Make Your Own: Brown Sugar

Do you ever reach for the brown sugar in the pantry only to discover that you don’t have enough for the recipe you’re making? As much as I try to keep our pantry well stocked, I tend to run out of ingredients when I’m deep in recipe testing mode and making the same recipe over and over again. Just last week, I found myself with only a spoonful of brown sugar when I needed half a cup.

If you have granulated sugar and molasses on hand, you can make your own brown sugar in mere minutes. It stores well and you can control just how much of that deep molasses flavor you want in your batch.  I tend to go between light and dark brown sugar, but you can find your favorite ratio and make it to your liking.  If you have little ones, this is a great project for them to help you with. 

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Homemade Brown Sugar

I like this ratio of sugar to molasses. I think that it falls somewhere in between light brown sugar and dark brown sugar. If you are trying to create dark brown sugar, add a total of 2 tablespoons of molasses to the cup of sugar. You can certainly mix the sugar with a mixer or in a food processor, but I mix it by hand to save on the amount of dishwashing I need to do to clean up after making a batch.

Ingredients

• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 4 teaspoons molasses

Instructions

• Place the granulated sugar in a medium or large bowl. Drizzle the molasses over the sugar. Use a spatula or wooden spoon to mix the molasses into the sugar evenly. The molasses may form small lumps that can be broken up with the back of the spoon or spatula. Continue mixing until the molasses has coated the sugar and no lumps of molasses remain.

Notes

Store this homemade brown sugar as you would store-bought brown sugar. An airtight container is best as it will prevent the brown sugar from drying out and becoming too firm. If it does dry out, you can soften it by adding an apple slice to the container. Molasses is hygroscopic which means that it will draw moisture from its environment. If your brown sugar (homemade or store-bought) dries out, simply add an apple slice or slice of soft bread to the container. The sugar will draw a bit of moisture from the apple or bread and become soft and usable again.

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