch-all for shorter chains of glucose.
The origin of all forms of dextrin is starch from wheat, potatoes, corn, rice, cassava and other starchy crops. When the starch is broken up, for example during baking, it breaks down into single glucose molecules, chains with two glucose moieties (maltose) and shorter chains with three or more glucose moieties (maltodextrin). In some processes, these are re-combined with various glycoside bonds into tree-like structures. These re-combined carbohydrates are called dextrin.
Owing to the branching, dextrins are less digestible. By controlling the glycoside bonds between the branches, it is possible to produce dextrin that doesn’t break up at all in our digestion system. They are called resistant dextrin and are dietary fibers.