How to Make Brown Sugar

Did you know that you can make brown sugar? Most people don’t know that it’s possible. When you’re walking through the aisles of the grocery store and grabbing the ingredients you need for baked goods and other treats, you may instantly grab a bag of sugar with plans to use it.

While it’s convenient to grab it at the store, making it isn’t difficult, and the best part is that you won’t need a lot of ingredients to prepare it. Once you prepare this flavorful sugar from scratch, you may never want to go back to buying it pre-made from the store again.

Have you been in the middle of making cookies and you realize you forgot to put brown sugar on your grocery list? No worries, you may just start making your own after today. You should never run out of brown sugar again because you can make it yourself.

The Benefits of Making the Sugar at Home

You’re probably wondering why you should make this type of sugar instead of buying it pre-made at the store. If you don’t know what all the hype is about, these are some of the benefits of making it yourself:

• It tastes better. The homemade sugar made with white sugar and molasses naturally has a better taste because it’s fresh! You won’t regret using it to make some of your favorite treats.
• You can customize it. While you can’t customize traditional brown sugar found in stores, you can customize your version by adding more or less of the molasses to the white sugar. It all depends on your preference. You can taste it and adjust the ingredients to your liking.

How Do You Make Brown Sugar?

Before you get started, you’re going to need two simple ingredients: sugar and molasses. You’ll use traditional white granulated sugar and regular molasses, both of which are readily available in the baking aisle at the grocery store. Once you’ve got these two ingredients, you’re ready to begin making your brown sugar from scratch.

How to Combine the Ingredients

Grab a mixing bowl and add a cup of sugar to it. Once you’ve got the sugar in the bowl, add a tablespoon of molasses on top. It’s going to look thick and sticky, but this is fine. The next step involves mixing these two ingredients.

When it comes to integrating your molasses with sugar, you have options. Some people like to do it by hand. If you’re going to do it by hand, make sure you wear gloves because it will get sticky. You wouldn’t want the sugar sticking all over your fingers and hands.

Suppose you don’t want to mix it with your hands and get messy, no worries. You can use a hand mixer, stand mixer, or even a food processor. Which one do you prefer?

If you’re going to start making this type of sugar all the time, you can switch things up and try different techniques each time to see which one you like best. The goal is to mix the molasses and sugar well enough to create the best brown sugar you’ve tasted.

In case you missed this post, Molasses: Everything You Need to Know For one of my favorite cookies, check this link out. Chewy Molasses Cookies Just Like Grandma Made

What should I do if it turns out too dark?

If your brown sugar looks a bit darker than you’d like, don’t stress it. There is an easy way to fix it. You’ll add a bit more white sugar to the mixture until you reach the desired color. Another way to make sure your homemade sugar is perfect is to taste it.

If it doesn’t taste the way that you’d like it to, you can add more or less of each ingredient. When you feel like it tastes too much like traditional white sugar, you should add more molasses to the mixture. Below are the traditional ratios we all grew up with.

• Light Brown Sugar is one cup of white granulated sugar and one tablespoon of molasses, mix with a fork until completely mixed. If making larger quantities use a mixer.
• Dark Brown Sugar is one cup of white granulated sugar and two tablespoons of molasses, mix with a fork until completely mixed. If making larger quantities use a mixer.

How do I store the sugar to keep it fresh?

When you store the sugar properly, you can expect it to last a long time. It will continue to taste fresh. The best way to store it is to pour your homemade sugar into a glass or plastic container with an airtight lid.

The airtight lid is essential because you don’t want anything getting into the container and contaminating your sugar. Once you pour it into the proper container and place the lid on top, you can store the sugar in your pantry to have easy access when you need to use it.

What should I do when the sugar starts to get hard?

Keeping your homemade sugar soft is ideal. It’s easier to use in recipes when it’s not hard. However, it can naturally start to get a bit hard when sitting on your shelf for a while. If your homemade sugar starts to get hard, place a handful of marshmallows in the container that you’re using to store it.

The marshmallows add moisture to the sugar to get it to soften up again. If you don’t have marshmallows, use the end piece of a loaf of bread. If you’d typically throw that piece of bread out, save it and use it to keep your sugar soft. 

Another option to consider is putting your sugar in the freezer. It’s a great way to keep it soft and fresh when you’re not using it. If you have space in the freezer, why not give it a try? Just remember to get the sugar out of the freezer in time to thaw it out for your planned cooking project.

What can I do with it after I make the sugar at home?

After you’ve made the sugar at home, you can use it to prepare some of your favorite recipes. It’s a common ingredient required to make lots of different baked goods. If you’re not sure how to use it, these are some excellent options to consider:

• Make Cinnamon Toast. Sprinkle it over buttered toast for a sweet breakfast treat.
• Prepare Marinades. You can use it in marinades with assorted sauces and other seasonings to create a sweet and savory blend that tastes great on different meats, including chicken and pork.
• Use It to Make Muffins. If you like muffins, add this sugar to your batter for a delightful taste.

How to Make Brown Sugar-Only Two Ingredients

Step One: Use Your Mixer to Make the Brown Sugar – Two Ingredients

Today, I was making more than just one cup so I used my Kitchen Aid stand mixer. You can use a fork if you are making smaller amounts. I used 3 cups of white granulated sugar for the first batch. Next, I added 3 tablespoons of molasses to the sugar.

Step Two: Beat the Ingredients

Look how simple this is to make, it’s a game-changer. Why would I ever buy brown sugar at the grocery store again, right? The beater shown above is for a 6-quart Bowl Lift Mixer. If you have a different size Kitchen Aid Mixer, you may need this one. Kitchen Aid Tilt Mixer, check for your model.

Step Three: Mix Until It’s a Fluffy Brown Texture

It’s a fluffy mixture just like when we open a freshly purchased bag of brown sugar at the store.

Step Four: Repeat – You May Want a Darker Version

Now, I used the same mixing bowl, call me lazy, I didn’t want to wash out the bowl, because I’m mixing another batch of brown sugar, but this one is dark or at least darker brown sugar. Here again, I used 3 cups of granulated white sugar but used 6 tablespoons of molasses. It smells really good!

Step Five: Second Batch – Darker Brown Sugar

I can almost smell cookies baking in the oven mixing this darker mixture. This batch is a little stronger, so it will depend on which flavor you like the best.

Finished Product

These are the glass jars I purchased. I wanted them to be airtight and leakproof. 32-Ounce Mason Canister Jars I used a Stainless Steel Wide-mouth Funnel to fill them.

How To Make Brown Sugar

Final Word

Once you have brown sugar, you can do a lot with it. Whether you’re baking it with it, adding it to a marinade recipe, or even using it to prepare French toast, you can use it to bring more flavor to your food. It’s a lot better to make it with white sugar and molasses than to buy it pre-made at the grocery store. May God Bless this world, Linda.