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    Home » Store Cupboard Recipes

    Published: Nov 24, 2020 · Modified: Mar 11, 2022 by Zen

    How to make light and dark brown sugar

    If you're out of brown sugar, don't worry, as it's as easy as 123 to make your own and you only need 2 things!

    Jump to Recipe
    Bowl of homemade light brown sugar next to a plate of chocolate chip cookies

    Although white and brown sugar can be used interchangeably, the flavour of brown sugar is very distinct and does bring that extra something to your food, such as these fingerlicking sticky Vietnamese fish sauce chicken wings. Brown sugar is also a must in Korean pancakes, or hotteok, as it goes so well with the nuts and cinnamon powder of the filling! (Sometimes that edge is unwanted as the strong taste of molasses can overpower more delicate flavours, so do be careful especially when using dark brown sugar in place of white sugar.)

    Unfortunately, brown sugar (which is moister than white sugar), tends to harden over time and, by the time you need it, has often turned into a solid lump, so it's great to make brown sugar right before you want to use it instead of keeping it in stock. Once you know how to make your own brown sugar, baking -and cooking- become sooo much more convenient because:

    1. Life during COVID means a pop to the shop when you run out of something is much more of a hassle than it used to be (or maybe not even possible if your city is in lockdown!)
    2. It's actually cheaper than shopbought brown sugar!
    Bowl of homemade light brown sugar next to a bowl of shopbought light brown sugar
    Can you tell which bowl of light brown sugar is homemade and which is shop bought? (I accidentally used more than 1 tablespoon of molasses so the darker one is the homemade light brown sugar)

    In case you're wondering, this is actually how factories make refined brown sugar (i.e. the brown sugar you get in the shops): they simply add molasses back to the refined white sugar!

    Bowl of homemade light brown sugar next to a plate of chocolate chip cookies

    How to make your own brown sugar (both light and dark brown)

    5 from 1 vote
    Print Recipe Pin Recipe
    Prep Time 1 min
    Cook Time 3 mins
    Servings 1 Cup

    Equipment

    • Food processor

    Ingredients
      

    • 1 Cup Granulated White Sugar
    • 1-2 Tablespoon Molasses

    Instructions
     

    •  Mix the granulated white sugar and the molasses together by hand till all incorporated. Alternatively, if you’re feeling lazy, use a food processor to give the mix a few whirls.
       
    • After everything has been mixed well, store in an airtight jar.

    Notes

    Use 1 Tablespoon of molasses to 1 Cup of granulated white sugar for light brown sugar and 2 Tablespoons of molasses to 1 Cup of granulated white sugar for dark brown sugar.

    Besides brown sugar, I often make my own buttermilk, cake flour and self-raising flour as I don't use the former often enough to stock up on it, often run out of cake flour and find the latter simply a waste of money. (Posts with instructions coming very soon)

    What other baking ingredients do you like to DIY?

    « Yuzu konnyaku jelly recipe (15 minutes)
    2-ingredient homemade cake flour substitute »

    Reader Interactions

    Comments

    1. yeni says

      February 13, 2022 at 10:27 am

      5 stars
      Was baking today and realised I didn't have brown sugar- tried this and it worked perfectly. thanks, please do other subs for other baking stuff

      Reply

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    Greedygirlgourmet eating 2 sandwiches in Scotland

    Hi I'm Zhen! I couldn't boil water till I was 18 but after living abroad (in St. Andrews then London) for 11 years and having to cook for myself, I now love having friends and families over, and cooking for them. I tend to be slightly obsessive-compulsive, so I like to try many different versions of a recipe before coming up with my own "ultimate" version. Check out www.greedygirlgourmet.com every week for new tried-and-tested (on my guinea pigs aka guests!) Asian recipes which are full of flavour!

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