Are you out of brown sugar? Here’s how to make your own with only two ingredients.
Have you ever thought about what brown sugar is made from? Neither did I, until today. Brown sugar is something we always, ALWAYS have in our cupboard, but because of some terrible twerk in the universe tonight, we didn’t. I got to thinking, what exactly is brown sugar? I guess I always assumed it was sugar that comes from a different plant. A very special dark plant. Not so much.
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A little research told me that brown sugar is simply white sugar mixed with molasses. THAT IS ALL. That is the whole, 100% truth of brown sugar. How silly. Why have I been spending money on this silly little mixture that I could be making myself, in my own kitchen, with much better ingredients? Well let me tell you, that is exactly what I did tonight, when I ran out of brown sugar and desperately needed it to make a coffee cake. Yes, coffee cake is a desperate need. If you don’t agree, you’ve never had it.
Are you ready to learn how to make brown sugar for yourself? Here we go!
How to Make Brown Sugar
So, you may think making brown sugar at home is ridiculous, but let me tell you, it’s DELICIOUS. The taste doesn’t even come close to that of store bought brown sugar, especially if you use high quality sugar and molasses for your mixture.
I used Natural Cane Sugar, which is very much like white sugar. I like my foods to be as unprocessed as possible. Also, it tastes better than white sugar.
I used Grandma’s Molasses for this, because it was what we had in the cupboard at the time. If you have Blackstrap molasses, I would suggest using that nutritionally dense super food.
Do you have your two ingredients ready? Here we go…
For light brown sugar, use a ratio of one cup of sugar to one tablespoon of molasses. Increase the molasses for dark brown sugar to two tablespoons for every one-cup of sugar.
Step 1: Pop ’em in the bowl of your mixer and attach your whisk. If you don’t have a mixer, whisking by hand, or mashing them together with a fork works just fine. We just received this mixer from my amazing brother for our wedding, so I use it for everything ever. I swear I would do my laundry with it if I could!
Step 2: Start it up on low and progressively work your way to medium. Whisk until you can’t identify any little bits of molasses anymore, for me it took about three minutes.
Step 3: Look at that beautiful brown sugar goodness!
Don’t you just want to eat it with a spoon? Well, you probably shouldn’t. Instead put it in an airtight container and save it for tomorrow, when I’ll show you how to make THE BEST CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES EVER!!!
I developed this recipe years ago, and up until now it’s been a tightly kept secret. But I’ve decided these cookies are too good not to share with the world, so be prepared for a taste explosion.
Here’s a comparison shot so you can see how delicious my brown sugar looks and how gross the lump of store bought brown sugar looks:
When I finished this little experiment and showed my husband, he asked, “Does it taste like brown sugar?” I responded with, “It tastes like molasses mixed with sugar.” I guess I’ve never straight up eaten a chunk of brown sugar before. Now I can’t say that anymore.
How to Soften Hard Brown Sugar
If you are not using the brown sugar immediately in your favorite recipe, store it in an airtight container with a brown sugar keeper in a cool place. If your brown sugar hardens anyway, here are several ways to soften it.
- Use Bread: Add a slice of bread to the container on top of the brown sugar. Reseal and let it sit for a day or so. The brown sugar will absorb moisture from the bread and soften.
- Use Apples: Add a few slices of apple to the container, reseal, and let it sit for a day or two until the brown sugar softens.
- Use the Microwave: If you don’t have time to wait for the brown sugar to soften, turn to your microwave for help. Place the hard brown sugar in a glass or ceramic bowl, top with a damp paper towel, and microwave on high for 20 seconds. Check the brown sugar with a fork. If it is still hard, go another 20 seconds. Repeat until the brown sugar is soft.
Homemade Brown Sugar
Ingredients
- 1 cup organic cane sugar
- 1 tablespoon molasses for light brown sugar (use 2 tablespoons for dark brown sugar)
Instructions
- Add the sugar and molasses to a bowl and combine together until well blended.
- Use immediately in your favorite recipe or store in an airtight container in a cool place.
Nutrition
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I love brown sugar…I’ve eaten them by the spoonful…and I LOVE molasses…I never thought about combining white sugar with molasses…I’m going to try making my own. By the way, one of my comfort food is buttered toast with heaping spoonfuls of molasses. Also i make the best baked bean using molasses and sugar…yum yum. Now i’m hungry…grin.
So funny! I also always thought brown sugar came from a special brown sugar plant! Doh!
I love that you made it. So easy and if you ever are out what a great idea. And yes I want to have a big spoonful.
Yup nowadays, brown sugar is just white sugar with molasses added back in, but originally, back when it was the less favored and less expensive product, it was sugar that hadn’t had all of the molasses removed during the processing of the cane.
That’s so bizarre! They take the molasses out and then put it back in. Sometimes I wonder about the sensibilities of our food system. Thanks for sharing that info, Kate!
Just a little FYI… I used to think that organic and unprocessed sugar is best, healthiest etc…until my husband started working at a sugar refinery and told me, plus showed me pictures, of the sugar before processing…It comes in off the ships, sits in giant mountains on the floor (not packaged or in any way protected) until its time to go through processing for refined sugar or to packaging for “organic”. While the sugar mountains sit on the floor waiting, small animals, like racoons tend to come and climb the mountains, eating the sugar, making tracks and leaving waste while no one is looking. The organic sugar goes STRAIGHT from the these mountains to packaging. I’m sure it’s filtered before being packaged to ensure no solid foreign matter is packaged with it, but does not get treated in any way. So the very same sugar that’s been chillin’ on the floor, with animals crawling on it, is the “organic” sugar that a lot of people spend extra money on because it’s somehow healthier….I have since decided that a little processed sugar won’t kill me or my family….
Wow that’s really interesting Teresa! Thanks for sharing. I guess the only way you can know is to grow your own! We’ve been sweetening a lot of things with our homemade maple syrup lately, it adds an extra boost of flavor and it’s homegrown!
Thanks for the directions for making brown sugar. I can’t say how many times I’ve started to bake something and found I had no brown sugar. Alas, I ran (actually drove) the six blocks to the supermarket for it. Until I bought some recently, I probably would not have had the molasses either. Since a jar of molasses lasts untold years at my house, now I know I can whip up some brown sugar, since I rarely run out of white sugar.
Incidentally, your brother was quite generous. I recently replaced my 40-year-old stand mixer with a beautiful red KitchenAid that cost more than $300–and that wasn’t top of the line. 🙂
You’re so welcome! I was shocked when I discovered how easy it was! And yes- my brother is amazing! We are so very lucky to have such wonderful family in our lives. I use my kitchenaid every single week, it’s my favorite tool! We’ve been using the ice cream maker a whole lot lately! 🙂
OMG Yes… A KitchenAid mixer is Da Bomb….
Mom gave me her 1955 Hamilton Beach Stand Mixer wedding present…. not used anymore being an empty nester now.. ..Used it even with crumbling cord til it got too bad… Martha Stewarts Aqua Blue Sky KA mixer came out.. LOVED the color… I debated awhile, broke down.. then went all out… Got the Ice Cream maker / Ben & Jerry’s recipe book.. ALL the metal Pasta roller attachments and Ravioli maker.. Pastry board from Williams Sonoma.. Fresh Pasta is awesome.. time to make some
I Love to cook.. and put off recipes needing a mixer.. same story with recipes with lots of shredding / cutting… Got a cuisinart prep 11 food processor, and stick blender around the same time.. and I was like.. WHY???? didn’t I buy these items YEARS ago ???? TOTAL Life changers…..
First, congrats on the KitchenAid. I’ve had mine 25 years (one repair about 10 years ago) and it’s still going strong! Second, a question, can you store this brown sugar and if so for how long OR is it strictly make and use? Thanks!
I’m brand new to your site and was tickled when I saw the article about making brown sugar. I have not bought brown sugar for years. The only reason I would go to the trouble of “making ” it, would be for putting it on oatmeal, because who in their right mind would eat oatmeal without brown sugar. When I’m baking, I just use white sugar for the called for amount of sugar and add 1 tsp to 1 Tblp of molasses to the recipe. It mixes in very easily at the sugar and fat mixing part of cookies or the combine oil and potato part of my bread recipe. Just put it in before you add your flour to any recipe. Saves lots of sticky hassle.
I’ve never even eaten store bought brown sugar before. That’s because we used white sugar most time and when we just had to have the brown we’d mix it up like the directions you gave. I do prefer the looks of homemade anyway, and since when was store bought ever better? I’ll forever treasure homemade cookies and bread over store stuff any day.
Great thinking…I will no longer be buying brown sugar! You stated that double molasses for dark brown sugar… do you classify dark brown as being the same as Demerara sugar? If not, do I add more molasses, different sugar? I use Demerara in many recipes. Thank you!
Debbie, Thank you for trying out the brown sugar recipe! While dark brown sugar and Demerara sugar share a rich flavor, they’re not the same. Dark brown sugar has molasses mixed with refined white sugar, while Demerara is a less refined, coarser sugar with a caramel-like flavor. If you prefer the characteristics of Demerara, it’s best to stick with it in your recipes. Feel free to experiment, but adding more molasses might make it too moist.