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Home » Basics

by Mimi · Leave a Comment

How to Make Brown Sugar at Home

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No brown sugar at home? No problem! You can make your own brown sugar substitute with 2 simple ingredients: granulated sugar and molasses!

brown sugar in bowl side view

Brown sugar season is here! Not to say that brown sugar isn't a year round kind of thing, but there's no doubt I tend to use up my stock of brown sugar in the fall and winter more than any other time.

If you find yourself craving a batch of chocolate chip cookies or pumpkin cake, but don't have enough brown sugar a home, this is a PERFECT substitute for brown sugar in any and all recipes!

It's very, very similar in texture to store bought, and it provides the same flavor. You can also use this recipe to make either light or dark brown sugar (which I go into detail about in the recipe below).

brown sugar ingredients in bowls

Brown sugar ingredients:

To make brown sugar at home, you will need:

• granulated sugar
• unsulphered molasses

Granulated sugar is basically brown sugar that's been processed to remove the molasses. So we're just going to put it back in to make our own!

brown sugar pouring molasses into bowl with granulated sugar
brown sugar mixing molasses and granulated sugar together

How to make brown sugar at home:

Literally all there is to this recipe is combining molasses and granulated sugar in a bowl, and mixing together. The mixture will initially clump together, but just keep mixing until the molasses has basically coated all of the granulated sugar. And you're good to go from there!

You can use this recipe as a 1:1 substitute for brown sugar. So basically, if a recipe calls for 1 cup of brown sugar, you can use 1 cup of this recipe instead.

This brown sugar will be slightly lighter in color when compared to store-bought, but the flavor and texture is practically identical.

brown sugar in bowl overhead image

Homemade brown sugar storage:

Store this brown sugar as you would store-bought: in an airtight container or plastic bag, kept in a cool and moist place.

Fun fact that was not fun whatsoever for me at the time: when I first started baking with brown sugar, I used to store it in my cupboard with the bag unsealed. So, as brown sugar does, it became a hockey puck.

AND to make it worse, I ended up throwing out the bag because I didn't know you could salvage it by popping a slice of toast in the bag to freshen it up!! Since then, I've opted to keep my brown sugar in the fridge. It's never caused me problems since!

Sooo moral of the story: keep your brown sugar in something airtight(!!)

brown sugar in bowl side view (2)

Check out these other recipes:

• Homemade Pumpkin Pie Spice
• Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies Without Eggs
• Pumpkin Sheet Cake
• Chewy Molasses Ginger Cookies

Lastly, if you made this or any of my recipes, be sure to leave a comment and review below! I love hearing your thoughts! Also tag me on Instagram @eatsdelightfulblog so I can see what you're making.

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brown sugar in bowl close up

Homemade Brown Sugar Recipe


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  • Author: Mimi
  • Total Time: 5 minutes
  • Yield: 1 cup
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Description

No brown sugar at home? No problem! You can make your own brown sugar substitute with 2 simple ingredients: granulated sugar and molasses!


Ingredients

  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • 1 - 2 tablespoons unsulphered molasses

Instructions

  1. In a medium sized bowl, combine granulated sugar and molasses. Add 1 tablespoon of molasses for light brown sugar or 2 tablespoons for dark brown sugar.
  2. Mix together until the sugar is evenly coated in the molasses and it resembles store-bought brown sugar. It'll clump together at first, but just keep mixing and it'll come together.
    * Note: It'll be slightly lighter in color than store-bought brown sugar, but it still works in any recipe as an equal substitute.
  • Prep Time: 5 minutes

Did you make this recipe?

Tag me @eatsdelightfulblog on Instagram - I love seeing what you're making!

Enjoy!


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Hi, I'm Mimi! I'm a former finance professional, turned full-time content creator. Welcome to my little corner of the internet!

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